IAPMO Elects Stettler President, Advances 2027 Uniform Codes at Annual Conference

IAPMO conducted its 2025 annual Education and Business Conference at the Renaissance Palm Springs Hotel. The event was co-located with ASSE International’s Annual Meeting and ARCSA International’s Annual Conference.

Jeremy Stettler, coordinator/inspector, Davis School District, Clearfield, Utah, and Brian Hamner, senior plumbing inspector, city of Des Moines, Iowa, were elected president and vice president, respectively. Keith Bonenfant, California Department of General Services plumbing and mechanical inspector, was appointed secretary/treasurer. Tamara Kuykendall, Mechanical Plumbing Bureau chief, New Mexico Construction Industries Division; Brad Elliott, combination plans examiner, city of Las Vegas; Steve Fernlund, St. Paul, Minnesota, Department of Safety and Inspections plumbing inspector; and Rick Moreno, Astro Mechanical Contractors, Inc., president, were elected as directors.

Wyatt Stiles, UA Local 398 organizer, served as conference host and Jaime Valdivia, UA Local 398 president, served as conference chair.

Development of the 2027 Uniform Plumbing Code and 2027 Uniform Mechanical Code was advanced during the Association Technical Meeting Convention, part of IAPMO’s ANSI-accredited consensus code development process.

During the conference’s opening session, IAPMO honored numerous individuals with awards recognizing unique contributions and long-standing support from members and industry allies. The awards and their recipients include:

• IWSH Award: Dr. Bonifacio Magtibay, technical officer for Environmental and Occupational Health at the World Health Organization’s Philippines Country Office, and Shane DeLong, master plumber in Oregon and North Dakota and member of UA Local Union 290
• Legislator of the Year: Massachusetts State Rep. Tackey Chan
• President’s Green Oval: Doug Marian, retired Southern California Pipe Trades District Council 16 assistant business manager
• Joseph Kneidinger Sustainability Professional of the Year: Billy Smith, ASPE executive director/CEO
• Bruce Pfeiffer Committee Member of the Year: Dan Daniels, retired chief plumbing inspector, Pueblo, Colorado
• Industry Person of the Year: Robert “Chap” Thornton, UA Local 286 business manager and financial secretary-treasurer
• Government Person of the Year: Robert Gray, chief building official, Los Gatos, California
• George Kauffman Lifetime Achievement Award: Phil Ribbs, retired chief plumbing, mechanical and electrical inspector, city of San Jose, California
• IAPMO Fellows: Ron Bauer, Tom Bigley, Charlie Campbell, John Clark, Rick Coffman, Bill Guthrie, Bill Hoffman, Jesse Kealy, Shayne LaCombre, Brian Rogers, Earl Setches and Echo Svoboda

Winners of the 15th IWSH Scholarship Essay Competition were announced. First prize was awarded to Saba Ahmed, Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the three runners-up were Rifah Maulidya, University of Indiana, in Bloomington, Indiana; Hannah Schaeffer, Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada; and Sakethram Ramakrishnan, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

IAPMO’s 2026 Annual Education and Business Conference, celebrating the association’s 100th anniversary, will be held in the city in which it was founded in 1926, Los Angeles, Sept. 13-17, 2026.