Meet Carroll Pruitt, Code Council influencer

Carroll Pruitt has donned many a hat in his storied alliance with the International Code Council, beginning his affiliation with the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) in the early 1980s through his present work with the Code Council, where he serves as chair of the Accessibility Inspector/Plans Examiner Exam Development Committee. Because of Carroll’s rich history with the Code Council, we thought it time to introduce this “outside insider” to the Building Safety Journal.

Carroll’s path to the Code Council began with a card that fell out of an ICBO journal, advertising a job as an assistant building official in Amarillo, Texas. When Carroll was introduced to plans reading, he “saw the light,” and thus began his career as a registered architect. In 1988, Roy Fewell with ICBO offered Carroll a job as a senior regional manager providing code interpretation, plan review, and other technical and membership support services. In the early 1990s, and at Carroll’s insistence, ICBO became the first to develop an accessibility certification, which became a path to becoming a registered accessibility specialist in Texas.

The Code Council’s Doug Hatch, program manager with the Assessment Center, met Carroll a few years later, and together they wrote the first accessibility certification exam, validated by the first Exam Development Committee in this field. This designation dovetailed with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, with Texas being one of the first states to seek certification.

As the federal government mandated accessibility standards nationwide, “the train left the station,” recalled Carroll.

Hatch recalls Carroll’s passion, energy and ideas. “Carroll was an ideal partner in our work together,” he said. “His knowledge of the codes and their impact on public safety was the fuel for the success of the accessibility/plans examiner certification program.”

Over the last 30 years, Carroll has served on the Code Council’s chapters, code development committees, exam development committees, interpretation committees and in key consulting roles. In his current position as Exam Development Committee (accessibility) chair, Carroll says that he’s circling back to where he got started. “I always enjoy serving on committees, and with new people,” Carroll commented. “Sometimes I think I know something, then others help me see a new perspective. I love sharing my knowledge, but I also love learning.”

Carroll is a registered architect in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Florida, and serves as the founder and chief executive officer of Pruitt Consulting, Inc., a nationally recognized code consulting firm. In 2015, he became the first independent licensed architect recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice under Project Civic Access. On a perfect Sunday, Carroll can be found woodworking, fishing, camping or doing most anything with his grandkids.

For the man with many hats, we tip one more hat to this public safety defender and Code Council influencer.