I always like the word "fair". It exposes a lot about the person and their underlying beliefs. In your story, the membership should have viewed your evidence on the same level as the one from this code consultant. A code consultant that the voting members have heard from and relied on, presumably successfully, in the past. Your belief that your code official, that had presumably never petitioned the membership before, would be looked at the same way as this consultant is flawed.
Anyone can submit a code change proposal to a code. No filing fees required. However this breaks down the groupins who have been participating.
- Competing material groups, including but not limited to: concrete, masonry, steel, wood, and plastic, pursuing market share gains may propose revisions to the code. These groups not only directly petition changes but publish reference standards.
- Builders and developers pursuing avenues of least initial cost, often proposing, encouraging, or supporting the development of code provisions that are favorable for alternatives to traditional products and methods and providing the builder or developer with increased profitability.
- Systems manufacturers, such as those producing automatic sprinkler systems, may propose, encourage, and support code revisions that reduce the requirements for the use of passive fire protection to justify the additional costs for their systems and gain support from builders and developers.
- Government agencies may propose code changes that reflect the results of research and development; support their issues and views; or satisfy their obligations to comply with mandates from legislative bodies.
- Building code officials and administrators may propose changes to enhance life safety or to simplify the code or the inspection process.
- General public and legal counsel may submit changes with the intent of increasing consumer protection.
Ultimately, we all believe we are logical, reasonable people, despite the overwhelming evidence from psychologists that decision making takes place in the emotion center of our brain. We have sound logic for the things we should have. Based on this it is only "fair" that we get those things. But in this case, you did not get the outcome you wanted. The process must be unfair, because otherwise you would have gotten what you wanted. After all, you just want to be treated fairly at the hearing. In reality the situation was not controlled to engineer the desired outcome. The ego will not allow accountability for the failure, so it must be someone else's fault.
If we want to do better, we have to get better. We need to look at our presentations, the way we present ourselves, and our information from the viewpoint of our audience. We need to understand and prepare for challenges to our proposals. In proposing a change, you are fighting an uphill battle. No one likes change. This consultant just needs to give people the slightest excuse and people will jump right on it, even if it just to delay it for 3 years. If our credentials are not established, we need to establish them. Give people a reason to trust you. Now for the change, as much as you want to respect their "choice" in voting, you want to make it so there is no choice. People should be left thinking that there is no other option but to support your proposal.
I would also recommend against making character judgement against a person for doing a job (unless it is outright illegal). Is someone "sleazy" for wanting to make sure they can pay a mortgage and afford groceries? I don't feel it's my place to place judgement on how someone else lives their life. But, if you understand a person's motivation, you now know how to leverage them. We use this all the time for contractors. Yes, I can just take them to court and waste a lot of money, but I can also just relate how fixing that code violation is going to save them money in the long term (call backs, lawsuits, etc.). I don't talk about it being the "right" thing to do, because pride in workmanship is not a motivator for this class of contractor.
Always, always, always, tailor your message to your audience by viewing things from their perspective. You will be more successful in everything you do.