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Electrical Contractors showed up on short notice last night to a meeting that rocked the City's World!
Any professional business person could quickly realize the City was pretty much clueless as to what they are proposing and didn't seek ANY ONE'S input as to how to go about it. Yes, they even admitted to that.
It went pretty much as follows. Any permits the County already put out there will be completed with the County.
The City of Salisbury Homeowners Inspections will double. Now what's important here Ladies & Gentlemen is, the Taxpayers already experienced a 14% Tax Increase this year. Who the hell do they think they are throwing even more additions to their wallets when the system in place works just fine and cost far less?
One Contractor said, "We've gone from a Democratic Society to a Communist Society." I counted more than 45 Contractors in the room last night and trust me, they were NOT happy. Many stated they will cease doing business in the City and simply work in the County instead. Another stated all too many customers are already saying, HOW MUCH? Now what will they say?
Currently there are at least 4 Inspection Companies the County relies on and their work load is so strong, some times these Contractors have to wait for them to look at a project. The City plans on only having ONE Inspector with a payroll of $50,000.00. One General Contractor stated, the work load you already have in the City is too much on the Staff you have in that department, now you're going to add even more work on them and expect to get things done efficiently? Will you be giving that Staff a pay increase for the additional work load? The answer was, NO. One Contractor stated that he felt they were simply doing this to add another feather in their cap.
Another stated, "Why, if your not in it for profit, would you even consider taking on such a huge responsibility and work load? They then insisted that IF they were to go through with this their Inspector needed to be A.A.I.E. Certified. Someone asked, "Have you called around to other Inspectors locally to see what kind of work load you're getting into?" NO!
A quick estimate from these Contractors showed there would be an additional $2,000.00 cost to each and every home built charged back to the new Homeowner. In 2008 there will be massive changed to the Code and not only will the City not be able to handle those Inspections, it too will add to the cost of a new home. Now they want to add to those increases as well?
Currently these Contractors can e-mail their requests, confirm their costs with the County within about 30 minutes and through an escrow account the County can charge them right over the Internet and they're on their way with a Permit number. The City is NOT geared for such and the Electricians will have to come into the GOB, fill out the paperwork and pay for the process right then and there. Very inconvenient.
Debbie Campbell was the ONLY Council Member present during this meeting. I asked Mr. Pick directly in front of everyone there, "Did you contact ALL other Council Members about this meeting? Considering how important this is, shouldn't they be present to hear these Contractors input?" John replied he did NOT contact ANY of the Council Members. I expressed how I thought this was unfair to the Contractors as they cannot voice their input in the upcoming Work Session on Monday and many of them cannot attend at 4:30 PM.
Upset Contractors stated this was a monopoly, why fix something if it isn't broken? Then a County Representative from their Legal Staff spoke out against the City making this move and the County wouldn't stand for it and or support it. They stated they would completely back out 100% as they felt the City is charging far too much in fees and delivering far less in service for that money as well. The County doesn't see this as reasonable, therefore they are on their own.
"The County has decided to make a clean break from the City on this issue and will not be providing the use of its Board of Electricians to facilitate the City's Inspections and Permits Program." This is NOT good, should the City move forward and John Pick stated they would have to rethink the entire thing as they were not aware till that moment that the County was going to make that move.
This is not over yet and the City seemed to be quite overwhelmed last night with great question even they admitted they weren't expecting and weren't prepared to answer. In my opinion, (for what it's worth) this was amateur hour where no one did the proper research on the City's behalf. They were clearly winging it thinking these guys wouldn't show up or be smart enough to challenge them. The City was wrong!
14 comments:
Who is the electrical inspector for the city?
They don't have one yet. This is what the meeting was all about, setting up that department on their own. They have also budgeted $50,000.00 a year for a salary for an Inspector. There's no way they'll get one for that kind of money that has the proper experience anyway.
Once again, the city making dumbass moves, again without thinking it through.
What the hell are all these fees going to be used for anyway? A 14% property tax increase, new fees for building? We are just begging for the businesses to abandon the city. If that happens, who will back city-county consolidation? I know I will. I would rather pay slightly higher county taxes and eliminate the city bullsh*t taxes. That would really toast their muffins.
There are private inspection companies that do this. The City of Salisbury will be taking food out of the mouths of these inspectors if they follow thru with this. The city is out of control.Another situation where the govt. gets bigger and bigger.
Lets consider this. Parkside H.S. has tech. ed. in which houses are built by students and donated to SNHS and Habitat for Humanity...things like that. George Landing of Maryland Electrical Inspectors (private co.) does those inspections while they are at the school. He is the most particular inspector I've ever seen. No one is more picky than he is. He's forgotten more about electrical laws than most inspectors ever learn. How in the hell will the city find someone more qualified for that money? Now when he does the inspection at Parkside, will the city inspector have to reinspect the work once the home has been placed? Ridiculous! Will the City of Salisbury incur the liability if, Gof forbid, an electrical fire occurs in a home their inspector approved and someone dies? Have the perpetrators of this "initiative" even thought this thing thru a little bit?
There is more to this than meets the eye. They are trying to create a position to oversee an area in which they have fallen short. There is no doubt in my mind that they are trying to cover up the electrical problem at the new WWTP by creating an inspection authority over which they can apply political pressure in order to have the inspector overlook code violations.
I hope someone is keeping track of these apparent abuses of power so that when this mayor runs for re-election they can all be brought up to refresh everones memories.
I hear the City is doing this because they have major screw ups at the WWTP and they don't want the Inspectors knowing how bad things are. I also heard that why Jacobs is gone. Having their own Inspectors would eliminate their problems and this isn't about doing what's right. I hear it's all about doing what they have to do to cover up this problem.
I agree if it isn't broke don't fix it. Now if we had electrical fires left and right we would acknowledge that there is a problem. That is not the case.
This is another Barrie T. & Bubba C. Boondoggle that will harm all concerned in order to generate "income" for the City by charging more than the cost of doing the inspection (which happens to be illegal -- just ask Ocean City what George Purnell did to them some years back).
Let's hope that Ms. Campbell can stop it before it gets going.
I never thought that it would have something to do with the WWTP, but that makes sense. What with the OSHA violation a month or so ago, and the other things that may be going on there, it would make perfect sense that BPT and Bubba McBoogers would want complete control over the process. To do it on the backs of (essentially) the small business owners is just another dumbass move by the dumbass mayor and her dumbass cronies. When something goes wrong at the WWTP and the EPA and MD Dept of the Environment get involved, do those stupid sh*ts know it will backfire on them? It may be a new mayor in power, but the decisions will have been made during this admin. GOD HELP US ALL!
Unless somebody reports it sometimes I don't think the MDE gives a rat's butt.
When I complained to Gilchrest office about the sludge pit and sewage overflows into the Wicomico I was told by his chief of staff Tony that the EPA has little to no jurisdiction here.
This recent statement by Maryland's Attorney-General mentions what George Purnell (Purnell-Jarvis) did to Ocean City:
"A regulatory measure generally requires compliance with certain conditions beyond mere payment of a prescribed sum. Mayor and City Council of Ocean City v. Purnell-Jarvis, 86 Md.App. 390, 405, 586 A.2d 816 (1991), citing County Comm’rs of Anne Arundel County v. English, 182 Md. 514, 520. The amount of revenue generated by a regulatory fee must be “reasonable” and bear “some definite relation to the purpose of the regulation.” Purnell-Jarvis, 86 Md. App. at 405."
OC had to reimburse some big bucks in that case.
Yet another boondoggle by the Mayor and her buddies! I agree with Tim and the others, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Always a good policy to follow. Get this straight city hall - WE DON"T WANT MORE FEES AND TAXES! We'ver had enough of this administration and their lies. And yes, I and everyone else wondered what John Jacobs had done wrong that got him canned along with a few others? Now, I think we know!
A. Goetz
Mr. Goetz:
Respectfully, what did jacobs do wrong?
somehow I'm not getting it.
Was this position outlined in the current budget or was it buried in other PORK?
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