The City Council voted this week to more than double the city’s current fee for nonstructural electrical and mechanical replacement permits, from the current $30 up to $65, a number which is thought to better reflect the actual cost of staff time spent reviewing the permits.
However, Councilman Wayne Hartman continued his strident objection to the increase, voicing his view that hiking the cost of minor permits was a losing proposition.
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11 comments:
So a bad starting capacitor on an AC unit costs less than $15.00 to replace but you need a permit for $65.00 to do it? MD sucks!
I'm not buying a stinking permit to replace anything old and worn out on my own property. I hold the rights to care for my own property the way I see fit, and to keep trespassers out as well.
What's next, a permit to cut my grass and trim trees and a fine if I don't?
Come try me out!
From the article:
"The city has not always required permits for minor electrical and mechanical work, City Engineer Terry McGean said, but began doing so many years ago after faulty installation of a replacement heating unit caused a carbon monoxide leak that killed several people.
“It was a repair to an existing system that was not done properly ... that’s where the requirement came from,” McGean said."
This is how stupid OC (actually all governments) is. They took a problem and instead of addressing the problem directly they issued a regulation that covered all HVAC units and created an extra cost to everyone. Then because the regulation was ridiculous to a lot of people the town managed to create a whole class of criminals.
I do believe that our economy will collapse in short order. We can only take so much , even in small amounts . I and my family have started to store the things we may need , food , medical , ammo , gasoline , fuels , batteries of all kinds . Now I will tell you this , of all these ammo is the most important , when I run out of something , I will take what I need ,don't want to be like the Donner family, survival of the fit.
How does a permit solve the problem of a bad installation? Are they inspecting every single repair?
For real 10:03. What asinine logic coming from this council (sans Hartman) but that's to be expected as they can't possibly strike anyone as having anything but a low level IQ when you hear them speak.
Now if there does happen to be another CO tragedy they've put the city and the tax payers in a position of liability.
The way the code in OC reads if you want to replace an installed overhead light fixture in your kitchen with a new fixture you have to get a permit. How stupid is that?
What if you want to install some eye hooks in the ceiling of the bedroom?
3:56 You can install the eye hooks but you can't hang anything from them until weight tested and approved by proper authority. Then you can use them provided you display the permit at the entrance to the bedroom. Also weight testing must be re-certified annually.
"...$30 up to $65, a number which is thought to better reflect the actual cost of staff time spent reviewing the permits..."
And there you have it. Proof the endless permits and fees exist merely to pay the salary of the person issuing them. What a scam, and another shining example of a bloated bureaucracy.
Take a look at the City salaries then you know why they have to raise the fees or find other ways to bring in revenue. A few years ago the OC convention center Director left to take a similar position in Tampa Bay Florida. Funny thing it was published in the local paper that he took a pay cut at his new job. Tampa Bay and surrounding area population has about 2.8 million people. Two Sports franchises. The Tampa Bay convention center hosted the last Republican National Convention.
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