Nevada follytix always brings cartoons to life.
Accordingly, Sparks City Hall will soon allow anyone to audition for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
I’m bad enough with cars and plumbing, but electricity requires magic that scares me to death, and not without reason.
Two non-union electricians have died in these parts in recent years. One flunked his licensing test but was allowed to work at the Reno Bowling Stadium where he fried in 2008. He could work legally today.
In 2013, some unknown perp deleted Reno’s requirement that plumbers and electricians must be licensed pros. Sparks is doing it less skullduggerously.
On Nov. 9 by unanimous vote, the Rail City council “provided direction to the City Manager to initiate an amendment to Title 15 of the Sparks Municipal Code to remove the requirement for certificate of qualification for any person who labors at the trade of plumbing or electrician in the City of Sparks,” the city’s website discloses.
City Hall admits “this requirement has not been used or enforced over the last 23 years.”
Zounds.
Just because Sparks code enforcers have flouted the law, it should be repealed? What’s next, ticketless speeding in school zones for the sake of economic development?
The council order swears “Sparks Building and Safety staff inspect electrical and plumbing work with a focus on quality and conformance to the drawings and specifications approved with each building permit.”
It ain’t necessarily so. During construction of the Sparks Marina corporate welfare project in 2009, numerous complaints were filed and ignored. By the time the system got around to investigating, the job was often over as unlicensed lightweights escaped to the next state.
“The item will come back to the City Council for first reading at the next Council meeting on November 23, 2015 and the second reading and possible action on December 15, 2015,” the Sparks website warns.
Should repeal pass, you or I or your boozy brother-in-law can get jobs wiring or plumbing houses. New construction may thus become “stigmatized” property, meaning any Realtor must disclose questionable structure safety.
Would you buy such a house?
Largely thanks to plumbing contractor and Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, homeowners can’t sue. The 2015 legislature and Gov. Veto El Obtúsè gutted Nevada’s construction defect law, railroading it as “an emergency measure under the constitution.” All Republicans and zero Democrats supported AB125.
The law bars award of legal fees, so unless you can pay thousands upfront, you’re screwed. Medical malpractice cases have disappeared for similar reasons.
New suckers who move here only to stuff their kids into bursting schools may find themselves in claptrap dwellings.
Nevada’s last growth spurt resulted in scores of shabby construction projects. Bad building drives down everyone’s property values.
Reno is considering re-imposition of licensing.
Call your mayor and councilcritters and nail them down.
GREAT SCOTT. Former Nevada Alliance for Retired Americans President Scott Watts is facing heart surgery in Carson-Tahoe Hospital. You may e-mail greetings to me and I’ll forward them to his wife.
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 47-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
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