Minutes Electrical Bd 08 30 02DATE:
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MINUTES OF MEETING
ELECTRICAL CODE BOARD
Friday, August 30, 2002
4:00 P.M.
City Hall, Conference Rm. B
Reiss
Pfohl, Dixon, Hammel, Reiss
Pregler
Steve Neyens, Barry Lindahl
None
Steve Shaw, Michael Koury, Robert Shaw
Chairperson Reiss called the meeting to order at 4:05 P.M.
Neyens read the minutes of July 15, 2002 meeting. Hammel moved to accept the minutes
as read, Pfohl seconded, and the vote was unanimous in favor of motion.
Hammel proceeded to summarize the previous two meetings for the new persons at
meeting. He explained his and some of the board members reservations about granting
licenses to Shaw Electric personnel because he and several other board members had
questions about their training and education. Hammel also talked about information he has
received as a board member about past work done by Shaw Electric in West Burlington,
IA. This work is said to be substandard and he described numerous electrical code
violations that were apparently photographed by someone. He said he has seen the
photographs.
He expressed concerns about inadequate training when you have a handful of licensed
persons and hundreds of unlicensed persons that are supposed to be getting training.
Barry Lindahl explained the city's legal position that the board had these legitimate
applications before them to review and act on, and that unless the board had specific
information that these individuals and their training listed on the applications did not meet
the requirements of the City of Dubuque, they have no choice but to approve these
applications for licensure.
He then stated that if the board felt there was justification for the removal of Robert Shaw's
contractor's license, that was a separate issue that they would have to address.
Hammel moved that these applications be approved, the second was by Dixon, the vote
was 3 (Hammel, Dixon, Pfohl) in favor of and 1 (Reiss) opposed.
The motion passed.
Tim Adams is granted electrical joumeymen license #448.
Robin Doyle is granted electrical journeymen license #450.
Gary Ingails is granted electrical journeymen license #449.
Russell Bardsiey is granted electrical journeymen license #447.
Hammet questioned how many meetings the board is supposed to have per month, and
that it seems like every time an individual needs a license, a special meeting of the board is
called.
Neyens stated that it does seem like the board has been having more meetings than usual,
but that we've only had one meeting that was for an individual license. Most of the time if a
special meeting is called, it is usually to deal with several licenses that are for a project that
is to start sooner than the normally (three months apart) scheduled meetings, or a special
issue.
Neyens provided the information that was lacking in connection with Gery McDermott and
his request for a Maintenance license. He is hoping to land a job in the maintenance
department at AY McDonald's factory and they won't even consider you for the position if
you don't already have a maintenance license.
There was some discussion among the board as to the requirements and uses of electrical
Maintenance license. Some members of the board feel the electrical Maintenance license
should not be issued unless the individual applying already works for the company that the
license will be used in conjunction with. It was pointed out that the board has issued
licenses in the past to individuals that were not specifically employed as a Maintenance
electrician. It was also pointed out that a number of the license holders currently on file do
not work for a specific company due to layoffs or retirement, which brings up the issue of
do we revoke their licenses because of this. No action was taken at this time; this issue
will be brought up again.
There were a lot of misgivings about the use of the electrical Maintenance license as a
shortcut to doing electrical contracting work for many of the industries in the City of
Dubuque, without having to go to the extra trouble of actually getting a contractors license
and the required insurance. The board felt that at some point we need to sit down do
some very long and serious looking at the way the ordinance explains what can be done
with the maintenance electrical license. This will be taken up at some future meeting.
Dixon moved to accept Gery McDermott's application for electrical Maintenance
license, Reiss seconded, vote was unanimous in favor. The motion passed.
His license number is 116.
Steve Shaw discussed the quality and workmanship that his company has performed on
numerous past projects including the Wal-Mart store in Dubuque. He stated that he is
confident that the quality of there workmanship is as good as you'll find anywhere and he
would be more than happy to take anyone through the project in West Burlington that was
in question.
Hammel questioned how many individuals that worked on the project in West Burlington
actually had some kind of electrical license. Steve Shaw explained that they had a 1 to 1
ratio of journeymen to apprentices at this particular project. He then explained that their
definition of a journeymen electrician is someone that's had at least five years electrical
field experience.
Robert Shaw explained that he is licensed in 10 different states and holds probably 20
individual city licenses including the one in Dubuque.
He says he has never had a license revoked, or withdrawn, and that he prides himself on
the quality of their work, and that he sits on the Davenport electrical board, and that he is
very concerned about electrical safety and the electrical code. He asked the board what
happens if they did wish to revoke his electrical license.
Barry Lindahl explained the procedures involved with the revocation which has never
happened in the past, and that there would have to be notifications, and a hearing. Neyens
explained that with the information on hand at the moment, and the way the city ordinance
is written, the board probably does not have sufficient information as grounds to proceed
with a revoking of Shaw's license.
Steve Shaw disagrees with everything in the letter (electrical workers union office
Burlington) that is part of the information the board has concerning the West Burlington
project. He also listed some of the companies that they do work for, like Monsanto and
DuPont. He states his safety record is above that industry standard. Robert Shaw
explained that his head of education and training was just awarded the trainer of the year
award by the ABC apprenticeship-training program.
Reiss has collected a number of application forms from other cities, and copies of our
current application forms along with copy the city ordinance, and she was going to sit down
and redesign our application form to make it more current, close any loopholes, and
eliminate the weaknesses that cause confusion. She will get back to us with a draft copy at
a future meeting.
Hammel moved to adjourn the meeting. This was seconded by Dixon. The vote was
unanimous. Meeting adjourned at 6:20 PM.
Approved this __
day of ,2002.
Chairman