05-26-09 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING MAY 26, 2009 Marshall Wering, CCPD, Cedia Certified Professional Designer, President, Sights and Sounds, Inc., 1225 Beckley Street, Granger, Indiana, spoke in opposition to this bill. Mr. Wering stated that he urges the South Bend Common Council to either reject or modify the Low Voltage Contractors Ordinance for the following reasons: 1. The Building commission noted it is their responsibility in the notice sent to low voltage contractors to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of South Bend and St. Joseph County, as it pertains to building construction. As it is currently written, this Ordinance does not increase the level of safety sufficiently. It only grants a license to anyone who has $200 regardless of their knowledge or competency. As written, this ordinance includes installations in existing buildings, regardless or whether a building permit has been granted or not. It does not address the issue of a customer that buys a new TV and wants the TV jack moved from one side of the bedroom to another. As written, if we deliver a new V set to one of our clients homes, and they say “we would like a new TV jack installed on the other side of the bedroom” we must stop work, leave to go get a permit, pay $20 for the permit, make another appointment with the client, go back and do the installation, but leave the wiring open and viewable, call the inspector, have him come over to the customers home and inspect it, then we can come back and button up and finish the job. According to CEDIA, the industry association, it costs on average county wide $47 to roll a truck. This ordinance takes a one trip project and turns it into at least four trips. Not only is this insanely cumbersome and inefficient, quadrupling the costs we must charge our clients, but Communication service providers like Comcast, DirecTV, ATT, Dish Network and their sub-contractors are exempt form this Ordinance, leaving the burden to be assumed by small independent companies. This gives the behemoths an unfair competitive advantage against the smaller independent contractors. If you think these companies are not competing with us, in five minutes they found on AT&T’s web site custom home theater installation offers. He stated why on earth would the council pass an ordinance so written that the Building Department Design and Planning Director James Markle would have to say they will not enforce certain aspects of the Ordinance before it is even passed. Mr. Wering noted that as th reported by WSBT – TV on March 26 by Troy Kehoe, why not write the bill correctly the first time. If the ultimate goal of this ordinance is to improve the health and safety of the citizens of St. Joseph County, charge a fee and require anyone providing low voltage installations to pass a competency test before issuing a license. Only inspect what you currently have the capacity to do. If thee is a building permit issued for new construction or remodeling work, the inspectors already have to go there, so require an inspection and a license on all projects requiring a building permit. Don’t force small contractors to work under the radar and open themselves up to fines just to be able to compete with corporations many times their size that are exempt from complying with this Ordinance. Mr. Wering advised that this Council has an opportunity to truly help provide improved health and safety for the citizens of St. Joseph County by adopting a common sense Ordinance that takes into account the stated ultimate goal of the Building Department. In rebuttal, Mr. Bulot advised that this bill does not give an unfair advantage, if they do not supply services to the building. He stated that what they are looking for is proper installation and installers, not those “working out of the trunk of their car.” He noted that this would allow for quality control and avoid anyone from getting hurt. He noted that this bill would help with the commercial ventures and large apartment/housing developments. Councilmember’s Varner and Rouse stated that they would like to see this bill continued so that they can get clarification from the Building Department regarding commercial versus residential installation. They stated that a meeting with the area small businesses, Council Attorney, Building Department and Council Members should take place prior to this bill coming back to the Council. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand stated that she would like to have the concerns of equal protection addressed in a substitute bill. 3