ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Comments for debate....

Vermont has an on line formal complaint form

One can forward this anonymously, or one can sign their name to it

In my case I pointed out a serious structural flaw to the project manager.

When he did nothing i went to the building owners

When he did nothing i went to my AHJ

When he did nothing i went to my AHJ's boss w/formal complaint in hand AND my name on it

When my AHJ's boss did squat (and i gave him 5-6 months) i went to the state licensing board

The licensing boards vice chair lit a fire under it all, the owners accused me of sabotaging the job, the engineer they hired (and they did so under protest) validated my complaint

IF someone points out a serious life threat to the state, they should not duck & hide from it due to politics

But they did, and it would have hung this boy out to dry if there was an incident, so it was a rock/hardplace deal for me

Believe me, I did't enjoy fighting city hall, and there's no glory in being an outcast due to it all, but it beats being out of biz

~S~

I must have lived a sheltered life. I never actually saw any corruption or even heard about any. (bribes, coercion etc)
There is some process variation between the various AHJs but it seems fairly uniform in that patch so the contractors usually know what to expect.
My wife built over 100 houses and she never really had an inspector problem. Some of the guys used to get in whizzing matches over BS but she just asked what she had to do to get this house moving. Upper management made her the inspector contact and the other people worked for her so things went smooth.

Reno:

#3 on your list is interesting. From my experiences, personal 'agendas' are the end result of a lot of the 'gray' areas within the NEC. Individual interpretation of anything that is not clear in black & white usually end up with many opinions.

Listing the things would take lots of time & space. Length of unprotected service conductors was & sometimes still comes up. A receptacle required on a 30" wall behind a door swing is another.

~s~:
Here in NJ, we have forms for everything, ad even forms for more forms.

Procedures are in place for issues, and various paths to attempt solutions exist, depending on the nature and severity.

My personal procedure is to get all parties involved to sit down, put all the facts on the table, and reach terms to solve the issue without escalation to higher levels. When it is necessary to go 'higher'; make sure all the ducks are in a row, and be prepared.

Based on your issue above, when it got to your third step (your AHJ) it would have received prompt, if not immediate attention of the CO, and the Building Subcode Officials.

Politics can attempt to 'influance' things in the paperwork pushing stages; however life safety remains non-political.

Well i thought it worked that way here too HotOne, but a few things happened that i still question.

For one, the project owners only retained an engineer long enough to get a set of prints accepted and stamped by the state.

So where does one go when there's an engineering level concern after that?


The flaw was obvious right on down to the sweeper on the job, but until an engineer makes a final determination through engineering calculations that this is indeed so everyone played it like it did not exist

And the politics of it all were just depressing, every Congresscritter on up to the Governor stumped there patting themselves in the back because a few fools with their hands in the stimulus cookie jar blew into town.

Having heard these sorts blubbering at camera crews about how much they support the local economy with THIER project they knew so little about they had to ask directions to get to made me want to start drinkin' again....

The 'influence' was thick as molasses, to the point where some higher ups there were insinuating who had who in their back pocket, i.e.- why i should stfu

~S~

John,

Corruption? Here in NJ? You must be joking! I thought the word corruption and NJ were synonymous. Like the time the state took over the whole police Dept. because of corruption.

I usually pull a permit on everything i'm suppose to. Off cuff i'd say we probably do $2K worth annually.

The permits we fill out have a start and end date, although we often fudge the end date a tad due to the chronological challenge many jobs seem to have.

Right now i've probably 3 dozen or more jobs that never got a final. I've e-mailed and called on a number of them, with no response

I've even called the regional office and politely asked if so and so inspector was on vacation a few times

In fact, i've a good number of public buildings occupied without a final, i've basically given up on predicating any contract on one

So i figure i'm not liable for incident(s) occuring for lack of one , if i've recorded my efforts of contact

But the shame of it all is, i'm a taxpayer as well, so i question what i'm supporting here

~S~

~s~:
FWIW, there are a lot of 'open' permits in my Twp, I'm sorry to say.
We attempt to keep it under control, but, it's a busy Twp with around 5000 permitted jobs a year. An increase in the clerical staff, and another inspector would be a good thing. Attempting to 'try' for a PT Electrical guy as we speak.

Here, we (Code Enforcement) are not supported by tax dollars, but by permit fees, although that is not a widely known fact.

IMHO, you made/make a good move to document the facts about efforts to contact. A few guys like you would help me out!

I sense a little austerity creeping in here HotOne, and i really don't want to take it out on those who are not responsible

I've told my ahj that i'm slow this time of year, he can have any day he'd like to go from job to job


~S~

~s~:
My point was that IMHO, you sound like someone who cares to go 'by the book'. As AHJ, I can only dream, or wish that a quiet time was upon me.

Now, before someone thinks I'm complaining, or boasting on the amount of work...that's is not the case at all. I consider myself, and my one FT inspector fortunate that we work for a busy Twp., and have survived the downturn in the recent years.

I can pen a few interesting debates that i've had with some of the other towns at seminars, but I don't want to rant now.

Stay safe & fight the good fight