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

[HotLine1]~s~:


Actually my whole problem is i'm an overgrown boy scout HotOne, i get my bubble popped all too easily over altruisms i sense getting thrown under the bus

That said, as much as i b*tch, i still fall back on the fact we have a symbiant relationship, as dysfunctional as it may seem at times, we're all we've got.





and you / yours my friend

~S~

John, you're witnessing the natural progression as officialdom morphs public service commitments into 'cash cows' for their overall budgets.

This takes public economics back to the Stamp Act -- and the economic rationale for the American Revolution.

In sum: the Colonies were being picked apart by nickel and dime fees for every manner of official duties. What started out as trivial kept expanding until the status quo blew up.

In a round about way, we're headed down the same path. The petty charges ( from Sacramento ) have simply exploded over the last twenty-years.

They, like the sumptuary taxation of electric power/ rationing of energy to the proles, are hidden taxes that need no embarrassing, visible, votes.

It's a death by a thousand cuts.

I still have 3 open since the Clinton administration.

I stopped getting inspection requests about 11 years ago but nobody ever officially terminated my contract. Do you think they are going to call someday?

Tesla:
Yes, I know the 'cash cow' scenario, and the famous 'General Fund'.

That said, the fee schedule in the Twp I work in has been stable (same) since 2008. Prior to '08, it was revised in 2000. Fees are set by Twp ordinance.

Although we (NJ) are blessed with the Uniform Construction Code (UCC), there is no 'ststewide' fee schedule. There are 'State Fees' which are in effect in locales that the State DCA provides services, AND by any 'third party' inspection services co. that provides inspections to locales under contract.

Keep in mind there are 'other fees' above the B/E/P/F; DCA surcharges, CO Fee, etc., etc. The DCA surcharge goes to the State, and is a percentage based on the estimated costs for the proposed work. These other fees are Twp ordinance.

John,

You talk about getting finals for permits. The days after Sandy hit our towns, many, many people started doing work on their house with out permits at all. They tore out the dry wall, insulation, put drywall back up, no inspections, permits or replacing of wire. The only way we get to hear about it is when someone who did take out the permits complain about all of those who didn't.

Irene taught us a little about how bureaucracy works in a disaster. The poco's shut down entire streets, which we during the aftermath were (as licensed electricians)sent out to 'sign off' via a form the poco provided.

I guess you could say we were deputized for a while as de facto inspectors.

We (the EC contingent) stipulated a lot of sign offs were we installed a few GFCI's under panels that did not get flooded & disco'd everything else

But what didn't work so well was the Fire Marshal end of it all. Public buildings needed both an electrical sign off, as well as the structural sign off of a FM.

But being they are as scarce as nats in a wind storm normally, it created a bad situation where a number of inn owners (VT is lousy with inns btw) could not offer shelter to the public.

A few towns had thier citizens holed up in town halls, libraries, town garages, or whatever municipal shelter the Vt Nat Guard could get to (God bless every last one of 'em), while the inns could have taken up the slack here

It's been discussed that the local Fire Chiefs be granted some leverage as FM deputies in lieu of their arrival

~S~

Sparky,

I mentioned Sandy, I also had to deal with even more water damage with Irene. We had several houses in one of my towns where the water knocked down portions of the basement foundations.

They were both bad news Harold

iirc, Irene was 'tropical storm' category when it blew through Vermont

we were dumbfounded, give us 4' of snow and we're good, but all that water and we just were not prepared...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T8gOWNNw8Y[/youtube]

First, I am very aware of the damages Irene caused to those 'up north' as Sparky shared a few pics with me.

The Sandy situation I have witnessed is twofold. The Twp I work in had been hit basically in one large industrial/office park, and one apt complex. Water aws 6' deep in some areas and warehouses. Some repairs were done in the week after the storm, with no permits/inspections as the Twp was 'closed' due to lack of power.

Where I live, the resi damages were heavy. Work without permits was being done, some ligit, some not.

Permit fees were waived in the Twp I work in for all storm/flood damage related work. It amounted to at least $75K in fees if not more.

Actually one gripe comes to mind. I can't stand it when the
inspector walks in and signs the work off without checking every facet of the installation. I Mean jeeze, what if I missed something? Gotta love those thorough inspectors huh!
Actually the biggest gripe is when an inspector interprets a code section completely different from every other inspector I've had. I had one inspector that was going to fail a meter inspection because my driven ground rod was flush with the ground. He said it HAD to be 6" above ground so it was accessible. I ended up wrenching it out with channel locks so he would sign it off.