COUNCIL REVISITS TESTING DEMANDS FOR ELECTRICIANS

Although most Cape Girardeau City Council members favor licensing requirements for electricians in the city, the issue likely will spark controversy at tonight's meeting.

The on-again, off-again issue is back on the agenda at the request of Councilman Melvin Kasten.

He and Councilman J.J. Williamson were out of town on June 19 when the council considered final approval of an ordinance requiring electricians to pass a written test before being operating as licensed contractors in the city.

With only five councilmen present, the measure didn't get the four votes needed to pass. Mayor Al Spradling III and councilmen Melvin Gateley and Tom Neumeyer voted for the law, while Councilmen Richard Eggimann and Jack Rickard voted against it.

Kasten said the action thwarted the will of the majority of council members. He said he asked to revisit the issue because most electricians want it.

In revisiting the issue, the council will consider giving first reading to the measure. Assuming the measure receives initial approval as it did in June, the council could give it final approval at its first meeting in August.

Supporters say the licensing is at matter of safety. "This way, an electrician isn't just a man with a pickup truck and a stepladder," Kasten said.

But Eggimann said it is just more government regulation, which will create a shortage of electricians and raise the cost of electrical work.

A majority of council members disagree, as does Rick Murray, the city's inspection services director.

Murray said it might reduce costs. With better trained electricians, the city would have to make fewer inspections and less electrical work would have to be redone to meet city code. Fewer inspections mean the project can be completed sooner.

"I don't see an escalation of fees because a guy has to prove his minimum qualifications," Murray said.

The city would offer different written tests. An electrician who works on commercial projects would be required to know more than one who does simple wiring in homes. Murray said that helps keep the licensing requirements from being too restrictive.

But Eggimann said electricians already do a good job. Their work is monitored by city inspectors so there isn't any need to impose testing requirements.

Spradling disagreed. "Some people may want to cut a corner," the mayor said. "I want quality and I want somebody who knows what they are doing, especially when it is a life-and-death type situation."

Under the measure, those who already work as electricians would have five years to take and pass the test. Spradling said that if electricians can't pass the test within that time period, they should be in a different line of work.

The measure won't apply to people who wish to do electrical work in their own home, but it does apply to all rental properties.

The measure has the backing of the city's Board of Examiners, whose members are in the construction trades. Electricians as a whole have backed it too, Murray said.

The city now requires plumbers, mechanical installers or gas fitters, and drainlayers to pass tests to be licensed.

Electricians are licensed too, but without a testing requirement. Anyone who pays a $35 fee can obtain an electrician's license from City Hall.

Murray said only about 20 percent of the 200 electricians in Cape Girardeau are professionally trained.

Many of the electricians are handymen who do electrical work on the side, he said.

It isn't uncommon for city inspectors to make as many as 10 visits to a job site because the electrical work didn't meet city code, Murray added.

Electricians who have passed similar competency tests elsewhere would be allowed to obtain a license in Cape Girardeau without taking additional tests, he said.

Unlicensed electricians could still work under a licensed electrician.