CITY OF AUBURN ELECTRIC BOARD MEETING
October 16, 2002 at 7:00 pm
Attendants: Jim Salva, Dave Klimek, Jim Moore and Bob Smith
Board reviews and approves minutes from September 2002 meeting.
Salva Do you want to do interviews first?
Moore Yes. The first applicant is Thomas Sheets, he has applied and taken the exam before so this is just a formality.
Salva I think we gave you one of these last time?
Sheets Yes you did.
Salva We have the date as Wednesday night, November 13th.
Sheets Okay and you need the application right?
Salva Yes.
Sheets I have to have her notarize it and give you the check.
Moore That’s all.
Salva Is that going to be for a Master’s?
Sheets No, Limited. I don’t do that much commercial work.
Salva Okay.
Moore We have one other coming in, but I told him not to drive in. The guy from Scriba Electric, he took it last year.
Salva He’s in for a master’s?
Moore Yes.
Salva Do you remember his name?
Moore No. We have his application and check.
Salva Does he know the test date?
Moore No. I’ll have to get that to him.
Salva Do you want to mail him one of these?
Moore Yeah.
Sheets Are we all set then?
Salva Yes.
Sheets Okay, Thank you.
Moore Thanks.
Quill Mr. Sheets didn’t have to come in then?
Moore We have already passed it on.
Salva Anytime we interview somebody initially and then they fail the test and they come to take it again, it is more or less a formality, except for the application and the check. They don’t need to interview a second time.
Quill But you want a new application?
Salva Yes.
Moore What’s the other guys name?
Quill James Soule.
Salva I remember him.
Moore I have this plaque for Dorothy. How would we like to give it to her?
Salva Let’s take her to dinner. We have to get a mutually agreeable time. I can be available just about any time.
Smith Wednesday nights are better for me.
Moore How about you?
Klimek Next Wednesday isn’t good, but any after that will work for me.
Quill That puts us at the 23rd of October.
Moore How about the Sunset?
Klimek That’s good.
Salva Yeah. Why don’t you see if she is available and get back to us.
Quill I could do that. 7:00 pm good?
Moore Yeah.
Salva We have two other issues. There has been some talk around about us ending the Rochester Reciprocal.
Moore I personally feel that without the Syracuse reciprocal, the Rochester one is not a good idea. We are getting Syracuse companies, using their Rochester reciprocal with us to work here in Auburn.
Salva That’s kind of what brought this up. Everything was great when we had the Syracuse reciprocal. We used it and they used it a lot more than us. We don’t use the Rochester reciprocal at all. I don’t know anybody that does. There is so much work available in Syracuse, why would we go all the way to Rochester. But the Rochester guys come here quite frequently. It is a much larger city. We have Merit now, whom we have had a problem with in the past, trying to get around our licensing by taking a VP of Engineering, who is like VP of the stockroom as far as I’m concerned, it’s no more than a title. He’s not Vice President of the company.
Smith Are they still in the same building down here?
Moore Central Health.
Smith A lot of these little companies have been bought out by some conglomerate not even remotely local and they are going to have this problem everywhere. The guys that own it now don’t even know what an electrician is.
Salva You’re right. As far as I’m concerned, unless you get statewide licensing, which you are never going to have because of New York City, you either have to have reciprocals with numerous municipalities or none at all, like Syracuse. Otherwise we get taken advantage of.
Moore And that is what’s happening. I have the city attorney asking for their Corporation’s papers.
Klimek Is Rochester the only city left that we have a reciprocal with?
Salva Yes. Rochester itself is not the problem. It’s people taking advantage of our agreement with them, instead of coming here and taking the test.
Smith Not to many pass the first time.
Salva That’s because they aren’t prepared, not because the test is too hard. It’s open book. Even if you fail the first time, once you see what the test is about and your prepared, you should pass the second time.
Klimek What are the legalities in stopping the reciprocal? Do we have to give a six- month notice…?
Moore No there’s nothing.
Salva We have to present it to city council.
Moore Right.
Salva If we agree to suggest ending the reciprocal, do we have to wait for some kind of resolution regarding this Merit situation?
Moore We would have to vote to send council a letter stating our reasons for discontinuance of the agreement.
Salva In order to take this to the next step are we waiting for corp counsel to resolve this?
Moore It isn’t going to take long.
Quill Do we have to wait for the current Rochester reciprocal licenses to expire?
Salva Well that would be December 31st.
Quill No. The reciprocal is based on a twelve-month period, not annually.
Salva So did Mike Emmi just renew his?
Quill I’d have to look that up. If not, he will be renewing very soon.
Salva So what do we do in a case like that?
Moore What did Syracuse do to you?
Salva They just pulled the plug, but that wasn’t the right way to do it.
Klimek No.
Klimek You have to give them time to pass the test.
Salva If an electrician has contracted jobs he’s going to start in two to three months and he’s ordered materials, you put him in a terrible spot if you just pull his license. I was in the middle of a Wilson Farms job on James St. and I had to fight with their city attorney just to be able to finish that job. I can’t pick up and walk away. They finally agreed, but I would have had to file a lawsuit to keep working. That’s not the solution.
Quill The spring test would be available before any reciprocals expire.
Salva It’s kind of late for this test.
Moore I will get the reciprocal agreement out and bring it to the next meeting. With the Merit deal, they have to see if this guy has any voting shares in the running of the company, otherwise he’s not really a VP and it is just in name only, it’s a sham. I don’t know if this guy has pulled the reciprocal.
Quill He has.
Salva He’s already taken out a reciprocal. That wasn’t our intention when Merit appeared here before. They were going to do this job for specific doctor’s offices, and we were going to let them do that, but that portion of the job is all done, right?
Moore Yes. They have been done.
Klimek This job could last forever.
Moore Yeah. They’ve got 27,000 sq ft.
Klimek They could stretch it out for years.
Quill Do you want to vote on this now?
Moore I’ll write something up on it for the next meeting.
Salva We’ll have plenty of time to look it over and decide then.
Smith I won’t be here, I have my surgery on the 22nd of this month.
Salva How long will you be out?
Smith I’m not sure. You know, this whole organization of mine is about ready to go out.
Salva I know. I’ve had all kinds of trouble. Is anybody going to take your calls?
Smith I don’t know what they are going to do; there is nobody in the office. One of the guys has retired; the one up North is out sick. I highly suggest you let another company in here to inspect, if you’re not going to have your own inspector. I’m going to talk to Middle Department, they have good inspectors and they cover quite a few areas. They’re a big outfit. Elbridge let them come in along with the New York Board, and a couple of other areas too.
Moore That’s another quest of mine.
Salva What was the City Manager’s reaction?
Moore He hasn’t given me an answer.
Klimek If you meet with the city manager on this, you should have some board members with you for back up.
Salva I can bring in that information with the fees and all from Syracuse. We have a ready-made inspector right here.
Smith Would they cover my indemnity insurance?
Moore I believe so. You’d be part-time like Carl Castiglione, the plumbing inspector.
Salva Do you think there is full-time work within the city limits?
Smith No.
Klimek They probably wouldn’t want someone full-time.
Moore No they wouldn’t. Same way with Carl.
Smith I wouldn’t want full-time.
Moore You want me to set up an appointment with the City Manager?
Salva Yes.
Moore I’ll let you know.
Salva You’ll be out for a while Bob. If you’re not at next months meeting, what is your opinion on this Rochester reciprocal?
Smith I think we ought to get rid of it.
Salva Okay.
+end of meeting
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