Politics & Government

Mineola to Bring Electrical Inspectors Under Village Supervision

Move to help eliminate potential conflicts of interest between inspectors and clients.

In an effort to ensure the quality of electrical inspections and guard against potential conflicts of interest, the Village of Mineola will issue a bidding process in which companies may participate with the objective of becoming agents of the village. 

“The situation comes up with who the loyalty of the inspector goes to,” trustee Lawrence Werther said at the February 1 meeting at the . “If this is passed, I believe the loyalty of the inspector would go to the village, there would be no shortcuts done, no side deals done.”

The major change from prior years would be that instead of working for the persons for which they were conducting inspections, to essentially being deputized agents of the village, with any fees for inspection services paid by the village. Standards can also be set for insurance and indemnification and staff of the inspectors.

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The proposal involves the administration and enforcement of the New York State Municipal Fire Prevention Building Code regarding electrical inspectors.

According to village attorney John Spellman, the board had issued licenses to electrical inspection companies “based on the fact that these folks basically are deputies to our superintendent of the building department.”

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In order to conduct electrical work, a permit from the village is required. Villages have the option of either having their own electrician whom they appoint as the electrical inspector who inspects all the permitted work or name an electrical inspection company as an agent of the village to conduct the inspections.

The village had utilized three companies, of which a resident could choose from to hire to conduct the inspection the electrical work and provide the certification to the village. The resident would pay a flat fee directly to the company.

Previously only one company in the entire State of New York did such work, but went out of business with the void being filled by former workers of the company.

The new law was drafted in an effort to ensure the highest quality inspectors and sign-offs on electrical work are done properly.

Due to the liability associated with authorizing inspectors to act as agents of the village and accepting their certifications, the village opted to issue an annual bid process in which any of the companies can apply for the term of one year. Depending on the bid, more than one company could be named as the village’s deputies for the inspection.

The new law states that the village would solicit applications biannually from qualified electrical inspection agencies and an appointment of a deputized electrical inspector will be made at the village’s organizational night on a biannual basis.

Spellman noted that there are a number of additional entities applying for permission to conduct electrical inspections in the village and litigation is involved as well.

“It’s our belief that the adoption of this resolution will short-circuit any litigation,” he said. “Any company in the world will be entitled to submit a proposal to this board and they’d be in the running if they meet the qualifications in that proposal.”

The request or proposals (RFP’s) would go out next week.


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