When contractor licenses were up for renewal at the beginning of October, building inspector Richie Armstrong was bombarded with master license applications. The city currently administers testing for three master licenses: plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC).
Armstrong noted that many of the renewal applications came from license-holders who had never pulled a permit in Kosciusko or Attala County.
Mayor Tim Kyle asked Armstrong why so many people were coming here to get a license, and Armstrong explained that the filing fee was $25, unchanged since the ordinance creation in 1992. When he called around to larger cities around the state seeking guidance on the matter, Armstrong said staff of the City of Pearl notified him that Kosciusko was the only Mississippi city still providing master license testing.
“I checked with other municipalities around to see what they charged for licenses and priced ours accordingly to get in line with everybody else because we had people coming from all over to Kosciusko to buy a $25 license,” said Armstrong.
The building inspector said he has received a lot of complaints from other municipalities about people coming to Kosciusko, taking their license tests, receiving their licenses, and never coming back. As a result, Armstrong had no way to check their work.
“All of the contractors in Kosciusko are doing excellent work. I get to go behind them and look, but when I have other inspectors sending me pictures of work from people licensed from Kosciusko, I have to start putting some back in front of the board for review to make sure they deserve a license since some of their work has been subpar,” said Armstrong.
Kyle said time spent handling licensing issues has become excessive when other things need to be done by Armstrong’s office.
“Richie is tied up spending a lot of time on this, and we need him doing other things in our own community instead of spending all this time on licenses for people who have never done any business here and aren’t going to,” said Kyle.
After board approval at the Oct. 21 aldermen’s meeting, language was added to the ordinance requiring applicants for new licenses be Kosciusko or Attala County residents. The amendment will go into effect 30 days after its approval. Those who currently hold licenses will be grandfathered in, so they can still seek license renewal.
The city still plans to offer the test, but the testing fee will be raised to $200. The first license will cost $200 and each additional license will cost $100. In the past, if someone called city hall requesting a letter of good standing, the city would complete the paperwork and send it free of charge. Now, there will be a $15 fee to cover those costs, matching that of a public records request.
“By going up on the price, I hope we will wind up with a better quality of contractor and better work being done,” said Armstrong.
Additionally, those seeking license renewals would previously mail their $25 for the license and the city would have to create the license and mail it out. Mayor Kyle said there will now be a $5 fee to mail out materials to cover printing the license and postal fees.
“This will help,” said Kyle, “and not having people come from everywhere to take the test here is going to alleviate some of the problem.”
Before people are licensed, they are required to be bonded and insured. Kyle said another problem has stemmed from people canceling their insurance as soon as they get a license from the city.
“Just as soon as they get their license, we get a notice in the mail that they have canceled their insurance,” said Kyle. “They cancel their insurance, so you’ve got all these people out here working on our license that aren’t insured or bonded.”
While the ordinance says lack of insurance voids your license, it can’t withdraw licenses from those working out of town. If those people call requesting a letter of good standing and aren’t insured, a letter of good standing will not be issued.
“If you cancel your insurance, regardless, we will not issue you a new license,” said Kyle. “So, if you’re going to run up here to get a license and then cancel the insurance, don’t come back next year wanting a license. To me, if you’ve got somebody wiring your house, you want to make sure that person is licensed and insured.”
