Plugging Leaks

[January 10th, 2007] Anybody who's ever dealt with a broken pipe or a balky toilet knows it's a bad idea to make plumbers angry.

State construction regulators will learn the same lesson in the 2007 Legislature when the union representing many of Oregon's plumbers and steamfitters channel their anger into pitching a fix that's setting up one of the new session's toughest scraps.

If Plumbers, Steamfitters & Marine Fitters Local 290 succeeds in making what might appear a technical regulatory change, then union officials say consumers can rest assured that plumbers they hire are properly licensed.

Local 290, which represents many of the state's licensed plumbers and steamfitters, is fuming that a company called JRT Mechanical continues to bid as a contractor on major Portland jobs despite revocation of its plumbing license by the state Building Codes Division.

In March 2006, records show, the division revoked JRT Mechanical's license for five years. That revocation followed a disciplinary action in 2000, when the state put JRT on probation for three years.

The division said in its revocation last year that JRT's violations "include employing unlicensed individuals to do plumbing work and making plumbing installations without obtaining the necessary permits."

It's uncommon for the state agency to revoke a company's license. Last year, according to agency figures, there were only two such revocations.

But Local 290 says the suspension by the Building Codes Division did little to impede JRT. The company, which won contracts on high-profile local jobs including the rehab of the downtown Macy's (formerly Meier & Frank) and the construction of the 26-story Benson Tower in Southwest Portland, still bids for other work.

When the state jerked JRT's plumbing license, JRT simply assigned its plumbing permits on the Macy's and Benson jobs to another company, Stewart Plumbing, according to the City of Portland's top plumbing inspector. JRT continued to do mechanical work such as pipefitting on the projects.

Local 290 says that shift was allowed to happen because it's not just the Building Codes Division that regulates the construction trades. Besides the division, which oversees specialty licenses for plumbers, steamfitters, electricians and elevator installers, there's the state Construction Contractors Board, which licenses contractors.

Local 290 wants that setup to end, saying the Construction Contractors Board should have canceled JRT's contractor's license when the Building Codes Division revoked JRT's plumbing license. Bob Shiprack of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council asked the contractors board to cancel JRT's license but got no response. The union's proposal: Make the CCB part of the Building Codes Division.

"To us, JRT isn't operating legally and it's the CCB's fault because they aren't enforcing the law," says Ron Murray, a business agent and lobbyist for Local 290. Gina Fox, a spokewoman for CCB, says the board got legal advice from the attorney general's office that it lacked the authority to suspend JRT's license. CCB has not yet seen the plumbers' proposed legislation.

With Gov. Ted Kulongoski re-elected thanks in part to strong union support and Democrats using that same base to sweep both houses of the Legislature, the union gripes will probably get a sympathetic ear.

The CCB has already come under heavy fire for allegedly failing to protect homeowners and building owners from shoddy construction practices, the subject of a lengthy Oregonian investigation.

But a task force convened to address construction defects is going in a different direction than Local 290: It's recommending giving the CCB more authority.

At the heart of the spat, of course, is money. Murray says contractors hire unlicensed plumbers because they will work for as little as half the cost of licensed plumbers. (In Portland, the prevailing wage for plumbers—union or non-union—is currently $34.49 per hour).

Murray notes that plumbers are responsible for everything from insuring that household water isn't contaminated by sewer lines to the complex piping of medical gases used in hospitals.

"This is a public safety issue," Murray says.

JRT declined comment for this story.