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Two contractors complain about unlicensed work. County officials share their concern. But a solution isn't agreed upon.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 24, 2001
BROOKSVILLE -- Drywall contractors Gary and Carol Prunty say their profession is filled with illegal, unlicensed activity in Hernando County, and they want it stopped.
Registered solo contractors are taking jobs and then subcontract with unlicensed workers to hang and finish the drywall, all to avoid paying for workers' compensation insurance, the Pruntys contend. They said they follow the rules and, as a result, get priced out of the market.
Home builders ignore the situation, they said.
"There's no oversight; there's no supervision at all," Carol Prunty explained. "The drywall contractor provides the material, but the guys are left to do the work themselves and nobody has checked to see if they're really qualified."
The couple pleaded with county commissioners Tuesday to force everyone to follow county licensing rules. Hernando County licenses drywall contractors only, not hangers or finishers.
"We're very, very concerned," said Gary Prunty, who estimated that about 70 percent of the drywall work in the county is unlicensed.
County officials share the couple's concerns.
In December, the county Development Department fined drywall workers at five home sites because they lacked proper licenses. A year ago, the county Construction Licensing Board refused to endorse specialty licenses for hanging and finishing drywall, a position Development Director Grant Tolbert still holds.
"I will not support manipulation of the law to create additional contractor categories for the express purpose of avoiding the payment of responsible workers' compensation coverage for employees on the job," Tolbert wrote to the Hernando Builders Association last week.
"I have and remain convinced that the solution to poorly constructed houses must rest with the general contractor and a limited number of properly licensed subcontractors," he wrote.
The state Division of Workers Compensation Compliance also has started going after contractors who have improperly claimed exemptions to avoid paying for insurance. Only companies with no employees can get an exemption.
"We see a lot of companies sending out what we consider employees and not owners of their own businesses," said Janice Freeman, the division's Tampa district supervisor.
Investigators make such decisions based on interviews in the field.
"We have had a lot of people who didn't even know what they were doing," she said. "That's where problems are starting to arise."
The state can revoke an exemption on the spot, fine the owners and shut down their work until they buy insurance policies, Freeman said.
Susan Greco, Hernando Builders Association executive director, said the organization initially wanted the county to issue specialty licenses.
Many hangers and finishers cannot succeed if forced to take a contractor's test and apply for a license, she said. Yet they deserve to work, she said, and many do not want to be in the employ of a single builder.
Noting Tolbert's opposition, Greco said, the association now wants to eliminate all regulation over drywalling. Then anyone could do drywall work without the fear of a county "raid," she said, and business can go on as usual.
Jim Campisi, a Pasco County lawyer representing Tom Centella Drywall Inc., argues firmly against deregulation in several lengthy letters to the Development Department. Government needs rules for construction, he said.
But Campisi said a better way to regulate drywalling exists than forcing contractors to hire all workers as employees or requiring all workers to hold contractors' licenses. He recommended policy based on a state law allowing drywallers to use unlicensed finishers and hangers on single-family homes as long as a licensed general, building or residential contractor supervises them.
"The county really needs to decide what is supervision," Campisi said. "That's what I'm waiting for."
Assistant County Attorney Kent Weissinger agreed. He sent a memo to the county's contractor certification supervisor, Jim Friedrichs, proposing this path.
"We're trying to see if maybe there is some ground in between the two extremes," Weissinger said.
Friedrichs acknowledged the need to better define supervision so his office can better enforce the rules. But first, he said, he wants the County Commission to decide who should be licensed.
Commissioner Betty Whitehouse, the commission's liaison to the builders association, said the matter is not clear-cut. She attended an association meeting last week and heard no consensus.
"It's important we get all the parties involved to come here and bring out all the issues," Whitehouse said, echoing her colleagues' call for more information.
Pinellas and Marion counties have the same rules as Hernando, while Citrus and Sumter offer specialty licenses. Polk County requires no license for any aspect of drywall work.
The problems in Hernando are not unusual, though, said Bill Owens, executive director of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board. He said his inspectors visit work sites weekly with Division of Workers Compensation Compliance investigators to enforce rules as Hernando did in December.
"We often find the drywall people will be independent contractors," Owens said. "We don't have a problem with that if they're licensed. Many of them are not."