City official lacks license to do his job

St. Petersburg will spend close to $5,000 to review Building Code Administrator Milton Massanet's work.

By BRYAN GILMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- The city's new building code administrator has signed dozens of condemnation orders for derelict buildings and certificates of occupancy for new homes and businesses without holding a state license to do the job.

Now the city will pay an outside consultant who does hold the required license an estimated $5,000 to review the documents that Milton Massanet improperly signed, Assistant City Attorney Rob Eschenfelder said Thursday.

Massanet, 41, joined the city staff on Dec. 8. Although he was told in a letter when he was hired that he needed the state license, he did not even apply for one until Wednesday -- the day state regulators came to his office to investigate.

Despite the letter, Massanet said Thursday he believed his national certification was all that was required to do his job here. That was the case in California, where he previously worked, he said Thursday.

Massanet appears to meet the requirements for a Florida license and should receive it from the state licensing board in July, Eschenfelder said.

In the meantime, Massanet will keep his $57,000-a-year job in good standing, said his boss, Assistant Development Services Director Julie Weston.

Massanet holds an important job. State law requires the profession be licensed to protect the public health and safety.

For instance, Massanet was the city official who gave the order to halt construction after a portion of the new parking garage for the downtown BayWalk development collapsed, then later said it was okay for construction to proceed on the undamaged areas of the project, according to City Engineer Mike Connors, who assumed Massanet had all the credentials he needed.

In addition, the building inspectors and plans examiners whom Massanet supervises have been doing their work for the past six months without the supervision of a state-licensed building code administrator that state law requires.

"Milton was operating on the misunderstanding that he had the authority to do (all) that," without a state license, Eschenfelder said.

Weston told Massanet he needed the license in a Dec. 2 letter she wrote to offer him the job, his city personnel file shows.

"You will also need to receive certification from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation as a building code administrator," Weston wrote. "I understand you've already initiated this process."

Weston allowed Massanet to begin work Dec. 8 without one.

Massanet said that when he was hired, he immediately began rounding up affidavits to document his work experience in the field, a required part of the license application. Difficulty in obtaining them delayed his filing of the application, he said.

Massanet's application packet shows that the last affidavit from a previous employer, the city of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., was signed April 10. Two others were signed by January.

Eschenfelder said state regulators are not requiring that the consultant double-check Massanet's work; the city is doing so as a precaution.

Weston said Massanet is helping to reorganize and streamline his department and she is pleased with his overall job performance.

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