Cam Fentriss, FRSA LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL
What is one of our most important issues right now? You guessed right - it is workforce shortage. We need
workers. We need a short-term fix, and we also need a long-term fix.
We need workers generally and we need them to help complete repair and reroofing from storms. We need
workers who are trained or who we can train to make sure that we have code compliance and that safety standards are met. In short, it is hard to have a strong company without any workers.
Some of the ways to fill our workforce needs are:
■ Look at places other than traditional sources for workers
■ Reach out to students in high school (or before) who may be interested
■ Participate in local job fairs
There is a lot more detail to these three ideas, but this article is not really about that. It is more about the wrong way to improve our workforce.
Here is one very big way NOT to increase our workforce: loosen up standards to allow lesser qualified people to get a roofing license.
The license is what allows you to enter into contracts and pull permits. The license does not roof. You may be
able to successfully start and run a plumbing business with just a plumbing license, but how in the world can you take a roofing license, a truck, and a ladder and have a successful business? Anyone in construction knows
you need more than one person to do roofing. Anyone in construction knows that a successful business is one
licensee and qualified trained workers. The successful or feasible business plan is not likely to be six licensees and no qualified workers.
It appears that some of the contractor members of the Construction Industry Licensing Board (CILB) claim to
believe that all of Florida's storm-related backlog in roof replacement and repairs will be cleaned up by dumbing
down the requirements to qualify for a license by creating a voluntary specialty residential roofing license.
If these same Cl LB contractor members consider their fiduciary responsibilities, they must also have convinced
themselves that there is no reason to be concerned that anyone who cannot qualify for a real roofing license, but would get a "residential" specialty license, would automatically stay within the law and never do any work beyond that license, even if we have another economic dive that leaves all contractors scrambling for jobs. Sure, pal.
Even better, these same CILB contractor members may have convinced themselves that understaffed building
departments are suddenly going to have the time and resources to go to one or more websites and Florida administrative rules to match up the specifics of what a lesser license allows and what is specified in the permit application presented.
Those last two paragraphs are tragically funny, with an emphasis on the tragedy of it all. Why? Well, the biggest
tragedy is that we have CI LB contractor members who do not seem to understand well enough how the construction industry works in Florida to know about the substantial problems out there with compliance. It is truly tragic that these people are so eager to add to that problem by creating a lower license to be issued to people who cannot qualify for Florida's well-established roofing license.
One of these CILB members who is a general contractor and has an "incidental" roofing license has actually
stated that this dumbed down license proposal is only about "simple roofing:' Let me be clear here - he said that knowing that the draft of the proposed license included "shingles and shakes, architectural metal roofing, concrete and tile roofing, and gutter and downspout installation:' Does that guy understand roofing? (No need to answer - that's one of those rhetorical questions.)
Speaking of gutters and downspouts, one of the baffling aspects of this effort is that, by including gutters and
downspouts into this proposed license, the CILB would be creating a license for something that does not currently require licensure! That's a surefire way to expand government where no such expansion is needed.
Another reason this proposal does not pass the smell test is because, on any given day, you can contact DBPR
and the CILB and say "all CILB licensed contractors need help in finding workers and I want to know what the CILB is going to do to help us." The reply you would get is "the CILB is responsible for issuing licenses to contractors and enforcing the licensing laws, and the law does not allow us to do anything to help you find workers:' Despite that, we have some members of the CILB using the authority of the CILB to push the creation of a lower license because more workers (not contractors) are needed for roofing.
We have already made our case before the CILB once, and even the original proponent of this appreciates the
flaw in the approach, but other CILB contractor members want to push ahead and do not seem to care. Why not? Well, maybe they see this as an opportunity to create what will serve them as a subservient license to legalize the iffy practice of grabbing up a bunch of roofing contracts and subcontracting out the work to these people. But that is not the likely result. Seriously - think about it. If a guy without a license who does subcontract work today becomes able to obtain a license tomorrow, why would he want to continue to work for another contractor when he can grab up a bunch of roofing contracts all by himself? Why give a cut to a middleman if the law allows you to keep it all for yourself?
FRSA is fighting this and we want your help. Let us know if you want to participate in our effort to straighten
out this problem.
Anna Cam Fentriss is an attorney licensed in Florida since 1988 representing clients with legislative and state agency interests. Cam has represented FRSA since 1993, is an Honorary Member of FRSA, recipient of the FRSA President's Award and the Campanella Award in 2010.