Formalizing inattention

The Sparks City Council is gearing up to drop certification of electricians and plumbers, apparently because it hasn't enforced it for nearly a quarter of a century.

According to the Sparks website, the council has given “direction to the city manager to initiate an amendment to Title 15 of the Sparks Municipal Code to remove the requirement for certificate of qualification for any person who labors at the trade of plumbing or electrician in the City of Sparks.”

The item further said enforcement of certification has been ignored “over the last 23 years.”

Sparks Tribune columnist Andrew Barbano wrote that the same thing has already happened quietly in Reno.

“Two non-union electricians have died in these parts in recent years,” Barbano wrote. “One flunked his licensing test but was allowed to work at the Reno Bowling Stadium where he fried in 2008. He could work legally today. In 2013, some unknown perp deleted Reno's requirement that plumbers and electricians must be licensed pros. Sparks is doing it less skullduggerously. … Zounds. Just because Sparks code enforcers have flouted the law, it should be repealed?”