[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Lackawanna 7-11-1994
(Ch. 21 of the 1987 Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Plumbers
Ordinance of the City of Lackawanna, New York.”
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
The Examining Board of Plumbers of the City of Lackawanna, New York.
Includes any person, partnership, association or corporation engaged
in or holding itself out as engaged in the business and who, by himself or
journeymen plumbers in his employ, performs plumbing work or plumbing which
pertains to work in and about water supply, drainage and sewerage systems
and includes the art of installing in buildings or structures the pipes, fixtures,
and other apparatus for the conveyance of water, gas, and sewage and in which
includes the performance of work, labor and services on the plumbing system
of a structure which includes water supply distributing pipes, the fixtures
and fixture trays, the soil, waste and vent pipes, the house drain and house
sewer, the stormwater system and the gas distributing pipes, together with
their devices, appurtenances, and connections within the structure and adjacent
premises.
Includes a partnership, an association or a corporation.
No person shall engage in or conduct the business of a master plumber
in the City of Lackawanna until such person shall have applied for and obtained
a license to engage in such business as herein provided and pay the required
licensing fee. Such other times as it may deem necessary for the consideration
of applications for licenses and for the transaction of such other business
as may properly come before it, special meetings shall be called as provided
in the Rules and Regulations of the Board.
A.
Appointment. The Mayor shall appoint an Examining Board
of Plumbers consisting of five members to examine and determine the qualifications
and fitness of applicants for licenses as master plumbers and for such other
purposes as provided in this chapter.[1]
B.
Qualifications. All members of such Board shall be at
least 21 years of age and residents of the County of Erie for at least three
years.
C.
Term of office. The term of office of each member shall
be set by local law.
D.
Rules and regulations. The Board shall promulgate rules
and regulations for its organization, operation and conduct.
A.
The Plumbing Board shall elect one of its members as
Chairman and one as Secretary at the first meeting of each year.
B.
Meetings. The Plumbing Board shall meet regularly in
each month within the City of Lackawanna at a time and place fixed by it and
at such other times as it may deem necessary for the consideration of applications
for licenses and for the transaction of such other business as may properly
come before it. Special meetings shall be called as provided in the rules
and regulations of the Plumbing Board.
The Board shall adopt an order of procedure, rules and regulations not
inconsistent with this chapter for the receiving of applications for licenses,
the investigation and examination of applicants, the conduct of the meetings
and business of the Board, prescribing the duties of its Chairman and Secretary
and other matters incidental to the powers and duties of the Board as herein
set forth, and shall have power to change and amend such rules of procedure
and regulations by a majority vote of the whole Board, at any time at any
regular or special meeting after giving all the members 30 days' written notice
of the proposed change or amendment. The Board shall file a copy of its order
of procedure, rules and regulations, and of any changes or amendments thereof,
certified by the Secretary, with the City Clerk, forthwith upon the adoption
of same, which at all reasonable times shall be open to public inspection.
The Board shall investigate and determine as to the qualifications and
fitness of each applicant for a license hereunder; all charges preferred against
any person holding a license granted hereunder; and as to the fitness to continue
to hold a license granted hereunder of any person against whom such charges
shall have been preferred. Within five days after the completion of any such
investigation or examination, the Board shall report to the Director of Development
and Chief Engineer, in writing, signed by the Chairman and Secretary, its
findings and recommendations in each case.
Applicants for licenses and persons desiring to prefer charges against
any holder of a license granted hereunder shall conform to and comply with
all rules and regulations of the Board respecting the application for licenses
and the preferring and hearing of such charges and shall present themselves
for investigation and examination or for hearing or trial of such charges
at such time and place as the Board shall fix.
No license shall be granted to any person unless he or she shall prove
to the satisfaction of the Board that he or she has an established place for
regular transaction of business; is a competent plumber and qualified to do
plumbing contracting, construction and installation work; has a working knowledge
of plumbing and the natural laws and functions of plumbing and of apparatus
and devices for work pertaining to the plumbing system of structures used
and required in such work; combined with a practical working knowledge of
the Building Code of New York State and the City of Lackawanna Building Code
pertaining to plumbing and the generally accepted standards thereunder. No
such license shall be granted to any person who is less than 18 years of age
and who has less than three years' experience as a journeyman plumber in the
employ of a duly licensed plumber.
Upon determining the qualifications and fitness of any applicant to
receive such license, the Board shall recommend, in writing, to the Director
of Development that upon payment of the fees and filing of the bond, as herein
provided, a license be issued to such applicant to engage in such business.
Such license shall be valid and operative until and including the 31st day
of December next ensuing.
Upon the written recommendation of the Board filed with the Director
of Development, he or she shall issue forthwith to such applicant a license
countersigned by the City Clerk hereunder authorizing the holder thereof to
engage in the business of licensed plumber within the City of Lackawanna and
shall register his or her name, alphabetically, business address, number and
date of license in a book to be kept in the office of the City Clerk for that
purpose.
A.
Application fee. Upon making application for a license
on a form to be provided by the Board, the applicant shall deposit with the
Director of Development the sum of $75, and the Director of Development shall
provide the applicant with a receipt of said sum, and shall further provide
the Board with a copy of said receipt showing that said sum has been so deposited.
Should the license be denied, said sum shall be returned to the applicant.
If said license is granted, the City as the initial license fee to be paid
by the applicant shall retain said sum.[1]
B.
Renewal of licenses. Any person having secured such license
as herein provided, unless such license shall have been revoked or suspended
upon recommendation of the Board, shall be granted a renewal of such license
without further examination, provided application for such renewal is made
to the Board within 30 days preceding its expiration and by such holder within
such 30 days paying the renewal fee as hereafter prescribed. Such renewal
shall be for the period of one year from January 1 next ensuing, and repeated
renewals for one year shall be granted in like manner and upon like application
and conditions. The annual renewal fee for all licenses after the initial
license, issued to the same person, shall be $75, plus photo I.D.'s at
$5 for one year.
A.
No individual, partnership or corporation shall lend,
rent or in any manner transfer or assign his or its license, name and/or license
number to any other individual, partnership or corporation; nor shall any
individual, partnership or corporation make use of a license, name or license
number which is not actually his or its own. Every such license may, after
due notice to the holder thereof and opportunity to be heard, be suspended
or revoked by the Director of Development upon recommendation of the Board
for failure or refusal of the licensee to comply with the City local laws
or ordinances regulating same, rules and regulations promulgated by the Board,
the New York State Building Code or for such other cause or causes deemed
sufficient by the Board.
B.
No individual, partnership or corporation shall falsely
represent himself or herself as a master or employing plumber by the use of
the words "master plumber" or "plumbing contractor" or words of a similar
import or meaning on signs, cards, stationery, or in any manner whatsoever.
Before any such license or renewal shall be issued, the applicant for
such license or renewal, in addition to paying the fees herein provided, shall
execute and deliver to the City Clerk, a joint and several bond of himself
or herself as principal, and a good and sufficient bonding corporation duly
authorized to do business in the State of New York, as surety, running to
the City of Lackawanna as obligee, in the penalty of $5,000, conditioned for
the faithful observance by the principal of all the terms and conditions of
all laws of the State of New York; and all local laws and ordinances of the
City of Lackawanna regulating or in any manner relating to plumbing, contracting,
construction, installation; and to the repair or alteration of any plumbing
fixtures, appliances or devices for the furnishing of water in any dwelling
or elementary sewerage in any building or other structure in the City of Lackawanna
and all rules and regulations of the Examining Board of Plumbers then existing
or which may thereafter be adopted and to carry on such business and do and
perform all the plumbing contracts and plumbing work undertaken by said principal
in a careful, good and workmanlike manner. Such bond shall contain the further
condition that any person suffering damage or injury by reason of the failure
of the principal obligor to comply with the terms and conditions of said bond
and of the laws, ordinances, rules and regulations therein mentioned may maintain
an action on said bond to recover for the damage or injury so sustained as
if such persons, firm or corporation were specifically named as obligee in
said bond. Such bond, before presentation to the City Clerk, shall be approved
by the City Attorney both as to form and as to the sufficiency of the surety
and such approval endorsed thereon.
No plumbing work shall be installed, changed, modified or added to within
the City of Lackawanna unless a permit therefor shall have been first obtained
from the Director of Development.
The Director of Development shall issue all permits countersigned by
the City Clerk for any and all plumbing work within the City of Lackawanna
upon payment of the required fee as herewithin established. Such permits to
perform plumbing work shall not be issued except to licensed master plumbers
in and for the City of Lackawanna, New York.
Members of the Board are hereby empowered to inspect all structures
within the City of Lackawanna in which plumbing work is being or has been
installed to determine whether the plumbing contractor shall have complied
with the laws of the State of New York, the local laws and ordinances of the
City of Lackawanna and such rules and regulations as the Board may enact.
No person shall connect or cause to be connected any sanitary sewage
line from any structure into the public sewage system without first obtaining
permits from the County of Erie, approved by a City licensed plumber and paying
County fees for each tap.
The provisions of Article I of Chapter 87 of this Municipal Code shall be applicable in regard to the revocation or suspension of a license issued under this chapter. The Board, for the purposes of this section, shall be deemed to be the issuing officer acting by majority vote of its entire membership.
