STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

HANS ROSSIGNOL, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 83-1592

)

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL ) REGULATION, FLORIDA ELECTRICAL ) CONTRACTORS LICENSING BOARD, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, this cause came on for administrative hearing before P. Michael Ruff, duly designated Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings on August 10, 1983, in Tallahassee, Florida. The appearances were as follows:

For Petitioner: Hans Rossignol, pro se

Mozart Electric, Inc.

2427 North Claybourne Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60614

For Respondent: Susan Tully, Esquire

Department of Legal Affairs Suite 1601, The Capitol Tallahassee, Florida 32301

This cause arose on the petition of Hans Rossignol for an electrical contractor's license in the State of Florida, which application was denied by the Board on May 2, 1983, on the grounds that the Petitioner's application did not demonstrate that the Petitioner had any electrical contracting experience in a classification above that of Journeyman electrician. Specifically, the Board felt that the Petitioner did not have the required skill, knowledge, and experience in the trade of electrical contracting, since he had not proven three years experience in the trade as an electrical contractor or in a "responsible management position" with an electrical contractor. See Rule 21GG-5.03, Florida Administrative Code.

The Petitioner timely elected to avail himself of his right to present evidence and testimony at a formal proceeding pursuant to Section 120.57(1), Florida Statutes, and the cause came on for hearing in Tallahassee, Florida, on the above date. At the hearing the Petitioner presented his own testimony in support of his application, as well as Petitioner's Exhibit 1. The Respondent presented no witnesses, relying instead on cross examination of the Petitioner and Respondent's Composite Exhibit 1, consisting of the Petitioner's application with attached documents. All exhibits were admitted into evidence. The issue to be resolved concerns whether the Petitioner should be entitled to take the examination for licensure as an electrical contractor pursuant to Chapter 489,

Florida Statutes, and the above-cited rule. The Respondent presented proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. Those findings not incorporated herein are found to be either subordinate, cumulative, immaterial, unnecessary or not supported by the evidence.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Petitioner submitted an application for the certified electrical contractor's examination to the Respondent in January, 1983. The Respondent is an agency of the State of Florida charged with enforcing the standards of licensure for electrical contractors, pursuant to Chapter 489, Florida Statutes, and Chapter 21GG, Florida Administrative Code, and with administering and enforcing the licensure and practice standards of electrical contractors in the State of Florida.

   
   

2. The application filed by the Petitioner indicated that he had been employed as a Journeyman electrician with Mozart Electric, Inc., of Chicago, Illinois, since October, 1978. The application on its face showed no further experience in the electrical contracting trade possessed by the Petitioner, except as a Journeyman electrician for that company.

   
   

3. The Petitioner was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1934. In 1950, when he was 16 years old, he became an apprentice electrician, working and learning the trade with a view toward becoming a Journeyman and ultimately a Master electrician. He was licensed in Berlin as a Journeyman electrician on September 12, 1953. He worked in that capacity in Germany until 1955, when he immigrated to the United States. In 1955, he settled in Chicago and was licensed as a Journeyman electrician and joined the Electrical Worker's Union Local 134 in Chicago in that classification. From 1957 to 1958, the Petitioner served as a "Master electrician" in the United States Army.

   
   

4. The Petitioner has chosen to maintain his union membership so he was thus precluded from being employed in a job classification with the title of "contractor".

   
   

5. Since the mid-1950's, however, the Petitioner has been in charge of and in a supervisory position on electrical contracting jobs. For instance, with Mozart Electric, his present employer since 1978, the Petitioner has typically supervised a crew of eight men in performing the electrical contracting portion of large commercial construction jobs. In that capacity, the Petitioner works in an unsupervised fashion and "lays out" the job, estimates the scope and cost of the work, solely supervises the men on the job, makes shop drawings, and solely inspects the finished job.

   
   

6. The Petitioner, although he does not do the bidding himself, often does the estimating upon which bids are predicated. In addition, the Petitioner's activities and duties with Mozart Electric, Inc. include making corrections to blueprints, conferring with architects to work out necessary changes, promulgating time schedules, hiring and laying off electricians, and coordinating the electrical construction work with other trades on a given job. In this, or a similar capacity, he has worked with four electrical contracting companies since coming to the United States. Thus, he spent 17 years with Klorek Electric as a Journeyman, then foreman, then superintendent. The Petitioner spent two years with Gibson Electric Company as a foreman; four years with Midland Electric Company as a superintendent; and five years with his present employer, Mozart Electric, Inc. in performance of the above sort of duties.

7. It has therefore been established that the Petitioner has worked for a substantial portion of the last 28 years in a capacity other than as merely a Journeyman electrical worker an a job site, but rather has typically worked in a supervisory capacity for most of those 28 years. Indeed, for most jobs performed during that time, the Petitioner was superintendent of the job and was solely responsible directly to the president of his company for the quantity and quality of work performed by his men, whom he supervised unassisted by anyone else.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

8. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the subject matter of and the parties to this cause. Section 120.57(1), Florida Statutes (1981).

   
   

9. Section 489.511, Florida Statutes, provides in pertinent part:

   
   

   1. Any person desiring to be licensed as a certified electrical contractor shall apply to the department in writing to take the certification examination.

      (3) The board shall investigate the financial responsibility and credit and business reputation of the applicant, as well ads the education and experience as provided in

      s489.521 of the applicant's qualifying agent . . .

      
      

10. Section 489.521, Florida Statutes, provides:

    
    

    (2) [T]he application shall also show that the proposed qualifying agent is legally qualified to act for the business organization in matters connected with its contracting business and concerning regulations by the board and that he has authority to supervise work undertaken by the business organization. The person must possess the required skill, knowledge and experience as evidenced by 3 year proven experience in the trade or education equivalent thereto, . . .

    
    

11. Rule 21GG-5.01, Florida Administrative Code, enacted pursuant to Chapter 489, Florida Statutes, provides:

    
    

    'Applicant' means a business entity making an application for certification as an electrical contractor, specialty electrical contractor as designated in Rule 21GG-7.01.

    1. 'Qualifying Agent' means a person whose requisite skill, knowledge, and experience to supervise, direct, manage and control the electrical contracting of a business entity was gained through experience either as an electrical contractor or in a responsible management position with an electrical

       contractor.

    2. 'Responsible Management' means a managerial position of authority, supervision, and

    control over the electrical contracting activities of a business entity.

    
    

12. Rule 21GG-5.03(1), Florida Administrative Code, provides:

    
    

    1. All applicants must show that their proposed qualifying agent (in the case of sole proprietorship, the applicant himself) has 3 years' proven experience in the trade as an electrical contractor or in a responsible management position with an electrical contractor. The qualifying agent shall be required to demonstrate that he possesses

       the requisite skill, knowledge and experience in the trade as an electrical by forwarding the following to the board . . . (emphasis supplied)

       
       

13. It is true that the Petitioner has held an apprenticeship and now a Journeyman's electrical license for many years and that he currently is still a member of the Electrical Workers Union in the category of Journeyman electrician. Further, it is true that the Petitioner, in executing his application (which he maintained someone in his office partially filled out for him), failed to indicate his work experience for dates earlier than his commencement of employment with Mozart Electric, Inc. in October, 1978. The preponderance of the evidence presented however, and the above Findings of Fact, reveal that indeed the Petitioner has worked for many years as superintendent of electrical contracting jobs on large commercial construction projects and that indeed he has regularly performed substantial "responsible management duties" even to assisting in the preparation of bids and estimating jobs preparatory to submission of bids for jobs by officers of his companies. Thus, although the application and Mr. Rossignol's testimony establishes that he indeed is licensed in Illinois as a "Journeyman electrician," that the actual duties he has performed for many years in substantial part have involved supervision of work crews for electrical construction and being superintendent on such jobs, reporting to no one other than the president of his company.

    
    

14. Thus, the preponderant evidence in the record establishes that the requirements of Chapter 489, Florida Statutes, and the above-cited rules promulgated thereunder, which require three years proven experience in the electrical contractor trade either as a electrical contractor or in a responsible management position with an electrical contractor, have been met in the case of this Petitioner's employment experience. Thus, the Petitioner's application for examination as a certified electrical contractor should be granted.

RECOMMENDATION

Having considered the foregoing Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, the evidence in the record and the candor and demeanor of the witnesses, it is, therefore

RECOMMENDED:

That the application of Hans Rossignol to be permitted to take the examination for certified electrical contractors should be GRANTED.

DONE and ENTERED this 24th day of October, 1983, in Tallahassee, Florida.

P. MICHAEL RUFF Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative Hearings The Oakland Building

2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

(904) 488-9675

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 24th day of October, 1983.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Mr. Hans Rossignol

c/o Mozart Electric, Inc. 2427 North Claybourne Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60614

Susan Tully, Esquire Department of Legal Affairs Suite 1601, The Capitol Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Allen R. Smith, Jr., Executive Director Florida Electrical Construction Licensing Board

Department of Professional Regulation

130 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Fred M. Roche, Secretary Department of Professional Regulation

130 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Docket for Case No: 83-001592

Orders for Case No: 83-001592