Your Voice Matters: Feedback for TDLR's Architectural Barriers Program

In March 2014, TDLR asked licensees and the public to share their ideas and experiences related to TDLR. People participated through face-to-face meetings around the state, on an online crowdsourcing website, through social media, and by email.

Participants were asked to answer four questions:

• What does TDLR do well?
• What can TDLR do better?
• What changes would you make to TDLR if you were king or queen for a day?
• Over the next five years, what major changes will affect the way you do business and the services we provide?

We used people’s responses to help us create our strategic plan.

Below you will find participants’ responses concerning TDLR’s Architectural Barriers program.

What does TDLR do well?

• I appreciate the way TDLR works to find solutions to the issues the licensees have. TDLR works to find ways to fix issues within the boundaries of the law.
• The training videos are a very positive addition to what TDLR provides.
• Architectural Barriers technical assistance has been very quick to respond to my technical questions on many projects.
• Attentive people on the phone. Professional once you talk to a live person.
• Can call direct
• Communication with emails
• Fast response from TDLR on investigation (pool accident)
• Good communication
• Good guide on codes maintaining equivalency on industry
• Good website information
• Implemented the plan review process
• Lower fees
• Newsletters
• Online services
• Public outreach on the local level
• Being able to log on to the site and see changes is very helpful

What can TDLR do better?

• Clarification of AB standards so they’re not open to interpretation that can change with each person (RAS & owner)
• Other programs has online renewal licenses at TDLR. AB should have one for doing online renewal of licenses and doing project status updates.
• The most recent procedures have not been published for RASs. It would be helpful to have those procedures published so that we can be on the same page and have input into the development of new RAS procedures and technical memorandums.
• is there going to be a direct line for RASs? ;)
• When will the fee schedule for plan reviews and inspections by TDLR be removed from the two-page registration form?
• 60 out of 1000 pool companies in Houston with license
• ACR requires 1 licensee for every company. Needs be to a limit for how many people can work under that contractor license. (Ratio)
• Adoption of the most current codes (elevator) and building codes
• Annual elevator inspections – violations get conditional approval but owners don’t actually fix the violation. What happens when that same violation is there next year for that inspector? Require 3rd party re-inspection of those violations.
• Anybody can get an apprentice license. They use fake social security numbers to get the license.
• Apprentices are wiring houses with no journeymen around and inspectors won’t deal with it
• Better communication – maybe more people would show up to these meetings
• Better policing of borders
• CE for appliance installers is needed
• Communication is getting better. We can talk directly to AB.
• Customer service – I can’t get anyone to answer the phone and have to stay on hold for 45 minutes.
• Customers don’t want to use licensed people because they assume that licensed people cost more.
• Customers need to get involved to help prove a case, but the customers don’t want to deal with the complaint.
• Department should put restrictions on the Environmental license so that the contractors aren’t doing refrigeration work.
• Different interpretations by RAS (Registered Accessibility Specialists) on signage codes. Even when we ask Austin, we get different answers.
• DOL apprenticeship schools could be recognized as experience earned under a master electrician.
• Don’t lower the license fees, use that money to increase enforcement
• Double the amount of experience required for people who didn’t go through an apprentice program.
• Educate us on how to file a complaint. What does enforcement need?
• Electrical programs in prison systems. Can these guys get a license since they’ve been in prison?
• Enforce existing rules and have judges willing to assess fines.
• Enforcement – license fees apply to the operation of the department. We’re a self-sustaining entity except for enforcement. Fines and penalties go to the general fund, not back to the department. Legislature needs to rewrite funding mechanism so that a percentage of fines paid goes back to department to specifically fund enforcement.
• Enforcement. No enforcement in pool industry. Nobody gets licensed and we’re bid out of jobs.
• Exam is based on code only. Nothing there about internal wiring. It doesn’t test their knowledge about electricity.
• Give more OJT credit to apprenticeship programs. The hours of experience are the same if you went through the apprenticeship or not. No weight given to apprenticeship program.
• Have a ratio for electricians too (Apprentices to journeymen)
• Have someone just watch the distributors. Watch the trucks coming and going.
• Have to work for a master electrician to qualify for a journeyman license. People come from out of state and want to get a license but they didn’t work for a master because their state didn’t have a licensing program.
• Hire more state employees for elevator.
• Investigators don’t have enough time. Need more investigators. Need more enforcement.
• Liaison between local governments and the state (city building officials)
• Like to see a pool license that covers electrical, plumbing and boiler. Understand that’s going to be a harder exam. It will allow us to install or repair anything we need to without having to bring someone else in and increase the cost.
• Maintenance guys in apartment complexes don’t have to be licensed and they don’t know what they’re doing. When we come across that work we’re expected to fix it and sometimes have to hire an electrician to do it.
• Maintenance work should be limited to non-life safety issues.
• More face to face meetings
• More networking with other governmental agencies (workforce commission, IRS, etc.)
• More public outreach on the local level
• Much of the problem is taken care of if the supply houses can only sell to licensed contractors
• Need more enforcement in the Valley & south Texas
• Need more stings – especially in Houston (specifically in the pool industry)
• Need regional meetings
• On the job training – who’s doing the training?
• Only citizens should be able to get a license.
• People advertise as a handyman who are doing work that requires a license, but they don’t hold a license.
• People are advertising without license numbers (offering to perform)
• People are letting others use their license numbers.
• People doing oil field work are not policed or regulated in any way.
• Public outreach, public service announcements needed to educate consumers
• Raise the licensing fees to pay for more enforcement
• Ratio of journeymen to apprentices not defined at state level. Some cities do have ordinances specifying that ratio.
• Signage at entrance and exit of every retail location selling equipment telling customers who has to have a license to do work. The stores can advertise on the sign that they have a license.
• Some city inspectors work on buddy system. They’re not consistent from one inspector to the next.
• Supply houses should be required to verify that the purchaser has a license.
• Supply houses/distributors don’t want to enforce who has a license. They sell to everybody and don’t check to be sure they’re licensed.
• This is one thing that needs to be in Chapter 51 that applies to all of the licenses that TDLR regulates.
• Time limitations on apprentice license (6-7 years)
• Trucks should have the company name in addition to the license number. Inspectors don’t verify that the company name and license numbers match.
• Unlicensed activity. Supply houses are selling parts to unlicensed people.
• Until 2004, no licenses were required for people who worked in petrochemical plant. Master electricians didn’t go in to the refineries.
• Volunteer deputy stations in different regions to investigate and enforce the law
• Way to cross reference the master to the work he’s signing off on. W-2s maybe. Social security history, tax id number.
• We get outbid by unlicensed people.
• We need language similar to Auctioneer law that requires licensees to be US citizen or legal alien.
• We should issue licenses only to legal citizens.
• We volunteer to enforce for free
• We would volunteer people to set up the stings for you.
• What’s the benefit to levels of licensure? Anybody can be an apprentice for as long as they want. Why should I take the test at all and pay extra fees.
• Work with the industrial facilities and chemical plants to get them to value getting a higher level license
• Most other states including Oklahoma allow HVAC/Mechanical apprentices to register at 16 years old. Would like to see this changed from 18 to 16 here in Texas. Our school system is starting an HVAC program in high school and students will need to be registered to participate, but according to the TDLR rules they must be 18 for HVAC. Please change this so that younger students may participate. I also have a son who helps me and he started long before 18, so we need something addressed here. Parent waiver or something along those lines would be a start, especially when the parent is an HVAC/R contractor.
• The training schools are advertising to license you in HVAC for fees of 500 dollars and up. They are only providing study guilds to take the EPA test. I run a legitimate school and get calls every day from people who have spent money on these other courses thinking they are now licensed to be a contractor. The web is full of these guys and they need to be stopped or the bootlegging is going to get much worse as these guys innocently think the epa license is the same as a Class A contractors license.
• The compliance investigators could educate cities, contractors and owners of the state requirements. The cities in my area do not follow state law and do not inform the contractors or building owners that they are required to comply with TAS. This leaves the uneducated building owners with non-compliant buildings, but they believe that are compliant because they have received a CO.

What changes would you make to TDLR if you were king or queen for a day?

• Rule change to eliminate the posting of the fees for a plan review or inspection.
• TDLR should take advantage of all of the technical advantages for online computing like cloud services, online data entry, Plan review electronically, etc.
• Would like to see TDLR go after remodel and renovation projects, because projects are not being registered. Also, the statues are being ignored.
• 1 pool license for the whole industry that covers everything having to do with pools
• Any DOL approved apprenticeship program be approved to take the test – give you the experience under a master to meet the requirements. This would also apply to people trying to come in from out of state.
• Cities should have to require technical certifications for their inspectors
• City inspectors need to be licensed by TDLR
• Consistency in issuing permits at local jurisdiction level. Require jurisdictions to verify licensure before issuing permits and report violations to state.
• Don’t need to have regional meetings. There’s no need because we can have input through the website.
• Don’t want more regulation, but TDLR has got to be given more authority to do something. Their hands are tied. There is too much paperwork. Politicians don’t want people getting in trouble during election time. They need to stay out of it.
• Double the enforcement
• Federal fund to pay for the codes as they get enforced. We shouldn’t have to buy all the code books.
• Getting each county an enforcement agent or officer
• Have more people to police the work
• Houston fire department creating codes that don’t comply with ADA – we had to educate them
• I want to hear what TDLR thinks needs to be done
• Inspection authority for outside city limits
• Library of books for people to use – colleges
• Limit the amount of time someone can hold an apprentice license
• Require distributors to only sell to licensed people
• Signage at every retail location to educate consumers about the requirement for a license
• Some municipalities still have licensing programs and some people apply for those licenses because they can’t pass the background check for the state. Cities should be required to hold applicants to the same criminal history standards or city licensing programs should go away.
• TDLR deserves a raise
• TDLR should educate city officials and fire marshals about these and other requirements
• US citizen or legal alien required to be qualified for a license – have this for all industries
• Non-licensed work is out of hand here in Texas and the general consensus in my area among contractors is "why bother calling TDLR; they won't do anything about it." I have also talked to individuals that I have seen doing unlicensed side work and they tell me they don't believe they will ever get caught so they see no reason to get licensed...they'll just take their chances
• Saturday mornings a lot of supply house customers are bootleggers. I am tired of competing with these guys and all the other people who buy wholesale parts and perform unlicensed side work. These guys show up in uniform and pay cash for the items and then install it.
• The new enforcement investigators could work with the compliance investigator to ensure that TAS is being followed. The enforcement investigators need to investigate construction remodels. Contractors are not complying with TAS because they know that TDLR does not look at remodels.
• clarification of AB standards (more clarity in language) to limit open interpretation
• Different interpretation by RAS on signage codes, even in Austin office
• keep reviews & re-inspections w/ RAS at local level
• variance processes from the AB process

Over the next five years, what major changes will affect the way you do business and the services we provide?

• As medical technology gets better and population ages change, accessibility guidelines will change.
• TDLR needs to step up their auditing of RASs.
• Need to address safety concerns for pedestrians with low or no vision - PROWAG may handle this
• Book smarts allow someone to pass a licensing exam.
• Can the department assist contractors in participating in the discussion on the issues that impact the way do business? How do we give feedback on codes & efficiency standards?
• Closed book exams for appliance license too. Apprenticeship program not required.
• Compare ourselves with other industries that are growing and take the best they have to offer.
• DOL apprenticeship programs getting more recognition for the jobs they do – better education.
• Government regulations on efficiency standards affects the way I do business
• Have a practical portion to the exam for all the trades.
• High school kids need to worry about getting out of school and having a basic reading education so they can read the book and understand.
• How are you researching potential changes? Are you looking at what other states are doing? Are you benchmarking with other high economic development states?
• If the state can decide to not implement mandatory health insurance, can we also decide not to implement energy standards?
• If we can’t get a pool license, we need to be able to change sizing on motors
• Increased regulation and enforcement is a must
• Less government
• Move to closed book tests for Air conditioning. The test measures how well you can use the book, not how well you can work on an air conditioner.
• Panel or regional meetings to discuss code changes
• Retirees’ money doesn’t go as far.
• Tablets on job sites
• Technology is changing - equipment and computers
• Technology is making things faster – cutting processing times from days to hours
• We need a boiler operator license and boiler installer license. People need to be educated in boiler. Something that will reciprocate with other states.
• Will be harder to find true craftsmen in the construction trades. Would also like to see a consolidation of the all the construction trade in one place. Desperately need statewide licensing for home builders/ remodeling companies.
• The next 5 years is going to see all the old guys retire out and no one to take their place. We have pushed college for 20 years and now that is a problem. Youth today does not think about trade jobs. There is fixing to be a huge shortage and contractors need to realize that they need to play a part in getting people properly trained. The government knows this and the state knows this. However no effort is being made to help start up training schools get funding or public awareness. I called 40 charities before Christmas and offered a free 9,000. class to anyone they wanted to send to my school just so I could get the first class completed. I did not get one person sent to me and this was offered free of charge. The only stipulation was it had to be someone who's life would be changed by having a trade skill and who might possibly be able to get off welfare (break the cycle)
• Weed out the RASs that aren't doing a good job. A number of RASs both new and seasoned are not adequately representing TDLR in their plan reviews and inspections by letting non compliant items slide making those of us trying to a good job without jobs as Architects and Owners prefer to have a RAS that looks the other way.

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