The first state official to render an opinion in the dispute came under the Bredesen administration, when then-Assistant Commissioner Jim Pillow was asked to settle a disagreement between Humphrey and Schuettler about whether the county’s planning employees could legally conduct inspections prior to completing the certification courses and testing on the new codes.

Pillow at first came down on the side of Schuettler, saying state law allows planning inspectors to conduct the inspections for a year while they completing certification. Humphrey countered by pointing out that the county inspectors had originally been assisting the state electrical inspections on one aspect of the footers inspection and that disqualified them from the year’s exemption.

After that, the mayor received correspondence from Pillow on Jan. 18 that said Carter County’s status had changed so that state building inspectors would conduct the required inspections. Humphrey said Schuettler’s office needed to take action to become an authorized issuing agent for the state permits. Humphrey then went to the County Commission on Feb. 22, where he got a unanimous vote to direct Schuettler to have his office apply to become a state issuing agent.

That has led to the second state official to be drawn into the local dispute. Humphrey checked with Christopher Bainbridge, director of codes enforcement for the Department of Commerce and Insurance, about whether the application has been completed.

Bainbridge confirmed that his office had received the application from Schuettler on Feb. 25 and had sent out the contract on Feb. 28 to make Carter County a state issuing agency. In his letter dated March 10, Bainbridge wrote that his office had not yet received the signed contract.

Humphrey responded to the information by sending a letter to each of the county commissioners on March 11, informing them that “the county has failed to make proper application with the state to become an issuing agent.”

Schuettler said it was not true and he had e-mailed the signed contract to the Department of Commerce and Insurance on March 7.

In a news conference last week, Humphrey said the reason he has followed the matter so closely is not because of some personal matter with Schuettler but because of the vital importance of the new building codes. He said the intent of the codes is to insure that new homes are built to satisfactory standards and to guard against shoddy workmanship.

He said now that the county has adopted the code, it could face “tremendous liabilities” if the county does not meet its obligations under the law. He said the money spent by homeowners for the inspections was good insurance.

Humphrey said the County Commission was not fully informed by the Planning Commission when it passed the resolution in September to adopt the international code. One example he gave was the requirement in the codes that single family homes must have a fire sprinkler system. He said that not only was this very costly, but most of the county’s public water infrastructure could not support it. He said Carter County should have followed the example of other counties and made exemptions for this and other impractical requirements.

Schuettler said the sprinkler system did not have to be exempted out when the county adopted the code because the County Commission had previously voted to come under the Tennessee Clean Energy Act, which he said exempted the sprinkler system requirement for single and duplex homes.

Schuettler also said the adoption of the code had not been a spur of the moment action. He said the state had been working with the county for the past four years about the requirement to either adopt the codes, develop a similar county code or opt out. He said opting out was not a viable alternative because it would practically eliminate the county from any state or federal grants for infrastructure improvements.

Humphrey said it was vitally important to move forward because all new home construction will now require inspections under the code. After the final inspection, the state will issue a residential permit. Without this permit the newly constructed house cannot receive electric power.

Schuettler agreed the inspections were important and said that despite some recent personnel turnover, his office has two inspectors who have met the certification requirements. He said one advantage of having county inspectors do the work over the state inspectors is that it will cost the homeowners less money and more of the fees will be kept by the county.

Published March 19, 2011

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/News/article.php?id=88014