MIACCA had the opportunity to sit down with the new Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) Director, Orlene Hawks, along with Keith Lambert, Director, Bureau of Construction Codes (BCC) and Marnie Wills to discuss some important HVACR issues last week. The conversation included:
1. Statewide Mechanical Permit. As you know, MIACCA is hoping to introduce a statewide permit to the Construction Codes Commission (CCC). At the meeting, it was well received and we were recommended to reach out to the Michigan Township Association and Municipal League and work with other industries that utilize the permit in hopes of support to get this back on the agenda. In the long run, following the State permit will benefit contractors and the State alike.
2. Utilizing the Skilled Trades Regulation Act (STRA) boards as experts. MIACCA reiterated the importance of using the expertise of the various boards for their opinions on rule changes. It was expressed that they were going to do so.
3. STRA Complaints. Only one of the 187 complaints filed last year were able to have follow through on due to the lack of documentation in the complaints. MIACCA will be working with Keith Lambert on providing a PowerPoint presentation on the correct way to file complaints to our members soon.
4. Communications. LARA is going to revive their quarterly newsletter, CodeWorks Director Hawks has a goal of having more transparent moving forward. MIACCA will forward their newsletter and continue sending any LARA updates to our membership.
5. Value Added Programs and Services (VAPS): Director Hawks is setting up a meeting with Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) Chair, Sally Talberg to discuss our concerns the Code of Conduct and utilities offering their VAPS.
6. Make ACCELA more functional for consumers. Currently LARA's ACCELA program (https://aca3.accela.com/lara) for mechanical license lookup only returns results for the company who has notified the Bureau in accordance with STRA Sec. 809(2) and does not return results for companies who have filed a "Certificate of Assumed Name" with the Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing. However the Bureau is accepting this filing by a company that at any time (even if the certificate of assumed name has expired) as complying with STRA Sec. 809(2) even though the assumed name company does not show up in the ACCELA search results. We were informed that Director Hawks was meeting with the ACCELA to discuss many of these issues.
MIACCA is working to strengthen our relationship with LARA, the BCC and various STRA boards and the CCC to help protect and inform our industry on the legislative issues that concern our. Please feel free to send any issues or concerns that you would like addressed to mjdsmith@miacca.org.
