Our website address was originally
www.marlowefirm.com. It has later changed to
www.marlowemcnabb.com. When the change was
made, anyone going to the original address was
redirected to the new address. Due to an oversight
we did not renew the marlowefirm domain name.
We have now learned to our great dismay that it has
been purchased by someone else. We understand
that he does this to make people buy it back from
him at an inflated price. The worst part is that the old
web site has links to porn. We just wanted everyone
to know that we have no control over it. We have no
intention of buying it back.
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We are pleased to welcome our new Administrative
Assistant, Sheryl Hatfield to the firm . She is a great
addition to the firm. We are also pleased to
announce that Tonja Pellegrino has been promoted
to Office Manager. This will allow Connie to
concentrate on marketing.
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The Legislature is now in session. The
biggest issue is the property tax revolt that is
spreading throughout the state. There are a number
of ideas being discussed including increases in the
homestead exemption to $50,000, capping of
assessments on commercial and investment
properties similar to the Save our Home Amendment
and limiting city and county taxes. Another option is
increasing the sales tax to take the place of some of
the reduction in property taxes. It looks certain that
something will come out of the session requiring an
amendment to the Florida Constitution. A special
election likely will be called in late summer to give
voters a chance to approve the changes.
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The Jessica Lunsford Act sets requirements
for persons working on school sites where children
are present including fingerprinting and background
checks. The purpose is to protect the children from
sexual predators. This bill is intended to deal with
issues that have arisen in the implementation of this
Act. Among other things it will require the issuance
of special driver’s licenses that will identify those
convicted as sexual predators by marking the license
with the number of the applicable statute.
If passed, a procedure will be established for
fingerprinting and criminal background checks. The
contractor will be required to submit an electronic set
of fingerprints to the Department of Law
Enforcement which will send it to the FBI for
processing. The results are then reported to the
school district in which access is sought. It will also
be entered into a shared data base. These
background checks will be performed at least every
three years. One fingerprint set and background
check would be all that would be required. If the
contractor begins work in another school district, that
district is only required to verify the results of the
previous criminal background check. The school
district is not allowed to charge for verifying the
criminal background check.
The existing statute forbids those convicted
of crimes of “moral turpitude” from working on school
grounds where students may be present. This has
been subject to wide variations in interpretation.
There are reports of instances where a twenty year
old DUI conviction was sufficient to deny a worker
access to school grounds. This bill replaces “moral
turpitude” with a list of specific offenses that would
disqualify someone. The disqualifying offenses are
sexual offenses, terrorism, murder, kidnapping,
incest or child abuse. Any conviction for similar
offenses in other jurisdictions will also be a basis for
disqualification. A worker convicted of these crimes
would not be permitted on school grounds when
students are present unless the worker receives a
full pardon or has had his or her civil rights restored.
The employer will be required to secure an
agreement from each employee to inform the
employer and the school district within forty-eight
(48) hours of any arrest for any of the disqualifying
offenses. It will be a third degree felony if an
employer allows someone to work on school
grounds in violation of this Act.
Certain exemptions are provided:
1. A worker under the direct supervision of a
school district employee or contractor who meets
the screening requirements. This requires that the
worker be within the line of sight of the supervising
person at all times.
2. Contractors who have had a level 2
background screening.
3. Law enforcement officers.
4. Workers within a separate and secure
site on school grounds that has perimeter fencing.
The State Board of Education is to develop uniform
specifications for what constitutes a separate and
secure site and school districts will be obligated to
comply with that specification;
5. Pickup and delivery drivers
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These bills address owner controlled
insurance on public projects. They will require
maintenance of “completed operations” insurance
coverage for the period of the ten period of the
Statute of Repose. It establishes the final time bar of
lawsuits on a project. The previous provision only
required such coverage for five years. These bills
also put limits on “stacking” of projects which has
been used to get around the minimum project size
required for an OCIP.
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There are a number of bills filed which would
require contractors to comply with the Department
of Homeland Security Pilot Program for clearance of
prospective employees. This program is intended to
verify that employees are legally allowed to work in
this country. However, the error rate in the pilot
program exceeds 20% and the response time is
more than two weeks. This would place an
enormous burden on contractors trying to bring
employees onboard to get jobs done. These bills
willmake these limitations applicable only to public
work.
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Bills similar to this have been introduced for
several years. On public projects, general
contractors are often required to allow the public
body to make direct purchases of materials and
equipment being incorporated into the project.
Because the public entity is exempt from sales tax,
this reduces the cost of these items. This is a
paperwork nightmare for both the general contractor
and the public body. This bill would allow the general
contractor to make the purchases directly and be
exempt from sales tax.
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Primarily as a result of a recent crane
accident in Miami, Dade County began looking at a
requirement for licensing of crane operators. The
crane operators are concerned that other counties
will do something similar which would then require
qualifying in separate counties. To head this off this
bill has been introduced to establish a process for
certifying a crane operator on construction projects.
It would accept a certification by the National
Commission for Certification of Crane Operators or
comparable organizations.
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At present, any job for a public entity in
excess of $200,000 must have a payment and
performance bond. This bill would raise that limit to
$500,000. These bonds provide protection to both
the owner and the subcontractors. This bill is being
advanced under the claim that this would allow
smaller contractors to perform more work for public
bodies. The problem is that it only increases the risk
for both the public entity and the subcontractors.
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This bill would allow establishment of local
enforcement boards to discipline state certified
contractors. The inevitable result will be variations
in enforcement of the statutes regulating
contracting. In the present system either the
Construction Industry Licensing Board or the
Electrical Industry Licensing Board is responsible for
the discipline process.
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Inspectors and Plans Examiners. At the end of
the bill there is a provision establishing minimum net
worth requirements for registered contractors. The
minimum net worth would be $20,000 for Division 1
certificate holders and $10,000 for Division 2
certificate holders. The statute will allow 50% of the
financial requirement to be met by completing a
fourteen (14) hour financial responsibility course
approved by the licensing board.
For a number of years, the licensing boards
enforced minimum net worth requirements. A few
years ago they raised the minimum net worth
requirements substantially and the rule was
challenged. An administrative law judge ruled that
there was no authority in the statute for requiring
any minimum net worth. As a result, that net worth
regulation is not being enforced. This bill
reestablishes those requirements.
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This bill would forbid the issuance of permits
unless a certified copy of the recorded notice of
commencement or a notarized statement that the
notice of commencement has been recorded is
provided along with the application for the building
permit. This bill may cause problems with financing.
Lenders insist that their mortgages be recorded
before the notice of commencement to give them
priority status. The parties may still be negotiating
the financing on the project when the contractor is
ready to pull the permit. The present law requires
that there be a notice of commencement recorded
before the first inspection, otherwise that inspection
would be failed. This seems to be sufficient to
encourage the timely recording of notices of
commencement. It is not clear what problem this bill
is intended to address.
It should always be kept in mind that the
legislative process is dynamic. Additional bills may
be filed and the ones that are filed likely will be
modified in the process.
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