A $500 fine will be levied against a business that performed unlicensed plumbing resulting in a leak that shut down a high-rise office building.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN and CHRIS TISCH
Published September 11, 2004
CLEARWATER - The owner of a company whose unlicensed plumbing work led to a water leak that shut down the downtown Atrium building faces a $500 fine and could become the subject of a criminal investigation, county officials said Friday.
The Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board on Friday was preparing the fine and a citation against Ecotech Resource of Palm Harbor. In addition, county consumer investigators said they will launch a criminal investigation into the company if Atrium managers lodge a complaint.
Ecotech chief executive officer Terry Janssen admitted to the Times Thursday that his company was unlicensed to install toilets in the nine-story Atrium building's bathrooms. Sometime after workers left Wednesday night, a plastic pipe fitting in a sixth-floor bathroom cracked, sending water into a mechanical room and ruining much of the building's electrical system.
The building will be closed for a week or more, leaving 28 businesses and about 250 employees locked out of their offices. A damage estimate wasn't available Friday, but building officials said water had spilled to all the lower floors of the building, ruining the walls.
Under Florida law, anyone who does more than the most minor of plumbing projects must have a license. If they don't, they face a misdemeanor for a first offense and a felony for subsequent cases.
The Pinellas County Department of Justice and Consumer Services will open a criminal investigation if Atrium managers file a complaint, said Keith Parks, an investigations supervisor.
"We'd most certainly be interested in pursuing criminal charges," Parks said.
Though a complaint hadn't been filed by Friday, Shelly Copeland, an official with Wilder Corp., which manages the building, said she would consider it after talking to senior members of the company.
"I would file a complaint, if possible, because that's where the fault lies," Copeland said.
Copeland said Janssen told her a licensed contractor would install the bathroom fixtures. After the leak, she learned that Janssen had let those installers go and started the work himself.
"I never at any point thought that he would be a plumber," she said.
The unlicensed contracting charge, a misdemeanor, carries a punishment of up to a year in jail and a $500 fine, though Parks said sentences typically call for probation, restitution and a $250 fine.
Janssen has said his company normally sells water-free urinals and low-flow toilets, and subcontracts the installation to licensed workers. Janssen said he thought the Atrium project was simple enough that he could do it without a license.
Ecotech has sold its system to about 150 Florida customers since it started the business here last year, Janssen said. The company installed about 10 percent of those without a license.
Neither Janssen nor the company have been cited for unlicensed contracting before.
But the company's own Web site states that the installer, in this case Ecotech itself, must adhere to local guidelines.
"It is the responsibility of the installer to comply with local codes and standards prior to installation of bathroom fixtures," the Web site states.
The Atrium, 601 Cleveland St., has 96 bathroom fixtures in all, and Janssen said his 2- to 3-man team had nearly completed their monthlong retrofit when the fitting cracked overnight Wednesday.
The 3-inch plastic pipe was purchased at an area Home Depot and had been in place for several days, Janssen said. It was built to withstand 400 pounds of pressure per square inch. The building produced 65 pounds of pressure per square inch, Janssen said.
"This is clearly a pipe failure," Janssen said. "We're trying to do a lot of good things out here. We don't think we made a mistake on this job, but if you have people and you have products made by people, you can have problems."
Janssen said his insurance company would cover the repair costs, but he thinks the pipe manufacturer is liable. He maintained Friday that the system was installed correctly.
He contends he didn't need a license or city permits, to do the work.
"It's a very gray area," Janssen said.
County and city officials said the matter couldn't be clearer: Ecotech didn't follow widely accepted guidelines.
The $500 fine from the licensing board is an administrative penalty that must be paid within 20 days unless Ecotech decides to fight it before a special master, said Connie Garriques-Sang, an investigator with the board.
Ecotech also is in trouble with the city of Clearwater.
Senior plans examiner Neil Legters said the city will charge Janssen three times the normal permit rate for the plumbing work. Legters was unsure how much the fine would be, but said it is based on the scale of the job.
"There's 250 employees inconvenienced for a month or longer," said Jeff Kronschnabl, the city's development services director. "Think of the financial loss to the businesses or the service loss to the customers. You got everything in there, and now it's all disrupted."
The eight employees of online auction house Bidville.com, a ground floor tenant, have been forced to work out of the company CEO's Palm Harbor home. CEO Michael Palandro said work has been an adventure this week.
"It's a little bit of a different venue to conduct business," Palandro said. "We're trying to have fun with it."
Built in 1985, the nine-story Atrium is rated one of Clearwater's premier office buildings, said Pat Duffy, president of Colliers Arnold, a commercial real estate firm.
In fact, it is one of two in downtown that is a "Class A" high rise, the top classification used by Realtor firms. Along with the Clearwater Tower, the Atrium charges some of the steepest rents in the city, Duffy said.
Legters said electricians were able to restore emergency power to the building Friday. An elevator and emergency lights were running off a generator. Kronschnabl said repairs could drag on well past a week.
Copeland said Wilder Corp. is finding temporary space for some tenants in Largo, Clearwater and Tampa. She said Hurricane Ivan will also play a part in when the building will be ready to open.
