By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Bronson Mayor Robert Partin said Saturday he and Town Manager Susan Beaudet looked into allegations that the town’s building inspector, David Greenbaum, was overstepping his authority and found the accusations weren’t true.

            “David is well within his rights. He is well versed in the Florida codes. We checked on everything just to verify it. David was right,” Partin said in an interview. “That’s what we hired him to do. It’s like hiring a police officer to enforce the rules. Sometimes he steps on toes. He makes people mad.”

            Accusations that Greenbaum, a SAFEbuilt contractor who handles residential and commercial inspections for Bronson was abusing his authority when he denied homeowners the right to reroof their home using a handyman, were made by Councilman Jason Hunt at the Jan. 3 council meeting.

            Warren Lee and Geraldine Thornton had requested an exemption to reroof an asphalt-shingled building at 661 School Street using a family handyman rather than a licensed contractor, but Greenbaum, citing state statute, said they would be required to hire a licensed roofing contractor to do the work.

            “Which is false,” Hunt said at the meeting. “This is why Dave is overstepping his boundary, which is making people do what he wants them to do. The statute says if they’re not going to sell the home within one year that they can re-roof it themselves under an owner-builder contract and this is not the first time this guy is messing with people in my community.”

            Greenbaum’s position was that a property owner could act as their own owner-builder contractor, but they couldn’t hire an unlicensed handyman to do the work. They would have to hire a licensed contractor under the supervision of the owner and meet all the requirements of a licensed contractor.

            Hunt said he reads state law differently. He believes the law gives people the right to act as the owner-builder without having to hire a state-licensed contractor to do the work.

            “This is not Orlando. This is not Tampa. I don’t know where he’s from but we are a small rural community and we do owner-builder things,” he said.

            Town Attorney Steven Warm said he agreed with Hunt, but he also said he talked to Greenbaum and that Greenbaum was in agreement that owners could do their own work if they met the requirements of a licensed contractor.

            “I agree with what you just said. Under state statute, if this individual is responsible and meets the criteria, in other words, he does everything that’s required of a contractor and it’s his own property and it’s under $75,000 value, he has a right to do it,” Warm said. “I think Greenbaum agrees with that. He didn’t say otherwise.”

            Partin said he and Beaudet talked to a state employee in Tallahassee who handles roofing issues for the state. He said she told them the town must follow state statute.

            Can a homeowner do an owner-build project, or can’t they? the reporter asked.

            “They can and they can’t. There are two scenarios but it all has to do with the dollar bill. If you spend $1 repairing your roof, you have to get a contractor. That’s the State of Florida,” Partin said.

            Partin said a homeowner could hire a family member or a handyman to do a re-roofing job but the family member or handyman would have to be state-licensed. That’s what he was told by the state official. On the other hand, if a family decided to buy all the materials and do the work themselves, and not pay anyone to work for them, they would still need to be inspected and the work would have to meet state construction requirements.

            Partin said he understands the concerns of Hunt and others in the audience at the Jan. 3 town council meeting, but he said he believes Greenbaum was correct in what he told the homeowners who wanted to hire an unlicensed family member to re-roof their building. He said state law doesn’t allow it.

            He said if a person is repairing the roof on their home and it is not a state of emergency and they pay someone to do the work, they have to use a state-licensed contractor. But he added that every situation is different and interpretations of state statutes vary.

            “Everybody can read Florida statutes differently. That’s why we have lawyers and that’s why we have a court system. There are times people don’t agree about it. In this particular situation, there were different opinions. You can read that Florida statute three different ways,” Partin said.

            Partin said he did meet with Greenbaum and concluded the inspector was correct.

            “Got to keep moving forward,” Partin said.

            Partin added that he wouldn’t be surprised to see the issue brought back for council discussion at the next meeting and he said it could come down to a vote of the board.

            “I’m assuming it will come back to the next meeting. I would want to see what we can do to rectify the situation,” Partin said. “The party that was doing the roofing job, they went ahead and got a licensed contractor and moved on with their lives.”

———————–

Town of Bronson Regular Meeting January 3, 2022; Posted January 8, 2022