A tight race to change inspecting law is shaping up in the General Assembly's short session now underway.

     Call it the Contest of Competing Chairs.  And ethics.

     Efforts to amend our home inspecting law arrived at the General Assembly on two different tracks.

     All agree the law needs fixing.  In fact, it needs it so badly, two groups were working on it at the same time.

     The first set of amendments went in September 22, 2010 as BR 174.  The final bill is due to be filed as this goes out.  But you can get the scoop on its details here, now.  It's backed by the Board's first and second chairmen, other KBHI members, and related groups.

    The second bill was filed Feb. 1 as HB 250 by Rep. Adam Koenig.  Koenig, 40, is a Republican from northern Kentucky's House District 69, which covers parts of Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.  The KBHI hasn't seen it yet, though it slapped together an earlier draft.  The current Board chair is expected to back it at Tuesday's (2/8) KBHI meeting.

     Time is short.  The legislature meets for 30 days.  At most, about 20 days are left.  It could be less.  A move to slice six days off, to make up costs of the last 6-day special session, is gaining ground.

     In one corner is current KBHI chair J.R. Bone, and his predecessor Mike Green, who whipped up HB 250.

     In the other corner are the two KBHI chairmen who preceded them, working for BR 174.  There's former KBHI chair Ralph Wirth, a prior president of the National Association of Home Inspectors (NAHI), and his predecessor Ray Sandbek.  Other prior KBHI members are on board with Wirth and Sandbek.

     It may not be the Super Bowl of home inspecting laws, but it's could be a SmackDown.  Only one can win - and become law.  Both could lose, leaving today's mess for another year.  There's always a chance they could get married too -- if there's time for a shotgun wedding.  PLI will keep you posted.

     The two bills have one thing in common.  Both bills give the KBHI and the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction (DHBC) a divorce.

     DHBC is the KBHI's home under present law, but it's a house divided.  Most DHBC boards meet for an hour or so, get their business done and drive back to work.  KBHI meetings are merciless day-long meanders, draining staff.  KBHI felt DHBC did not do all they wanted, when they wanted.  In fact, for whatever reason, KBHI record-keeping did grow spotty at DHBC.  DHBC staff felt mistreated.  KBHI felt let down.  So the two are parting ways, one way or another, now or later.

     BR 174 switches the Board to KREC (the Kentucky Real Estate Commission).  KREC is an independent agency able to protect funds from sweeps. (The KBHI lost $100,000 in 2008 and $125,000 in 2010 to budget sweeps, mostly because it neglected to spend the money.)  KREC also has full-time staff that do nothing but building rules and real estate.  The Board needs that.

     BR 250 puts the Board in the Office of Occupations & Professions (OOP), an office-sharing deal with part-time secretarial support for little orphan boards. OOP did a fine job tidying the paperwork, but just does not have building or construction expertise.

     Either way, exiting DHBC cost the KBHI knowledgeable staff support.  DHBC's Director of Enforcement, for example, knows building standards and codes by heart.  KREC has staff like that.  OOP does not.  KREC also has full-time real estate lawyers.  At OOP, the Board rents a part-time lawyer from the Attorney General's office, who's expert in -- paperwork.  But construction?  Not.  There was some uptightness about going with KREC when licensing was enacted.  DHBC looked like it made sense then.  No more.  Today, improving relations between inspectors and Realtors is way overdue - and KREC sure beats hanging the KBHI out to twist slowly in the wind, unsupported. 

     Charts comparing the two bills' other features are below.

     One unique difference in the bills is that HB 250 gives four associations "first dibs" on KBHI seats - a feature our law always avoided.  Current law just provides for five home inspector seats, regardless of whether they're "members" of anything or pay "dues" to anyone.  In fact, the vast majority of home inspectors don't pay dues to join anything now.  They should not be second-class citizens on the board.  In fact, KBHI members from association boards also have been a constant source of problems.  That's the main reason there are three Standards of Practice in Kentucky, for example.  Talk about an idea cutom-made to baffle consumers and trip up inspectors.  When was the last time a client asked what SOP you use?

    No national association asked for their own seat.  They don't need special treatment.  They know their members are qualified enough without trying to stack the deck.  BR 174 leaves a level playing field, with no favorites.  Just five good inspectors.

     HB 250's "association seating" is an unwanted change that only will institutionalize trouble, special interests, and self-serving association maneuvers.  That's where it came from.  It's time the Board got all about helping the public, not helping themselves.  BR 174  keeps five KBHI seats for all inspectors.  It doesn't play favorites.

   That brings up the real difference. At its heart, the battle basically is about KBHI ethics.  BH 250 has none.  BR 174 requires ethics. 

     Green and Bone have been doing everything they could to evade or excise ethics rules on the board, and blow smoke around it.  Wirth and Sandbek have been fighting for Board ethics since they were appointed.

     The two ex-chairmen helped put in the first KBHI Code of Ethics in December, 2006.  Green fought it, then signed it, agreeing to it.  Then he said signing it meant nothing and broke the code.

     The General Assembly disagreed.  It clamped down in July, 2008, amending the law to provide "automatic removal" of a KBHI member who failed "to adhere to a duly adopted code of ethics."  That's KRS 198B.704(19).

     What kicked off this month's Battle of the Bills came next.

     In Feb., 2009, an ethics complaint was filed against Bone and Green for failing to adhere to the Board's code of ethics.  The Board dove into secret meetings to make it go away.  At least Bone had the character to admit he'd taken prohibited gifts - and paid them back.  Green didn't.   When the smokescreen cleared, the Attorney General ruled that the secret closet sessions were - you guessed it - illegal.  The decision is 09-OMD-132 (Aug. 13, 2009).

     Green and Bone had one of those blindingly bright lights go on, like a CFL.  They just voted to repeal the whole code of ethics that tripped them up!  There's a fix!

     Soon, ex-chairman Wirth was at work trying to get the law to lock in basic ethics.  Nothing fancy.  Just stuff like "don't take money" and "abstain if you have a conflict of interest."  He was joined by ex-chairman Sandbek.  Then by other KBHI appointees.

     Late in 2010, word about their project reached the KBHI.  In a flurry of slapdash votes, the KBHI, with Bone chairing, launched a bill draft.  It was a wreck when it landed at the capitol.  It named 11 people to the 10-member KBHI, for example.  HB 250 is barely better.  It has two Home builders instead of today's one -- and it says they both have to be licensed home inspectors.  Do they really know what they wrote?

     While they were at it, Bone and Green figured "why stop there?"  They might as well toss out a few laws the KBHI keeps blowing.  For example, HB 250 would get rid of the rule that the Board has to give inspectors 45 extra days to renew if the Board forgets to notify inspectors their license is expiring in 60 days.  The Board forgot to get out plenty of those notices last year.

     BR 174 keeps the 45-day rule -- and it adds a "grace period" to renew if you file a little late.  Right now, one day late and you're dead. 

     Other features of the Bill are crucial to home inspectors, though much less interesting to others. For example, one bill sets us a secret "non-disciplinary" backwater called "private admonishment" to use against licensees.  Read the rest of the details on our website:

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