Mason City council approves first reading of ordinance changing electrical inspector requirements

MASON CITY — The City Council in Mason City last night approved the first reading of an ordinance changing the requirements for the city’s Electrical Inspector.

The position recently came open due to the incumbent accepting a new position, and while recruitment for a replacement has started, city officials say a clause in the City Code that requires applicants to be licensed as a master electrician needs to be removed.

Director of Development Services Steven Van Steenhuyse says that requirement is hampering the process .  “Someone with a masters electrician’s license is going to be able to do much better in the private sector than the city would realistically be able to pay for that. We’ve been lucky in that we did have somebody who did have that qualification, but in trying to open up to find a new person who is going to be replacing our longtime electrical inspector, we need to be able to make sure we have a pool of applicants that could be hired.”

City human resources director Perry Buffington says the masters level license isn’t required by state law.  “One of the things we looked at is other cities, what they required for their electrical inspectors in comparable positions. We did not find any in those comparable cities that do require that master electrician license that’s in there. The more requirements we stack into that job description really thins your pool of candidates, makes it a lot more difficult to try to attract candidates that meet all those things.”

Buffington says the city needs to do all it can to find the most qualified candidate for the job.  “Of course we want the most desirable candidate, but we need to look at what the minimum is that we need. In this case, that’s not something that’s representative around the state. We don’t feel that’s necessary here in Mason City. I think this gives us the flexibility to be able to change requirements as we need if that is something that’s needed down the road.”

The council passed the change unanimously on the ordinance’s first reading last night. It needs two more approvals prior to the change becoming official.