Mason City council approves changing requirements for Electrical Inspector job

MASON CITY — The City Council in Mason City last night approved the second and third readings of an ordinance changing the requirements for the city’s Electrical Inspector position.

The position recently came open, 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 is hampering efforts to fill that position. Staff says the masters level license isn’t required by state law, and when looking at other cities comparable to Mason City’s size, none of those communities had that requirement.

City Administrator Aaron Burnett says it does not make sense to have job requirements like that established in City Code.  “Those qualifications can be established in the job description. A lot of times they’re more of an encumbrance to getting a position filled. If the council has a strong feeling that they’d like to see a requirement kept, we can also do that through the job description.”

The council unanimously approved the first reading of the ordinance change at their meeting on October 1st. Last night, they waived the second reading of the ordinance and passed the change on final reading.