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Upcoming projects should be advertised at least 30 days prior to the issuing of bid documents.  This enables contractors to schedule bidding the project.  The advertisement should include the bid date/time, the size of the project both monetarily and physical size, and the bond requirements.  Also, just as important is stating how the contractors can obtain the documents including when it will be available, location to obtain the plans, and any deposits/refunds/fees for the documentation.

By circulating this advertisement directly to the Prime and major Subcontractors plus posting in the plan rooms and construction related publications the Owner should receive favorable bid results.

Promote by Blogging

At MyContractorList.com we have our blog page open to the public, meaning anyone in the home-improvement or construction industry who blogs or wants to promote there business through blogging can do so now in our blog page.

What can we offer?

• If you blog about anything remodeling or construction industry related, connected your blog with a name that says it all, its in our name, MyContractorList.com
• Our website, talk forum, social network connections & blogs, they are all remodeling & construction industry related.
• We offer many valuable options for anyone looking for contractors, looking for home-improvement or construction industry advice (Talk Forum), for anyone looking for suppliers, subcontractors, employees and now we want to offer these same people the opportunity to view blogs by contractors, painters, plumbers, roofers, product blogs, how to blogs…
• a place where those same people can view your thoughts and opinions on any construction industry related topics…

All industry related blogs and bloggers are welcomed to join.

1. view posting rules
2. sign up
3. start blogging / promoting your business through blogging.
4. tell everyone your blog is posted at MyContractorList.com in the blog page.
5. and if you are a member or one of our tools include you MyContractorList.com profile address in your blog… like ours http://mycontractorlist.com/contractorprofile.php?id=343 now everyone can view your profile also just put it in your closing like we did….See below

View my profile

Thank You,

Our insurance program for Mountain bike clubs has changed this year and there have been some confusion about these changes. Below is an updated email from our President, Dan McKay, explaining these changes. As always, we are committed to the bicycling community and will work hard to find solutions to your risk management needs!

Dear Mountain Bike Club Officer:

Recently you received correspondence from our office and from IMBA. The IMBA correspondence contained several inaccuracies and left out critical information about your renewal.

We want to refer you to the renewal packet that you recently received in the mail. Please note that the endorsement that IMBA referred to in its email is printed in full here:

Trail Maintenance and Construction Exclusion – THIS IS NEW FOR 2009-2010 POLICY TERM

Exclusion:
1. Building, designing or maintaining any trails for bicycling, hiking or any other use.
2. Operation of power machines in the conduct of club activities. This includes: motorcycles, ATV’s, power saws chippers, Dingo’s and any other power unit.
3. All features built on trails owned, leased, designed by or maintained by the club.

Except for the volunteer activities to maintain trails not owned or leased to the club and the club is covered by the landowner’s insurance coverage as volunteers. (Such as – Adopt a Trail programs or trail cleanup programs sponsored by the trail landowner or lessee.)

I call your attention to the highlighted area in the endorsement. This provides incidental trail maintenance and upkeep coverage as a volunteer activity. We do not and cannot provide coverage for construction operations under a “Sports” insurance program.

As we mentioned in our renewal packet coverage may be available on an individual basis and that you should contact our office if a quote is requested. We currently are working with several companies that have agreed to look at individual submissions for the construction exposure. This is required as the level and types of construction vary significantly from club to club.

For over fifteen years our agency has provided insurance and risk management services for the Mountain Bicycle community. We look forward to continuing to serve the insurance and risk management needs in the Silent Sports community.

If you have questions or concerns, please email or call me and we can discuss your particular situation or provide you with the appropriate application to get a quote for your unique needs.
Happy Trails!

Dan McKay
Certified Insurance Counselor
McKay Insurance Agency, Inc.
106 East Main Street
P. O. Box 151
Knoxville, Iowa 50138-0151
641-842-2135 or 800-942-0283
FAX 641-828-2013
www.mckayinsagency.com

Bonding a construction company’s operations is an interesting concept.  A bid bond is a promise the contractor will honor its bid on the project or pay for not honoring the bid.  A performance bond is a promise to the client the project will be completed.  A payment bond is a promise to pay subcontractors and suppliers.  These promises are made and kept by the surety firm, not the contractor.  Bid bonds are usually provided at no cost to the contractor.  Bonding companies typically charge a small percentage of the contract value for the payment and performance bonds.  This fee can range from less than 1% percent on the low end to perhaps 1½% for an average risk.  I have even seen it as high as 7% on small developing businesses.

Surety companies make their money in two major markets.  One is the stock market and the other is in fees collected for writing the contractor bonds.  When the stock market goes up, contractor bonding costs go down.  When the stock market goes down, the contractor bonding costs go up.  This is interesting.

Another interesting point to bonding is the writing of a performance and payment bond is considered to be a no risk underwriting effort.  YES, NO RISK!  The surety industry looks at the assets of the company and the assets of the individuals involved.  If they are in excess of the potential liability, they have the means and methods to collect on what they pay out.  Hence, no risk to the surety company of not recouping their money from their client.  But is this really the case?

Warning flags for a surety company can start at the time of the bid opening.  If their client is substantially lower in price from the competition, they are being warned.  The surety company should take steps to protect their interests from this point on, for the life of the project.  But how can they protect their interests?  Could they institute a sliding scale pricing system for bonding the contractors?

What about instituting a fee for the bid bond?  Let the bonding companies decide the amount they need to collect, based upon their experience.  It may be tough, but their actuaries (similar to estimators) can figure out the right amount.

Perhaps they need to institute a higher bonding fee as the gap between their low bid client and the rest of the bidders widens.  However, there should be a safety relief for the contractor when they can prove out the validity of their estimate and resulting bid.  After all, apparent goofy low bids are valid from time to time.   

Pretty soon surety companies will start to notice some contractors are better at bidding than others.  Will this eventually influence their fees?  Will it influence them to pay attention to how and what contractors bid?  Would this benefit the construction industry?

Oh By The Way… Bonded contractors are starting to default on contracts entered into earlier this year and last year.  Surety companies should start reviewing their clients.    The assets may not be there to recoup the losses.  Bonding contractors may no longer be a “no risk” underwriting business!

Oh By The Way, Too… Owners with contractors and subcontractors performing work without a payment and performance bond are at risk too.  One recent project just had seven subcontractors go out of business.  None of them were bonded.  What would that do to one of your projects?   

Can you breach your contract for a cheaper contractor or subcontractor?

I ran across this case and it was of some interest. I know everyday contractors & subcontractors of every trade negotiate a dollar amount for services TO BE rendered. Everyday in every trade especially these days every bid and every contract price is challenged by another contractor/subcontractor trying keep food on the table.

Most times when there is a change order or material upgrade after the fact (after contract is signed) someone is going to get screwed or feel like they got screwed.

~Dose this mean you have to take it or can you fight for what you think is right?

This case back in 2005 contractors where underbidding each other(whats new?) and in the end the winner of the contract needed more money to complete the job (big surprise) but in his defense there where some change orders and upgrades…

What I have posted is the American Subcontractors Association, Inc. NEWS RELEASE

To view the court documents of the case http://www.courts.state.md.us/opinions/coa/2009/153a08.pdf

Tell me what you Think… and think before you sign a contract and then find someone else even cheaper… and then decide to hire them…it just might cost you after all…

 ——————————————————————

ASA Legal Victory Helps Keep Prime Contractors From ‘Shopping’ Maryland Subcontractors’ Contracts

FOR RELEASE | September 9, 2009 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Construction subcontractors in Maryland worried that their contracts could be terminated by prime contractors seeking to replace them with cheaper subcontractors have a new legal precedent to challenge such “shopping” of their contracts, thanks to the American Subcontractors Association and its two chapters with members in Maryland, the D.C. Metropolitan Subcontractors Association and ASA of Baltimore. ASA and the chapters jointly filed an amici curiae (friends of the court) brief asking the Maryland Court of Appeals to keep subcontracts from being made “illusory and meaningless” by terminations made only for the financial gain of prime contractors, and the appeals court agreed that terminations cannot be made on “a whim.”  

In the case of Questar Builders, Inc. v. CB Flooring, Inc, Questar Builders cited a “termination for convenience” contract provision when terminating subcontractor CB Flooring to pursue a deal with another subcontractor offering a lower price for the same work. In an Aug. 25, 2009, decision, the Maryland Court of Appeals told Questar Builders that the “contention that it was entitled to terminate the Subcontract for any reason whatsoever goes too far and is inconsistent with the terms of the Subcontract. To be sure, a right to terminate in the absence of the other party’s breach does not equate necessarily with the right to terminate based on a whim. We shall not read into the Subcontract such unfettered power.”  

Questar Builders and CB Flooring signed a $1.1 million subcontract agreement for carpet and flooring work at a luxury midrise and townhome apartment development in Owings Mills, Md. Months after the subcontract was signed, but before CB Flooring started work on-site, the project’s interior designer distributed drawings reflecting carpet that was different and more expensive than the original contract. When CB Flooring signaled to Questar that it planned to submit a change order to meet the new specifications at a higher price, Questar proceeded to negotiate a contract for $1,000 less than CB Flooring’s price for the work with another subcontractor that had submitted a bid on the original contract. Questar terminated CB Flooring citing the contractual right to terminate “for convenience,” and used the other subcontractor for the project.  

 A trial court awarded more than $243,000 in damages to CB Flooring, and Questar appealed.  

In February 2009, ASA and its chapters asked the Maryland Court of Appeals to preserve the integrity of construction subcontracts by rejecting opportunistic terminations of subcontractors: “A holding carving … an exception to the reach of the good faith and fair dealing covenant would not only poison business relationships and eliminate business certainty, but also do great damage to the ability of subcontractors to rely on their signed contracts as a reliable indicator of future work and expected revenues.” 

The appeals court agreed that terminations for convenience are subject to factors other than the prime contractor’s mere desire to end the subcontract: “Questar’s right to terminate the Subcontract for convenience … did not permit it to evade either its obligation to make a good faith (albeit unilateral) determination as to whether CB Flooring was entitled to an equitable adjustment to the Subcontract price.”  

ASA tapped its Subcontractors Legal Defense Fund to pay the fees associated with its filing in this case. The SLDF supports ASA’s critical legal activities to protect the interests of all subcontractors, and is funded solely by contributions. SLDF funds are invested in precedent-setting cases across the country. To learn more about this case and the SLDF, visit www.sldf.net.  

The Columbus, Ohio-based law firm of Kegler, Brown, Hill and Ritter prepared ASA’s brief in this case.  

So what do you think?

Did the contractor have the right to go out and find a subcontractor that could do the job in his budget? Even after a sign contract, but with new changes?

You may also view and comment on our site blog at  www.mycontractorlist.com/blog

Working on MyContractorList.com

I have been working on many, many new updates for the site this past couple of weeks. The main functions the site was design to do are still in place, you know the meat and potatoes of the site. Maybe to stay with the core or theme of the site, it being a construction / remodeling based website,  I will use terms like the foundation of the site is still in place and holding strong.

So don’t roll your eyes every-time I use a remodeling example to describe the  progress & changes made to the site, it is intentional.

As I was saying the foundation of the site is still in place, what I have-been working on is a two room addition, that is the the Find a Contractor Now & the Find a Supplier Now section of the site. These two additions of the site are based on the search criteria and results you would receive if you log-in as a homeowner and perform a search. With the two new additions they like and addition to your home have their own rooms or pages, there you won’t or don’t have to log-in or be a member to search for a contractor or supplier. I use the terms won’t or don’t because I haven’t launched this publicly yet, I still have a “bug” to work out but hope to make public in the coming week.

Back to the two new additions, you want have to log-in or be a member to search BUT for full access to the homeowner tool features or any other tool features you will have to log-in or become a member. Like if you want to post for a contractor or use the contractor classified ad or the talk forum you must be log-in.

The break down:

You don’t have to log-in or be a member to search

• Find a Contractor Now | same search criteria & results as the homeowner tools
• Find a Supplier Now | same search criteria & results as the homeowner tools

but if you want to post for a contractor or perform a detailed category search for a residential or commercial contractor, post in the contractor classified ads or use the talk forum you will have to become a member and log-in. If you log-in you would then perform the searches from your tool membership homepage.

Either way you get the idea for a peak at these two new additions or new features http://mycontractorlist.com/findnow.php now remember we may-still be working out a bug or two.

More cosmetic work

I have made many. many cosmetic changes to the site much like a bathroom makeover or kitchen remodel, its still a bathroom or kitchen and the site still has the same features, much like the bathroom or kitchen remodel we just have a new look a new paint job, so new and inviting floors with new trim, new railings, new windows, new lighting…

That would be the main site homepage, each tool homepage getting new flooring or the search pages getting a new look. The main entry with marble and then hardwood flooring the new windows would be the new buttons on the site giving you a better view of where you can go and what there is to see.  The paint would be the text titles or search result title pages, standing out nice a bright to help you know where you are at all times. The new lighting would be the way the menus or the FAQ’s high-lite for easier reading. The page navigation buttons would be the railings to help guide you through and so on and on…

Behind the scenes

So much work has gone on behind the scenes, things most of you will never know or even care about but they are important to make us search-able on the Google and so on. Some of the changes you may notice and appreciate is we have separated most of our pages from the main site description, giving them their own page description and making them easier to identify in a search. Like this page is MyContractorList.com | Blog or the contractor tools pages is MyContractorList.com | Contractor Tools  or MyContractorList.com | Supplier Tools you get the idea but also if you did a Google search or other searches and seen our name several times like  MyContractorList.com | some page name or MyContractorList.com | Subcontractor Tools and you are a subcontractor you may think—now that’s where I need to go or MyContractorList.com | Contractor Classified Ads you may think—Hey! I need to look at the contractor classified ads they may have something I want to buy or even sell… and so on and on.

The idea | for you to identify with MyContractorList.com and our features.

The point

The point is in the past few weeks I have work tirelessly to make these changes and it is a very big site. The foundation still intact the look, it looks like it has-been remodeled or maybe even a new site. I still have more to do and some features to finish going public with and some bugs to work out you know a punch list seems to never end…

but I’m not done, MyContractorList.com is a living, breathing website always growing, learning, changing, adapting & listening

so if you have suggestions or advice let me know | MyContractorList.com

Thank You

The recent decision by the U.S. District Court means that the federal regulation making enrollment and participation in E-Verify mandatory for certain federal contractors and subcontractors will go into effect on September 8, 2009. This date had been pushed back four times as a result of the change in administration and ongoing litigation. The federal government will include a clause with the E-Verify requirement in all federal contracts issued after September 8, 2009 and may modify existing qualified contracts.

For more information about E-Verify requirements please read our January 8, 2009 bLAWg post on the topic. Information can also be found on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website.

Employers should make sure they are fully compliant with Form I-9 rules and procedures before enrolling in E-Verify. To learn more about the auditing and training services offered by GoffWilson, or for more information on the new regulation, please visit GoffWilson.com or call (603) 228-1277.

Nobody ever said: …

Nobody ever said: building a website 

that designing, building, selecting a developer, debugging, maintaining, updating, staying up to date, and in general trying to figure out what everyone wants in a economy like this, for a contractor driven website would be so tough and time consuming after the site launch date.

The fun really begins after you go live and we thought it was tough getting launched.

Admin, MycontractorList.com

Nobody ever said: building a house

that planning, building, selecting a contractor, selecting colors, selecting flooring, the punch-list, maintaining, staying up to date, and in general trying to figure out what everyone wants if you ever decide to sell.

the &%$# contractors, the inspectors, the %^&#% subcontractors, the weather delays and especially that @&%! realtor that lie to us about the schools, I will never build new again!

 

many, many, new construction homeowners across the USA

Nobody ever said: leaving for the weekend

that a simple water leak could cause so much damage, and required so many speciality contractors, insurance adjusters, emergency service contractors, water extraction technicians, mold remediation, insurance contractors… they just keep coming.

where never going on vacation again or at least next time we are turning off everything in the house before we leave.

 

first time ever having to file a homeowners insurance claim

Nobody ever said: waiting on an estimate

that trying to get three written estimates from a contractor would be like waiting on the “cable guy”

You call 15 or 20 and only 7 or 8 call you back and then SOME DON”T even do what you need done and then ONLY 3 show up and they SHOW UP LATE!!!!  in the end only 1 gives you an estimate - verbal.

most homeowners, when the economy was great

Nobody ever said: hiring a contractor

that finding a contractor these days would be so difficult, with the web an all. So many contractor referral websites, that are “supposed” to verify the contractors on their list but most referral sites have two or three different names and/but still tell the same contractors to contact me?

I’ve been contacted by contractors who “have been verified” the ones with insurance only want big, jobs so they can bury the referral fee, the other one took my down payment and I haven’t seen him since – the referral company, said sorry but we are not responsible.

 

disappointed contractor referral site user

Nobody ever said: remodeling my house

that when the drywall contractors sand the walls downstairs, the dust would spread throughout the entire house, even in the rooms where the doors where closed.

we put plastic over the door openings, the furniture and sealed off the room before we sanded.

 

every remodeling drywall contractor

Nobody ever said: remodeling & Fridays

that remodeling and Fridays don’t go together, because on Fridays most construction employees are focused on getting to the bank and on with their weekend not the remodeling project.

all I heard was it looks good from my house

 

construction foreman

Nobody ever said: special order

 that when you special order something it means you can’t take it back, you bought it, you own it, right size, wrong size, wrong color, changed your mind, can’t afford it now, once it is order there is no turning back its yours.

now that I see it in person I don’t like it and its just not going to work – I don’t care what you said, I’m not “eating it”, anyway isn’t the customer always right, besides I give you a lot of work!

 

interior decorator to contractor

Nobody ever said: a two bedroom house

with three kids (all girls) a wife and a dog (also a girl) with one bathroom and one phone was a good idea.

the fights, the laundry, the crying, the picky eaters, the fights, the daddy I just want, I need in the bathroom, she’s got my…we need a new, its not my turn, the sugar and spice and everything nice, but daddy I need… 

 

I owe, I owe, so off to work I go

Nobody ever said: dealing with contractors

was easy, knowing how long they have been in business, what their experience is, finding the right contractor for the job you need done, finding a contractor or handyman who does the small job you need done…its not easy 

finding a good contractor, subcontractor or employee is not always easy, so why put your decision making power in someone else’s hands? You don’t know if the how and what questions you may have are being asked or answered. With MyContractorList.com you see the contractor profiles for yourself, you make the decision…because in the end, no matter who makes the decision you still have to deal with it, so make it yourself.

 

Admin, MyContractorList.com

Thank You,

MyContractorList.com
A network of Contractors & Their Company Profiles

The following link discusses some of the President’s high level priorities for reforming government contracting.

Although much of what the President says is yet to be implemented, it will have an impact on both the way the acquisition community thinks and acts.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is the specialized United Nations Agency helping many developing countries pursue sustainable industrial development. It was established in 1966, with over 40 years of development in impartiality, multi-laterality and professionalism; UNIDO has more than 13,000 technical assistance and investment projects in over 170 developing countries and successfully promotes 1000 investment projects per year all over the world.

UNIDO provides excellent solutions to current industrial problems as it offers a package of integrated services to areas such as environment protection, mining, agricultural/food processing, infrastructure, service industries, tourism etc. The three key concerns are sound environment, competitive economy and productive employment at the enterprise as well as policy / institutional level.

UNIDO has become a very important part of the global multilateral technology /investment/project financing system in the area of technology and investment promotion such as “Guidelines for Project Evaluation”, “Manual on Project Feasibility Study Report”, “BOT Manual” etc. and all these have become accepted standards worldwide.

It has also launched the special programs Subcontracting and Partnership Exchanges (SPX) in June 2007.

UNIDO SDP in Pune

UNIDO designed supplier development program (SDP) for the SMEs in Pune who would want to become a supplier for international and local auto makers in abroad and the country and/or who would want to strengthen their linkage with already existing customers.

The three main focuses in this program are:

1. Supplier strategies; positioning strategies; strategies independently without clients
2. Readiness for OEM Markets; strategies with suppliers; Automakers expectations
3. Case study for an OEM’s supplier development

Through the following methodologies, teams of UNIDO international and local experts will choose companies to work with and transfer the above mentioned knowledge;

1. Seminars, classroom trainings, workshops
2. Customer visits (Tier1 and OEM)
3. Manuals, presentations, training documents
4. Shop floor visits; working one by one in some cases

So, join your company with UNIDO, who has established close relations with over 31,000 enterprises and financial institutions from the industrial countries through its partnership building.

Vote in our poll(s), tell us what you think! Answer the Why? or What? questions

That’s right, vote in one of our polls and tell us what is going on, what you think, how we should do it…!

We have been trying to get some feed back on what everyone is thinking, what is going, what would be the best direction for us to go in with MyContractorList.com with little response.

We know people are visiting our site and not just one or two but maybe even three or four but really, we have wonder why all the traffic with very little response?

What Is it?  They just don’t like the site?

Are we not offering what they want? We offer to much? We offer to little? Site is to hard to navigate? They don’t like the look of the site? They don’t, maybe they don’t or maybe its this…BUT we are still getting traffic, repeat traffic so WHAT IS IT!!! Why so little participation? We have discovered is that you can ask yourself those questions and many more questions to the point of driving yourself crazy.

 We know Its a great site, but why? we are networking, twittering, face-booking, blogging, advertising, various promotions, always making changes to better improve the site, but why so little response, with so much traffic or are we just impatience…we needed answers.

The solution, we decided to cold call some of our members to get some good honest feedback and we even managed to speak with some people who view our site, know our site but aren’t registered members.

What we found out: was most people, members and non-members check out the site almost daily to view the new changes, see who the new monthly feature is, check out the contractor classified ads, view the talk forum & look for new postings, read the blogs but they don’t log-in very often.

Most like the site the way it is, they think its a great thing (so do we) and when the economy gets better they will definitely use it.

When we ask why don’t you log-in and view the posting boards or post in the talk forum, reply to someones comments or post? They say its because their is very little going on, with the economy in the slump its in the last few times they check the posting boards their where no posting (that’s true) and they can view the contractor classified ads without logging-in and the talk forum hasn’t had a lot going on either and why log-in just to respond to one thing?

 But we need some guidance on what you think!

We have to keep the site secure that is the reason for the log-in requirements but we do need to know what you think. So we have added polls throughout the site to help us get the guidance we need and you or they don’t have to log-in to vote in the polls, just pick and click to vote no log-in required!

 and yes the economy isn’t doing very well right now but we still have things to do, so vote in one of our polls…

To vote in the

 main site poll

Contractor Poll

Subcontractor Poll

Supplier Poll

 Tell us what you think!

Thank You,

MyContractorList.com
A network of Contractors & Their Company Profiles

Many changes for MyContractorList.com website

This week we have spent a lot of time making changes to our website.

1. Making changes on how our logo appears in the different avatar applications. (you probably don’t realize but our logo dosn’t show very well by itself in an avatar format, that’s why we use a background.)
2. Changes to our Talk Forum page to include a information window & join us button for new visitors to the forum.
3. A great new way to highlight our Featured member of the month.  
4. The way we display our homepage information.
5. A new Join Us button for our homepage, taking visitors to a pick your tool & click to register feature. Making it less confusing on where or how to join.
6. Adding page jump links to every homepage for easier navigation and faster direct access to the information on that page.
7. Changing the look of our informational “TVs” for each homepage.
8. Making so many changes for consistency from network profile to network profile.
9. Started a Google group to work with our Contractors Round-table discussion forum. (Located on the talk forum.)
10. Added a multi-functional promotional feature to work with Paypal for each tool. We can have different promotional campaigns going on at the same time for the same tool.
11. Joined Twitter
12. Joined Facebook
13. Joined a couple of other networking sites.
14. Aggressively networking online.
15. Advertising online.

We have many more changes to come… 

While we our very focused on making the changes to the look of the site, ease of navigation of the site, we are still very focused on the reason for the site. It is a working site for homeowners, commercial property owners/managers, contractors, subcontractors, construction/remodeling employees and suppliers of all the different types of construction and home building materials we use and need everyday all around the country.

So bottom-line is if you are a contractor, subcontractor, employee or supplier join us, MyContractorList.com is a fast growing network of contractors.

If you are a looking for a contractor, MycontractorList.com was designed for you.

If we don’t have the type of contractor you are looking for, in your area contact us, we will find you one…

But don’t give up on us or our members, come back check again, post in our talk forum for all to see that you are looking for contractors in your area, and name your area.  

Just remember this, the Amazons, Myspaces, AngiesLists, Ebays, Facebooks and Twitters of the Internet world have been around from 14 years 7 months too 9 years 5 months 

We went live on 11/20/08

Someday we to will be well known also but not for our looks but for how much of a valuable tool we are… MyContractorList.com

Thank You,

MyContractorList.com

A network of Contractors & Their Company Profiles

We are putting together some discussion groups to bounce ideas off of each other, with ways for all in the contracting and construction industry to get back to work.

Join our group at our Contractors Round-table Discussion Forum in our talk forum. 
or join our Google Group 

All are welcome to join

Driggers v. Cable Television Intsallation & Service, Inc.

This case was before the Court on Defendant’s Motion seeking summary judgment finding that Plaintiff was subject to the Administrative Exemption of the FLSA. Reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Plaintiff, as the non-moving party, the Court denied Defendant’s Motion.

The Court assumed the following facts, as averred by Plaintiff:

“Plaintiff was employed by CTIS, a cable and internet installation services provider. He began his employment in dispatch and then became a cable installer (“Subcontractor”) for two to three years. Subcontractors are independent contractors required to use their own equipment and tools in their installation work as well as provide their own insurance. In May 2005, Plaintiff began working as a Field Coordinator, later called a Field Advisor, and continued in this position until he was terminated in May 2008.

As Field Coordinator, Plaintiff was assigned a hub, which was a geographical area based on zip code. Each morning, he handed out work assignments to subcontractors in his hub, making the assignments based on the time of the scheduled work and, when the workload permitted, on subcontractor ability and experience. Plaintiff also reviewed and entered subcontractor paperwork, which included checking billing documents to assure they were filled out in compliance with the standards of CTIS and its customer Bright House. He adjusted billing codes to comply with the job specifications and billing rules, often seeking guidance from Bright House.

Plaintiff was responsible for informing the subcontractors in his hub of changes to job specifications put out by Bright House and CTIS. He sometimes explained what the changes meant and suggested approaches to performing the job to the new specifications. If a subcontractor had a problem with an installation, Plaintiff would try to help the subcontractor figure out how to make the job comply with specifications, and if he could not, he would contact Bright House for further instructions. Plaintiff did not have the authority to deviate from job specifications without first consulting Bright House.

In the afternoons Plaintiff performed inspections. He had the authority to inspect installations of his choice to ensure compliance with job specifications. The number of these quality control inspections varied based upon Plaintiff’s workload in the office and number of damage inspections assigned by Bright House. If his quality control inspection revealed deviations from specifications, Plaintiff would have the installation subcontractor fix the problem to meet job specifications or assign another subcontractor to do so. Occasionally Plaintiff performed the repair work himself When customers had complaints about installations, they contacted Bright House or CTIS who in turn would contact Plaintiff, instructing him to inspect the damage. Plaintiff performed these inspections to determine if the subcontractor was responsible for the damage. If the subcontractor made a mistake that caused the damage, the subcontractor and his insurance were responsible. If the damage was caused by the subcontractor following specifications, Plaintiff would contact CTIS for approval of a repair or assign another subcontractor to handle the issue. If the subcontractor was not responsible for the damage, Plaintiff would not offer repairs and the customer would have to contact CTIS to take the claim further.”

The Court noted, “[i]n their filings, both parties state that Plaintiff satisfies the first and second prongs of the administrative exemption. Defendant has described Plaintiff’s primary duty as quality assurance, including assigning work orders, communicating changes in job specifications, checking subcontractor paperwork for compliance with policy, and ensuring subcontractor installations met specifications and quality standards. For the purposes of summary judgment, Plaintiff has agreed to this description and its satisfying the second prong. Plaintiff challenges only the use of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance in the performance of Plaintiffs primary duty as required in the third prong.”

Although the Court agreed with Defendant, that a jury could find that, since 4 or the 10 tests for independent judgment and discretion laid out in the CFR were satisfied, it was a question of fact of the jury whether Plaintiff met the requisite independent judgment and discretion element of the Administrative Exemption. Thus, the Court denied summary judgment stating, “[t]he undisputed facts allow a jury to reasonably find that Plaintiff has met some or none of the factors to be considered for the applicability of the third prong of the administrative exemption. The jury could determine that Plaintiffs use of skill and experience in the performance of his primary duty and his limited leeway in decisions do not allow him to qualify under the administrative exemption. Cotton v. HFS-USA, Inc., No. 8:08-cv-251-T-33TGW, 2009 WL 1396351 (M.D.Fla. May 18, 2009) (summary judgment order) (finding an employee who performed quality control inspections through comparison to standards and who assigned subcontractor work and repairs without direct supervision did not exercise discretion and independent judgment because most of his decisions were based on experience in the industry, well-established standards, and the use of common sense, and because he sought approval for deviations from specifications and frequently spoke with his superiors). The motion for summary judgment is therefore denied.”

MyContractorList.com Working hard for You, networking, twittering…

 A couple of days ago we decided to join Twitter…

At MyContractorList.com we are constantly exploring and participating in all relevant & valuable ways we can promote MyContractorList.com and our members; on the web, on the air, in the papers, in daily conservations and the many other ways we can think of, afford to do and not annoy the general public.

With that statement made, it is a lot of hard work and very time consuming to keep up with the various types of online marketing, what is hot right now, what works, what dosn’t work, who, where & how to connect with the clientele you are interested in connecting with.

With MyContractorList.com we need to connect with just about everyone. Think about it for a minute, at some point just about everyone at sometime in their life could benefit from our valuable service… any city, any state, instant results.

If you are;

If you are a contractor you will want to be listed so everyone can find you, if you are a subcontractor you want contractors to find you if you are a construction employee looking for some extra work on those rainy days you need a place to post yourself, if you are a supplier who supplies to the home improvement, remodeling or construction industry you want them to find you, if you are a residential, commercial or retail property owner or manager you will need a place to find professional contractors, if you are or someday want to be a homeowner you will need a place to find, search, post for or ask professional contractors a question about your home and even if you don’t own a construction company, never plan on managing a commercial property, don’t care about supply companies, intend to rent a condo the rest of your life so you are maintenance free or already have your own list of contractors…

What if?

What if you can’t get a hold of the contractor you need on your list, what if you need a contractor not on your list, what if you need to find a contractor in another city or state, what if you knew someone who owned a construction company and they where looking for a place to get noticed, a place where people go to find construction companies, what if you over heard someone looking for a contractor, What if?

That’s why,

 That’s why, you need to know and remember our name MyContractorList.com its all in the name you don’t have to tell people www.MyContractorList.com the .com is in the name, you don’t have to tell people its a place to find contractors its in the name Contractor List and its meets the personal connection we all want, My its in the name MyContractorList.com

That’s why, we want our name to be know, @ MyContractorList.com we are networking on Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, WordPress, Corkin, Linkedin, Blogger, Contractor Talk Forums, our own Talk Forum, our own blogging spots and the numerous other areas we are posting, blogging & commenting own.

That’s why, we are working so hard to get our information to every contractor, subcontractor, construction company, supplier, construction employee commercial property owner, homeowner and the many others… to join our network, become a member because we are working hard for you. Getting our name out there, staying focused on making the network connection that matter so you can make the connections that matter.    

 That’s why, MyContractorList.com is the place that answers the if you are & the what ifs. 

and that is just some of the things we are working on, some of the reasons why we want everyone to know our name and some of the reasons why we have to connect with just about everyone.

Our target audience: Just about Everyone

Thank You,

MyContractorList.com
A network of Contractors & Their Company Profiles

 If you would like to follow us on Twitter just click  http://twitter.com/MyContractorlis

or check out some of our other network spots (not all are listed) just click MyContractorList.com – links page and click on Blog/Network Links from the Jump Links menu top right.

How to be Successful,

I wrote this a while back and posted it in our Tutorials = How To / Refresh Your Memory, Quick Reminders in our talk forum area of the site. I decided to post it here as a reminder to myself on how to be successful. We are in the process of starting our Parking lot Promotions Campaign for the Charlotte, North Carolina metro area and the delays and logistics of it all have been a bit overwhelming and I ran across this post I had done earlier, it reminded me of some past obstacles I have faced and overcome. With the economy flexing and on the very edge of a great break through sometimes the moments just before a break through things can be at their worse. I thought as this was a good reminder to me and this may also be encouraging to other contractors, subcontractors, employees and suppliers.

Good luck all the economy IS ON ITS WAY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!

 This is the very real truth of some things I have been through and learned… 

How to be Successful,a quick look

To start with, success only comes before work in one place and that is the dictionary.

1. Be prepared to work hard
2. Have a business plan – or at least have a plan.
3. Know your business – have some hands on experience.
4. Stay educated on your business – don’t turn your mind off to new ideas.
5. Be prepared to work hard – for little to no money for yourself.
6. Keep your business legal – insurance, license, taxes…
7. Have reasonable goals – monthly, quarterly, annually & meet those goals.
8. Get up when knock down – you will have those days.
9. Be prepared to work harder than your employees.
10. Remember who pays your bills – the customers or clients.
11. Remember those you have at home. – wife, kids…
12. Remember their is someone up above. – Most High God…
13. Remember employees are just that employees – this can be a dangerous line to cross…
14. Re-invest your money – in the business.
15. Always, always buy good quality equipment – it will save you money & time.
16. Always do good work – and stand behind your work.
17. Take care of your employees – don’t be to hard on them.
18. Take care of yourself – don’t be to hard on yourself.
19. Stay focused on the goal – don’t get relaxed to early…
20. If all fails and you go out of business. – get up and do it again.
21. If this is the 10th time you have failed, then get up 1 more time.
22. Make sure you are in the right business for you.
23. And start your new business for the 11th or 20th time…But start… again.
24. Be prepared to work hard
25. Never give up. – always believe in yourself…even if others don’t…

Successful people have always failed, been knock down, not believed in, where their very own cheerleader, took chances nobody else would.
But never gave up, always got back up, learned from their mistakes and said to themselves JUST ONE MORE TIME!!!!!

This isn’t meant to be an exact how to be successful, just some advice from past experience…
Good Luck

Advertising or listing your company for free, good or bad? part 2 the example

So is free advertising or free listing good or bad for your business? We have the answer, many who use the free listing sites, do it because they are free without the realization of the cost, (for both homeowner and contractor) habit, not sure where else to go, some just want the cheapest price they can get or just simply just want to have as much control over what is going to happen (for both homeowner and contractor). Can free listings be bad for your business, the answer is YES they can be. Their are various types of listing sites, some sites let you list by category (auto for sale, home improvement, yard sales,…) to be fair some do give a subcategory others have no categories they just simply say “list your service”.

The example: listing sites by category

Lets say you are listed with a free listing site and you are the only experienced contractor with all of the license and insurance listed out of a 100 unlicensed and uninsured “want a be contractors” listed in this free listing site. The homeowner calls 10 contractors from the site and you are one of them, but says your price is much higher than everyone else, your price will always be higher because the homeowner isn’t comparing “apples to apples” but they don’t realize that they just think you are over priced and trying to take advantage of them. Now the homeowners experience with the other 9 contractors has given them the impression for all contractors listed on the “free” listing site. Their impression is it is a great place to find cheap contractors, most with little experienced, most with no insurance or license, but the homeowner wants the cheapest price and they are willing to suffer the agony that can comes with hiring from these “free” listing sites, so they hire one of the other ”want a be contractors” and get what they paid for, most likely.

The point is everyone knows about these sites and all homeowners have the same impressions of the contractors listed on these sites that’s why they get 10 estimates.

Now lets say you are listed with other contractors who are investing in their business by using a paid membership site. A company who invest in their business, cares about their business they want to do good and they know the operating cost of doing business. If a homeowner is looking for a license and insured contractor and they find a site where they can make that distinction, they call you and they most likely will only call two other contractor for an estimate. Now your price won’t seem so high because the homeowner is comparing “apples to apples” and they now have a very professional impression of you and the other contractors. 

The example: listing sites with no category

Lets say you are listed with a free listing site with no categories they simply say list your service. You think this is great it cost me nothing and I got to list my good company name and now my new marketing plan is under way. 

What you may not know, is your good company name and trade is completely unsearchable after about 4 hours most people will never ever ever ever see your information again.

But even worse, what if lets say, you tell everyone you are marketing yourself on the Internet and this is the “listing site name” where they can look you up. They decide to do just that but they can’t find you in the jumbled mess of other listings from various states and cities jumbled together, they find everything from boats for sale too pyramid schemes. Even worse what if they decide to do a google search for your name an luckily or unluckily google comes back with some results for your name BUT when they go to view your good company name is now attached to and THEY get to view those pyramid schemes, lingerie cleaning, used stuffed animals for sale, lonely person seeking lonely person and that boat for sale ads!!!! You are now attached forever in Internet bliss forever and THEY your clients just found out congratulations.     

Whats the answer? www.MyContractorList.com we have developed our site so everyone can compare ”apples to apples”, if a homeowner or consumer wants a license , insured contractor at MyContractorList.com they can search, find and compare a license contractor to a license contractor. If a homeowner or consumer dosn’t want or think they need a license or insured contractor BUT dose want a contractor who cares, who does invest in their company and has been around for sometime they can also find that contractor at MyContractorList.com and compare a unlicensed contractor to a unlicensed contractor. With MyContractorlist.com all consumers can verify how long any contractor has been listed with us by simply looking at their profile, that is complete with date joined, a list of questions about their company and any and all the services they offer, the service areas, they can even include pictures. 

With MyContractorList.com you can have your good company name attached with other good contracting company names. When some one goes to our site to do a search for you they will find you & your complete profile, the only other things they will find on our site is other contractors and home improvement, construction, contractor related listings. If THEY do a google search for MyContractorList.com our name shows up in the results the only things attached to our name is our information and on down the page/s you will find other contractor, construction and home improvement related websites. Any place we network or have blogs, the only people we let be our “friend” or link to us MUST be contractor, home-improvement or construction related and we must be able to verify that. With MyContractorList.com you will also be listed with other contractors who are investing in their companies not “want a be contractors” just looking for a free place to list.

With MyContractorList.com we have attempted to solved the many problems we have heard about over the years about referral services and free listing sites from the consumers and contractors point of view.

For homeowners/consumers the ability to decide excatly what you are looking for and get the result instantly. For more information please go to http://mycontractorlist.com/homeowner/index.php

For contractors the ability to let the homeowner know excatly what you do and where for one flat monthly rate. For more information please go to http://mycontractorlist.com/contractor/index.php 

Advertising or listing your company for free, good or bad? part 1 the comparison

Over the past 6 months and over the last 3.5 years and the many years I have been a contractor, I have spoken with hundreds of contractors, subcontractors and homeowners about their opinions and ideas for www.MyContractorlist.com  so pay attention I have some really great insight on this topic.

I want to first say, that my intention is to educate on this topic not to destroy, hurt, attack, ruin the reputation of or look down upon any individual, other companies or industries who participate in free advertising, be it offering the free service or using the free service, or other variations of free/cheap advertising. I myself have been there.

In the past advertising or listing  your company, in the limited ways available has always been a great sign of I’ve made it or at-least we are on our way, it was proof to yourself, your employees and the general public that you have arrived or at least on your way, because advertising wasn’t cheap or free and everybody knows it. Advertising is still not cheap but some advertising is free.

We all had a high opinion of any company we seen advertising their services in the past, especially in the construction and remodeling industry. Lets face it most people have their own various love/hate opinions about contractors, but when we seen one advertising their services we had the opinion they must be a good company, a company that stands behind its work,  a legit company, a financially strong company, a company that invest in advertising, is a company investing in themselves, a company that cares. Homeowners would call those companies and hire them, just based on the advertisement they had seen and their first impression of them after their first meeting. Most homeowners would hire with little to no questions asked.

That was then and this is now, after working for someone else as an employee or subcontractor for years learning their trade and learning the business they may at that time decide to go public with their business. If an individual, a subcontractor or contractor just starting out who wanted to get noticed would start off with word of mouth, business cards, flyer’s, small listing in the local paper and keep moving up from there. After some time of paying our dues, learning from our mistakes (as new business owners), developing our reference list, purchasing the additional much needed tools for our trade we would begin to spend money on advertising. We wouldn’t spend money on advertising unless we knew we where ready, why spend so much money to ruin your own reputation if your not ready? That’s the way we thought and that’s the way it was, that’s why most homeowners had little doubt about a company they hired after seeing their advertisement. That was then…over the years the market became flooded with advertising opportunities especially for contractors and handymen with the just list your services area in most papers bringing the cost of advertising down drastically. With the new listing opportunities and then the Internet bringing the listing cost down, even free, as a result ”watering down” any legitimacy us contractors had developed through advertising over the years.

The result,  by giving contractors, remodeling companies and construction companies the listing areas in the papers at a lower rate and the Internet giving the listing areas away for free, the homeowners has lost that confidence they once had in a companies advertisement. Unless a company advertises BIG and has some really deep pockets the average homeowner mentally files us all in the same category. Before when you seen a fly-er on your door or mailbox with a company name on it you may have thought, wow a new company and you may have called them to have some work done, upon meeting them you most likely realized they where inexperienced or not as professional as you where custom to, if you had used professional contractors in the past. They may have given a great price much better than expected and then they start, the realization of why the great price, maybe they don’t have the tools, experience, don’t show up or the many other things that has caused homeowners to loose trust in us. Homeowners went from having confidence in us, from the moment they seen our advertisement(like in the past) to now wanting every little detail about our business and who can blame them. I’m not saying all fly-er contractors are bad, I was one but many have ruin our image, mentally most homeowners and contractors view the fly-er type to the free listing type of contractors and handymen as inexperienced or cheap. This is true for most, Not all but most. 

The sad truth, many of us contractors, remodeling companies and handymen have gotten caught up in this advertising or listing your company for free tidal wave. The thing about a free tidal wave is everyone gets on and at some point a wave will crash and this one crashed a few years ago but so many contractors, subcontractors, handymen and even suppliers haven’t figured it out yet, for some its just habit or their marketing plan and others believe the best advertising besides “word of mouth” is free advertising. That’s not always true, some free advertising can and will hurt you. With the free listings inviting everyone to participate, for the average homeowner they view every contractor, handyman and supplier as having the same experience and the same credentials. Many, many, many of the “contractors” listed on these free sites have little to no experience, no tools and no idea of operating cost, the result cheap bids. Homeowners have caught onto this and some homeowners don’t care about experience, inconvenience, job deadlines, or the many qualities a professional contractor brings to the table, they only care about the cheapest price. These are the same homeowners that will go around complaining about how worthless their “contractor” is or what a bad experience they had with a contractor giving us all a bad name.  Their are some legitimately bad contractors out there but most complaints are about “want a be” contractors.

With homeowners having this type of mentally looking for the cheapest bid, real contractors, remodeling companies and handymen have found themselves going on countless number of estimates and getting no jobs or maybe the occasional one.

What we found out, when we spoke with homeowners and contractors nationwide who use free listing sites and referral sites.

When we ask contractors and up and coming contractors that used the free listing sites.

  Did you get more job leads? Yes, was always the answer some said it even double the amount of jobs they looked at.

How many calls out of 25 is for the type of service you offered? 50/50

How many jobs out of 25 leads do you get?  Contractors  none or maybe the occasional one. Up and coming contractors maybe 1 or 2.

What is the number one reason you didn’t get the job? I was to high or they found someone else cheaper.

Has it been worth it? Contractors No. Up and coming contractors Yes “any work is better than no work”

When we ask homeowners that used the free listing sites.

Why do you use the free listing sites? Most common answer, to get a free estimate.

How many different estimate do you get for the same project? Most common answer, 10

Why so many estimates? Looking for the best deal.

Are you looking for the cheapest price? When we pressed the people who got more than three estimates the answer was 100% yes

Why don’t you select your contractor from other forms of marketing? 50% said they new up front they would be more expensive. 50% said they didn’t really know where else to look, “besides you have to go through a 100 contractors to find one who has and dose what you want or works in your area.” 

 Some solutions offered, some contractor referral business and contractor referral sites have starting popping up everywhere.

When we ask homeowners who used these contractor referral sites.

 Do you feel you receive contact from professional contractors? Most common answer, yes – but

We ask do you feel the estimates you receive are fair? Most common answer, yes

How many estimates do you get before hiring? Most common answer, 3 - but

Are you looking for the cheapest price? 100% said No

Do you use free listing sites? about 60% said no and 40% said no never again!

What are the “buts”about, what is it you don’t like in general? Most common response 1. “you get flooded with contractors trying to give you an estimate for a job that is already be awarded or done”  2. “Some contractors I already know are told to contact me and now they are mad because they have to pay a lead fee” 3. “I still don’t know what all they do or very little about them” 4. “I only know what the service tells me about them” 5. I wish I could look at their profile and decide for my self” 6. Why do they have to contact me, why can’t I contact them?” 7. “Why dose everything have to run through the service if I am doing the hiring?”

When we ask contractors who have or use contractor referral sites.

 Do you get more job leads? Yes – but

How many jobs out of 25 leads do you get? Most common answer was between 2 & 5 it really varied based on the referral service.

How many calls out of 25 is for the type of service you offered? Most common answer about 80% “their was a lot of can you or will you asked by the services”

Has it been worth it? Even more confusion about 50/50 Most said it depended on the month and the job, many said they would pay lead fees for sometimes up to three months and then finally that one job would pay for the past three months…

Dose having to pay lead fees increase your rate? 60% said no but “if I have a couple of bad months just paying lead fees then yes” 40% said of course how can you not think about the lead fees and not included it in your cost?”

What are the “buts”about, what is it you don’t like in general? Most common response 1. “Having to pay for leads I don’t even get a chance to bid on” 2. “Calling up homeowners who have already had over 25 or 30 other contractors contact them” 3. “Having to pay for a lead that isn’t even my trade” 4. “Receiving & having to pay for leads in areas I don’t work in!” 5. Being misrepresented to the homeowner” 6. “Having to run everything I do through the service!” 7. Having to pay for lead fees, membership fees, commission fees based on size of jobs, administrative fees just to be told that that one job will make up for all of these fees!”

So is free advertising or free listing good or bad for your business? We have the answer, many who use the free listing sites, do it because they are free without the realization of the cost, (for both homeowner and contractor) habit, not sure where else to go, some just want the cheapest price they can get or just simply just want to have as much control over what is going to happen (for both homeowner and contractor). Can free listings be bad for your business, the answer is YES they can be.

Whats the answer? www.MyContractorList.com we have developed our site so everyone can compare ”apples to apples”, if a homeowner or consumer wants a license , insured contractor at MyContractorList.com they can search, find and compare a license contractor to a license contractor. If a homeowner or consumer dosn’t want or think they need a license or insured contractor BUT dose want a contractor who cares, who does invest in their company and has been around for sometime they can also find that contractor at MyContractorList.com and compare a unlicensed contractor to a unlicensed contractor. With MyContractorlist.com all consumers can verify how long any contractor has been listed with us by simply looking at their profile, that is complete with date joined, a list of questions about their company and any and all the services they offer, the service areas, they can even include pictures. 

With MyContractorList.com we have attempted to solved the many problems we have heard about over the years about referral services and free listing sites from the consumers and contractors point of view.

For homeowners/consumers the ability to decide excatly what you are looking for and get the result instantly. For more information please go to http://mycontractorlist.com/homeowner/index.php

For contractors the ability to let the homeowner know excatly what you do and where for one flat monthly rate. For more information please go to http://mycontractorlist.com/contractor/index.php 

Thank You

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

I guess it can’t be all goodness and light. I have so many fun things to talk about, but I must purge this bit of ugliness, in order to clear my mind for nicer things.

Four years later, the hurricanes of 2004 still haunt us. The monster in the closet (literally) was Toxic Mold. Florida, still recuperating from the Asbestos Scare (and Radon Gas before that) was caught off guard by the onslaught of this furry fungus and the mold treatment companies that mushroomed up in its wake (pardon the terrible pun).

Mold and mildew have been a fact of life for Floridians since the first human set foot on the peninsula. “Toxic Mold” recently became the catchphrase for a few strains of the fungus that have always caused respiratory illness and even psychotic behavior in people. There seems to be no shortage of crazy in this state and perhaps the fungus among us is partially responsible.

The Toxic Mold craze took hold when the storms passed through and so many damaged homes began to rot from the inside out. With no regulations on the books, the mold remediation companies were left to their own devices. Anyone could start up a mold cleanup business with a few dehumidifiers and employees from the labor pool. We saw our share of these companies, ranging from those with sterling reputations to the downright fraudulent. Patrick Bock and his company Registry Services presented as the former but resulted as the latter, long after the job was done.

As representatives of AJ’s father’s construction company, we were always on edge when mold was in the mix. As I have mentioned in previous posts, all contractors were painted with the broad brush of corruption and conspiracy. Many times, the people we were trying to help were working against us at every turn. This was compounded by the fact that we were forced to depend upon so many subcontractors, scores of whom squarely deserved the mistrust homeowners so broadly held.

Despite the tension of rebuilding, one of our projects was a surprisingly pleasant one. We were hired to do some small repairs at an extravagant beach-side condominium complex. While we were negotiating the work, their roofer dropped the ball and we took on the challenge of roofing the entire compound. Because of materials shortages and undependable subcontractors, this project became as difficult as most of the other jobs we had. Despite the long delay, we finished the roof to the customer’s satisfaction. The president of the association was one of those affable, unassuming and easygoing millionaires you swear you’d be like if you had so much money. The original rebuild had been holding for the year it took to re-roof the place. It was moldy before we got there, but they had cleaned it and aired the place out. They did not have the funds to do a formal mold remediation, so we were asked to do a standard demolition while the maintenance man (also a down-to-earth resident millionaire) would deal with any mold or mildew.

Enter Patrick Bock. At some point I had come into possession of his card. As per our standard demolition agreement with the customer, we could have used anyone to do the work. However, we wanted it done right and thus shopped around for a reputable mold remediator.  Smooth talking Patrick Bock seemed to fit the bill. When we asked for referrals he provided a heap of literature, including newspaper write-ups and testimonials from satisfied customers. Impressed with his credentials, we asked him to get started right-away, which he did. Our job was to oversee the work and stop anything that wasn’t being done properly. Of greatest importance was the subcontractors’ proof of liability and worker’s compensation insurance. On these fronts, Patrick Bock readily gave us the documentation we needed to ensure things were legal.

Ironically, he even offered to provide mold testing before the job. This turned out to be his ultimate downfall. Since the word “mold” was not to be mentioned in this project, we hired him strictly for demolition whilst taking the same precautions he would in a contaminated environment. He and his crew did an excellent job, on time and for a great price.This is why what happened next was so unexpected.

A CLOSE CALL

Two years ago we heard that Patrick Bock and his wife had been arrested for faking mold test lab results.

The investigation was initiated when Travelers of Florida Insurance Co. received a bill for $2,987 from Registry Service. Before remitting payment, Travelers requested records from a lab company to confirm that the lab had prepared the report for Registry Services.

Upon review, the laboratory company said the report submitted by Registry Services was fraudulent and alleged that they may have submitted other fraudulent laboratory reports.

DIF then found other homeowners in Vero Beach who had been customers of Registry Services. The Bocks are suspected to have obtained a total of $15,569 from their fraudulent mold remediation services. (Insurancejournal.com)

We were stunned. They had risked their freedom and careers for a meager $15,569? It didn’t make any sense. A single, legitimate mold job could run in the tens of thousands of dollars. $15,569 was hardly a fortune to be gained by the lengths they took to defraud homeowners.

Now out of construction, AJ and I breathed a sigh of relief that we had dodged a bullet. Certainly, had we used Registry Services to provide mold remediation, the specter of the construction business could come back to torment us again. As nice as our client was, they had lots of money for litigation should they see fit to hold us accountable for the fraudulent actions of a subcontractor. We were confident the job was done well, but the whole issue was a can of worms were glad wasn’t in our possession at all.

AN UNLIKELY CRIMINAL

Fast forward to earlier this year. I got a call from Assistant State Attorney Lev Evans asking us to testify against Patrick Bock. We learned that Bock’s fraudulent behavior went beyond falsifying mold reports. When his computers were seized they found copies of falsified Worker’s Compensation Certificates, one of which was issued to us. The scope of his scam was far reaching. It seems that nothing about Registry Services was legitimate. I found it very strange that he had gone to all of the trouble to put forth such a professional front, with little effort to preserve the facade. How could he not know that someone would eventually check up on one of the documents he so eagerly provided?

Even more bizarre was Patrick Bock’s history. Lev Evans was the first to tell us that Bock had been a decorated hero for his counter-terrorism activities during service as an Air Force Officer and CIA agent. He was a likable, soft-spoken man; and I would have never pegged him as an ex-spy. In retrospect, his ability to seem nonthreatening and forgettable was most likely his greatest assets in his line of service.

We felt betrayed and torn at the prospect of having to testify against this man who had not caused us any direct harm, and had actually helped us in a time of need. Still, we knew what we had to do and Evans reinforced this when he said “This man has put a lot of people in danger through his fraudulent activity, and he needs to be brought to justice”. We agreed that either AJ or I (depending upon our work schedule) would appear on a witness subpoena. In the meantime I searched for the documents Bock had given us, and felt sick as I accepted the fact that they were false, including the certificate of liability insurance (of which even the Assistant State Attorney was unaware).

PATRICK BOCK’S DAY IN COURT

I had to work, so AJ went to the hearing. He returned with the remnants of “Deer in Headlights Syndrome”. Unsure what to expect we had hoped his testimony would consist of providing the documents in the Judge’s chambers and filing and affidavit. Instead, this was a full-blown trial, in AJ’s words “Just like you see in the movies”. There were many witnesses before him, who moved in and out rather quickly. His testimony took much longer. He was very nervous to be the center of attention on the witness stand while forced to testify against the nice bad guy. The documents we provided were of great interest to the prosecution and they displayed each on a large screen while asking AJ to verify their contents and source.

The trial was a media event, and the courthouse was swarming with reporters. AJ is not a fan of the spotlight and crowds, so he got out of there as fast as he could. He was visibly glad to return home, and we both hoped that he would not be called back to testify again. We were relieved when Lev Evans called a few days later to inform us that Patrick Bock had been convicted on six counts of making false statements of coverage to an employer. He was also convicted of racketeering and organized fraud of over $50,000.00 between 2004 and 2007. Apparently he scammed homeowners out of over $250,000.00, significantly more than the $15,569 mentioned in the article. It seemed that the saga was over.

Still, I had a lingering suspicion that there was more to this ugly story. My greatest fear was that Patrick Bock would retaliate by trying to dig into our job history and somehow bring us down with him. Although we did our level best to do everything to the highest standard, there always seems to be that one person who is looking to be wronged so that they can justify litigation. The houses we worked on had mold before we started and certainly have mold today. When you open a door in Florida mold spores float in and waft about. They are present in the most sanitary of conditions; and all they need to reproduce is a warm, moist host. Although I am confident that we would come out squeaky clean, I dreaded the thought of being dragged through the courts by some litigious homeowner who has been convinced that we are the cause of the mildew in their shower. I hoped that Patrick Bock would quietly accept his fate and do his time gracefully. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case.

DEADLY ENDING

Here’s where things get very strange: Yesterday AJ’s phone rang and he had a brief conversation with the person on the other end. When he hung up he had a faraway look on his face, a look of combined shock and fascination. It had been the Assistant State Attorney, Lev Evans, calling to warn us that we may be receiving a mysterious envelope in the mail. AJ explained how Evans told him that Patrick Bock had committed suicide, gotten himself cremated and had his ashes mailed to those involved in the trial. We were to be on the lookout for any such correspondence.

What? How the hell did he do that? I barraged AJ with questions. When it comes to such things, my curiosity seems to far outweigh his. Who could have done that? Isn’t mailing a dead person illegal? Aren’t they investigating who his posthumous accomplice might be? Fed up with my inquiries, AJ reiterated the content of the conversation and clarified that he knew nothing else. I simmered in frustration that I had not been the one to take the call. I wanted the details!

I searched the internet and found out more:

Former spy commits suicide outside courthouse (ABC News)

Treasure Coast businessman facing prison kills himself (Sun Sentinel)

Within a few minutes the phone rang again. This time I answered. It was an Indian River County Sheriff’s deputy, and the call went something like this:

Deputy: I’m calling in regards to the Patrick Bock case, in which your husband testified. I want to warn you that you may be receiving a letter in the mail from him, and to ask you to take precautions when you receive it.

Me: I heard that he killed himself and mailed his ashes around to people involved in the case. Is that true?

Deputy: (chuckles) Not exactly. He did commit suicide, and apparently sent out some letters beforehand. Today, one of the jurors received a letter with a picture of him and a note that said ‘You killed me’. We don’t know how many people he sent these to, and are calling to ask you that if you do receive anything from him to place it in a plastic baggie and call us.

I agreed, and jotted down the detective’s number. AJ checked the mailbox and found nothing. Later in the day Lev Evans called again. I was not home and had to rely upon AJ’s summary of the conversation. Once again Evans told him to expect an envelope containing Bock’s ashes to arrive in the mail. Things had escalated and were potentially dangerous. We could expect another call from the detective with information about how to handle anything we received. Once again, my plethora of questions went unanswered. The detective has not called again, and I know nothing more than what I have found online about his suicide.

This tragic episode has given me pause for thought. It also serves to remind that those we consider heroes are just ordinary people, with the same problems and issues we all face. Perhaps Patrick Bock’s work in the intelligence field served to harden him and allow him to justify his illegal activities. Or maybe he had an underlying instability that allowed him to do things that most of us would find unquestionable.

I have a real problem with the way we view our warriors. We glamorize our trained killers (and let’s be honest, the military is all about training average men and women to kill without reservation) and feel that we are doing our “Patriotic Duty” by “Supporting the Troops”. What we don’t want to take responsibility for is the fact that so many of these people return to civilian life irreparably damaged. These heroes so often descend into mental illness and substance abuse, where they are ostracized and forgotten by the “Patriots” who so gladly sent them off to war.

I don’t know what broke Patrick Bock’s mind to the extent that he felt his actions were acceptable. Nor do I know the forces at work in his mind which caused him to believe that blaming others and taking his own life was the best way out. I do suspect that his heroic service demanded actions of him that forever shifted his perspective and placed him in an emotional and ethical reality quite different from our own. Regardless of the cause, I am deeply saddened by the entire incident and hope that Patrick Bock finds peace on the other side.

UPDATE

New details have been revealed about this case. In this article “Facing prison, man kills himself”at PalmBeachPost.com, there are suspicions that Bock may have also forged documents claiming to have worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Lev Evans was quoted as saying that someone from that agency had planned to testify on Wednesday that Bock had never worked there.