Contractor complaints

Licensing boards exist to protect the public. Whether these bureaucracies fulfill this mission or merely consume tax dollars to expand powerless empires depends on how much authority legislators are willing to grant -- and how much information boards are allowed to release to the public.

What good does it do to accept complaints and employ investigators at taxpayer expense if consumers can't easily find out whether a particular professional has been accused of causing financial or physical harm?

Nevada State Contractors Board officials recognize the importance of making complaints public. They want to be able to tell anyone in the process of hiring a contractor whether that business has a squeaky-clean record or has recently been accused of fraud, shoddy work or anything else relevant to prospective clients.

But they can't. State law doesn't let them.

It wasn't always this way. Prior to 2007, the board provided the public with current complaints, pending investigations and five-year histories of complaints and resolutions. Then the 2007 Legislature decided licensed contractors deserved a right to privacy that superseded the public's right to know.

Now the board must keep secret unresolved complaints and active investigations, which can provide contractors with months of protection before they're settled. That's plenty of time to line up new customers -- and for shady contractors, potential new victims.

So the board has requested legislation to remedy this poor policy. Senate Bill 50 would make available upon written request "complaints of which the board has initiated investigations; containing allegations of violations which a member of the Investigations Office of the Board has probable cause to believe have occurred; ... which relate to allegations of violations that, if proven, would be grounds for disciplinary action against or criminal prosecution of the licensee."

The first important deadline of the 2009 legislative session arrives Friday night: Any bill that isn't passed out of committee in its house of origin will die. Hundreds of bills will slip into oblivion without ever facing a vote. And as of today, SB50 hasn't made it out of the Commerce Committee.

Some contractors supported the 2007 change in statute and have lobbied against SB50. They argue that the disclosure of frivolous complaints will damage honest contractors and their ability to secure new business.

But SB50 would allow the contractors board to identify those complaints as unfounded. The only contractors who would be hurt by this legislation are the ones who've hurt consumers.

The Senate Commerce Committee has three days left to pass SB50. Lawmakers are preoccupied with the state's economic woes, but ignoring this bill would cause further harm to the public.

We'd like to see the contractors board make all its public information available on the Internet, rather than require the public to submit written requests. Regardless, SB50 must not be allowed to die.