October 17, 2008 /

Trouble For Joe

It looks like old Joe the Plumber Handyman might be looking for a new job: Wurzelbacher registered as an apprentice with the Ohio State Apprenticeship Council in November 2003, according to Dennis Evans, spokesman with the Department of Job and Family Services. Records show his training, which was sponsored by A & W Newell Co. […]

It looks like old Joe the Plumber Handyman might be looking for a new job:

Wurzelbacher registered as an apprentice with the Ohio State Apprenticeship Council in November 2003, according to Dennis Evans, spokesman with the Department of Job and Family Services. Records show his training, which was sponsored by A & W Newell Co. of Toledo, should have wrapped last year.

“We don’t have a record of completion,” Evans said. “All we know is that he registered in the program and has gone through to the point where we should have record of completion, but we don’t.”

And that’s not the only record that’s missing from Wurzelbacher’s file. He doesn’t have a plumbing license required by the city of Toledo to practice, according to a staffer with the Toledo Division of Building Inspection. Wurzelbacher, who now works for Newell Plumbing & Heating Co., said the owner, Al Newell, has a plumbing license and that “because he works for someone else, he doesn’t need a license.”

But even that’s not true, according to the Toledo Division of Building Inspection. Wurzelbacher can’t legally do plumbing work without a license, regardless of his boss’s certification.

A staff person with the Toledo Division of Building Inspection told On Call this afternoon that her division will contact Wurzelbacher to notify him that he can’t work without a license.

As someone who used to work in the plumbing field in Ohio I can back this up. He decided he wanted to become a licensed plumber, going after his apprenticeship registration. Once that he did that the clock started ticking to go from apprentice to journeyman. He didn’t do that. Every county in Ohio has their own set of little rules to complete the training. In Hamilton County, where I worked, you had to go through a five year program that included working and school two nights a week. After that you take your test and become a licensed plumber.

There’s another hole in Joe’s story now that is kind of touched on here, but needs expanding. Joe is trying to say he is working under the owner of his company’s license. That works if you are an apprentice (and required), but Joe wants to buy that company. Well he isn’t going to be able to operate it without a license, unless he can find a plumber willing to let the company ride on their license. That’s a big threat to that individual and something that doesn’t happen often.

So we are looking at a minimum of five years for Joe to own that company if he wants it to be a licensed company. Of course with Joe’s $40,000 a year salary that still puts him $50,000 below the price tag of $200,000 and that’s if Joe doesn’t spend a dime in the next five years.

To show how diminished Joe is becoming, even the right is trying to abandon him now and push him off as being some Obama person. Here’s what Allahpundit said at Hot Air:

Look on the bright side. The media’s finally starting to vet acquaintances of Barack Obama.

Now he is an “acquaintance” of Barack Obama. I guess in that sense John Hinckley was an acquaintance of Reagan.

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