An old fight over St. Joseph plumbing licenses is being fought once again.

Critics for decades have said the city plumbing board’s practical exam stifles competition, drives up prices and slows progress. The impact isn’t seen on average home repairs, but local plumbers might gain an advantage and bargaining power on large industrial and commercial jobs by slowing down or denying licenses for outsiders.

Plumbers respond that the test ensures safety and proves experience. The test stifles stupidity — not competition. Even if the test does keep dollars in St. Joseph, what’s wrong with that?

But beyond plumbing, the issue has big implications for the city of St. Joseph’s proposal to create new licensing standards for most building trades.

The new standards potentially affect every homeowner in St. Joseph, by requiring all general contractors, roofers and others to pass a test and hold insurance. The standards, if they can be policed, would help eliminate shoddy work and fly-by-night contractors.

Only plumbers have a practical exam, given and graded by the city Plumbers Examining and Appeals Board. The board includes five plumbers, a general contractor and an architect/engineer.

The electrical and mechanical trades have said in letters and meetings that they either want everyone to go to a standardized test, or they want to create local practical tests of their own.

“They both have stated that, ‘If (plumbers) get to stay with a practical exam, we want the same thing,’” said Sam Barber, who oversees building code issues for the city.

The city’s attempts to slay one beast could backfire and give rise to a multi-headed system, depending on what the City Council decides to do, Mr. Barber agreed.

St. Joseph electricians already have national standardized testing. The city did away with the electricians’ local board exam in 1994.

General contractors currently have no testing but are willing to adopt national standardized testing.

Plumbers have said the national standardized tests are too easy and don’t do enough to protect customers from bad work.

A Kansas City master plumber, mechanical engineer and business owner, John D’Agostino, disagreed in a letter he wrote to the city. He said he failed the plumbers’ test because he missed one section and was barred from taking the test for six months.

“I decided not to bother again, knowing how the test is administered and the makeup of the plumbing exam board,” Mr. D’Agostino wrote. “I am certain that I missed the most important question — my address!”

Local plumbers say there’s no conspiracy.

“To me, it’s all about safety,” said Austin Benson, vice president of St. Joseph Plumbing & Heating. “Anyone can come up here and pass the (local) test. It happens every day. A lot of Kansas City people have licenses here.

“The problem is, a lot of the people who complain about the test aren’t smart enough to pass it.”

Said Mr. Barber in response: “My only point there is, if it’s such a safety issue, then why do 99 percent of other communities do the national testing?”

Mr. Barber recommends across-the-board standardized testing for safety, efficiency and to benefit customers.

“It’s a more efficient system to license qualified people,” Mr. Barber said. “That essentially allows competition. Competition reduces costs because it creates a more competitive environment.”

Mr. Benson said the city has no basis for saying St. Joseph plumbers charge higher rates as a result of the local board exam.

“We’re not afraid of competition,” Mr. Benson said. “They always say it costs more to do it here, but we go to other places and win the bids with the same rates we use here.”

In a letter earlier this month, City Councilman Bill Falkner — who owns Falkner Plumbing — disagreed with many of Mr. Barber’s arguments for doing away with the board exam. Mr. Falkner argued that the quality of work would suffer, and that it only makes sense to favor local contractors since they hire local residents and pay local taxes.

“The City Council has made it clear that they favor giving local contractors work,” Mr. Falkner wrote. “... I guess it comes down to which streets we want to pave, theirs or ours.”

For more information on the proposed licensing changes, including submitted comments and criticisms, go to http://www.stjoemo.info/cad/proposedchanges.cfm.

Joe Blumberg can be reached at joeblumberg@npgco.com.