Lawmaker challenges decision to suspend farm electrical inspections

DES MOINES – A top Democratic lawmaker is questioning whether Branstad administration officials can ignore a state law that requires inspections of electrical work done on farm buildings in Iowa.

Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, said Friday he was requesting a formal opinion from Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller's office regarding an announced policy change by the state Department of Public Safety. The department plans to stop conducting electrical inspections at farm facilities effective Sunday, July 1, unless the inspection is voluntarily requested by the property owner or a designee.

“This is a safety issue, and it is a state law,” said Kibbie. He asked Miller's office to provide the Legislature with a legal opinion regarding the new policy and “whether it conflicts with existing law and rules.”

“As president of the Senate and a member of the (Legislature's) Administrative Rules Review Committee, I have some concerns about this new policy,” Kibbie said in his letter to Miller. “The Legislature spent considerable time on this issue and found common ground on what we saw was appropriate regulation and subsequent approval of electrical work done on farm facilities. My concern focuses around whether or not this new policy conflicts with the intent of the law and the rules approved by the rules committee for its implementation.”

Gov. Terry Branstad, who filed an objection to the inspection rule with state public safety commissioner Larry Noble, applauded the decision, contending the rule went beyond the Electrical Examining Board's authority and was unnecessary and costly to farmers.

“Their overreaching rule required a state inspection for any electrical work on farm buildings or structures, even though the Legislature provided a common sense exception for farmers in the law,” the governor said.

“Iowa farmers have safely conducted electrical work on their barns, grain bins and outbuildings for years. They've hired experienced electrical contractors and licensed professionals who don't need the state looking over their shoulders. Overreaching regulation by the Electrical Examining Board hasn't changed that,” Branstad said.

Branstad said the rule added significant expense to farmers' projects and caused delays lasting days or weeks.

Earlier this year, Branstad signed a formal objection, saying  he believed that requiring farmers to have safety inspections done after performing electrical work was unduly burdensome. He called the 2008 rule a “power grab” by the Electrical Examining Board.

The governor said his signing the objection meant it would be easier for a farmer to challenge the rule in court .

A notice by the state Department of Public Safety's fire marshal division to electrical contractors, utility companies and electricians dated June 26 indicated the state's electrical licensing and inspection program would re-allocate resources by “concentrating more on the personal life safety of individuals rather than focus our efforts entirely on structures many times that are not inhabited or occupied by people.”

Electrical installations on farms are still required to meet code.

However, Kibbie questioned whether the governor and his administration could simply decide to not follow the state law on safety inspections.

“If Governor Branstad doesn't like a law, he needs to ask the Legislature to send him a bill changing the law. It really doesn't get much more black and white than this,” Kibbie said.

Kibbie cited a 2009 inquiry by the Electrical Examining Board to the attorney general whether farm properties were exempt from electrical inspections where the AG's Office state that “…there is no support in the Iowa Code for the notion that farms and farm properties are generally excluded from the electrical installation inspection provisions of the Iowa Code. Such an exclusion would run contrary to the public safety objective of the legislation.”