The following is a letter from our Union President Mary Reed to the City of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. This letter is in response to comments made at a City Counsel Meeting on April 28th in regards to the work that we do.
To: The Honorable Mayor Sam Liccardo
City of San Jose
Dear Mayor Liccardo,
Let me introduce myself. My name is Mary Reed. I am a Supervising Building Inspector and the proud representative of the 76 members of the Association of Building, Mechanical and Electrical Inspectors (ABMEI).
I am writing to express our disappointment in comments you made during the City Council meeting of April 28, 2020. Particularly your emphasis that we were only a regulatory agency and not part of the construction industry and thus should not have been afforded the protections from the spread of Covid -19 by the shutdown of active construction by the County of Santa Clara order.
Let me remind you of what that regulatory agency consists of: People. Husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. All concerned about their own health and the potential of their work bringing this virus into their home.
Let me remind you who we regulate: People. Contractors and homeowners alike. We do this by walking in and out of approximately 2000 homes a week. The homes of people who are sheltering, Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. People, who in our normal course of business, are not present. People who are usually at work and school while we go about the normal course of our business.
We are more than regulatory. We guide, offer suggestions to help work become compliant, we are the industry’s subject matter experts. We all have a construction background and we use that to move jobs through the compliance process. The very nature of our job is to safeguard the life and safety of this community.
To continue to move freely through the homes of our citizens, the same citizens that are currently prevented from entering City Hall for their protection and to shelter City Staff that are working at the office, at the height of the pandemic, would have jeopardized that same life and safety we swore to protect.
It is for all these reasons we supported the decision of City Manager David Sykes, Deputy City Manager Kip Harkness and Director Rosalynn Hughey to limit in person inspections to only those projects of essential need to the community. For those we could not visit in person the Building Division managers and Inspection staff developed and implemented a remote video inspection that did not exist prior to the shutdown. We answered the call to the best of our abilities and in 10 minutes of a public forum you dismissed those efforts.
We want to be of service, we are proud of the work we do, we are the members of ABMEI. I invite you to come meet us and see firsthand the work we do. You will find we are less regulatory and more collaborative. As people should be.
Sincerely,
Mary Reed
President, ABMEI