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Judge remands case back to city plumbing board

A Blair County judge has ordered the Altoona Plumbing Board to document in writing a decision it made last winter to reject a local plumber’s request to take a master’s test.

Judge Wade Kagarise needs to see a written decision that includes the board’s rationale for denying the request of plumber Trevor Rabenstein before he can rule on the merits of Rabenstein’s appeal, Kagarise wrote in a recent opinion.

Kagarise will make a decision on the merits after receiving the written documentation, provided Rabenstein re-files his appeal at that time, the judge wrote.

The board didn’t initially produce a written decision because the city’s plumbing board ordinance doesn’t require it, said board solicitor Dan Stants.  But the state’s Local Agency Law requires written documentation of all local agency “adjudications,” and the ruling in this case is such an adjudication, Kagarise ruled.

The board’s ruling is an adjudication because it impinges on a right or benefit of the applicant and because the board doesn’t have absolute discretion, Kagarise ruled, citing various precedent cases.

Based on the applicable city ordinance, Rabenstein is entitled to “the inalienable right to engage in lawful employment,” Kagarise wrote, citing a precedent case.

The same ordinance doesn’t give the board total discretion but rather imposes conditions under which it is required to let an applicant take a master’s test, Kagarise wrote.

In March, Rabenstein argued that the board should let him take the test because he’s a master plumber in Johnstown and Altoona’s ordinance states that a master from another Pennsylvania city desiring to do business here must take a master’s exam.

The board denied him based on a clause that gives the board the right to evaluate each candidate’s qualifications and another clause that defines a master’s qualifications as including two years as a journeyman.

Rabenstein lacks the two years of journeyman’s experience.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

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