(a) It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, company, corporation or partnership engaged in business as an electrical contractor to install, repair or maintain any electrical circuit, electrical equipment or electrical apparatus unless such person, firm, company, corporation or partnership shall have first been granted by the County a business license, entitling the licensee to perform such work.
(b) All installations, repairs, maintenance or other work done under a business license issued pursuant to this Chapter shall be by, or under the ultimate supervision of, the master electrician or master electrician limited regularly and principally employed by said licensee and designated on such business license as responsible for the work performed thereunder whose active status, in accordance with Section 17-25, has been certified by the Board. For the purpose of this Subsection, the words "regularly and principally employed" shall mean that the master electrician or the master electrician limited shall be available to supervise the installation whenever such work is being performed by any electrician under his supervision for whose work he is responsible and that he is not employed by more than 3 licensees at one time. Nonavailability on the job for more than a two-hour period of any master electrician, or master electrician limited, to supervise the performance of any electrical work performed under the authority of an electrical permit issued to him shall be cause for the suspension or revocation of this license.
(c) Nothing herein shall limit an electrical contractor from having more than one master electrician or master electrician limited in his employ.
(d) An applicant for a business license shall furnish, on a form approved by the Director, complete identification of the business, including principals, partners or affiliated corporations; references; criminal violations or civil judgments entered or causes of action pending against the business; name and license number of the supervising master electrician or master electrician limited and such other information as may be required as to character references and financial responsibility.
(e) An applicant for a business license shall furnish a certificate from an insurance company qualified to do business in the State of Maryland of public liability insurance in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000.00) coverage for death or personal injury of one (1) or more individuals, and three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000.00) coverage for property damage, which insurance shall provide coverage for work done under any permit issued hereunder by the County and shall include coverage for both premises operations and completed operations. Such liability insurance shall state that the coverage therein provided for shall remain in full force and effect until thirty (30) days following the date written notice of cancellation or failure to renew is given by the insurance carrier or its authorized agent to the County, and any certificate of insurance furnished pursuant to this Section shall provide for such coverage.
(f) Subject to the provisions contained in Section 17-24, each license and renewal of same shall be in force and effect only as long as the insurance certificates that have been filed with the Board, in accordance with the provisions of this Section, shall remain in full force and effect. Every such license or renewal of same shall become void and of no effect should any such insurance contract become inoperative, ineffective or canceled, regardless of the regular date of expiration of said license.
(g) It shall be the joint and several responsibility of the contractor and the master electrician responsible for any electrical construction to cause at least one (1) licensed County master or journeyman electrician to be present on every job site at all times when any work is being performed. If there are one (1) or more persons on the job site performing electrical work, the contractor and/or the master electrician must provide at least one (1) licensed master or journeyman electrician on the job site for every three (3) or less unlicensed persons performing electrical work. (1974 L.M.C., ch. 15, § 1; 1982 L.M.C., ch. 55, § 1.)
Editor’s note-The above section is quoted and interpreted in United Electric Supply Co. v. Greencastle Gardens Section III Limited Partnership, 36 Md. App. 70, 373 A.2d 42 (1977).
