For the third time since February 2013, the Cape Girardeau City Council will consider eliminating the city's board of examiners.

The city staff plans to propose such a measure when the council meets Jan. 9, city officials said Tuesday.

Past efforts have fizzled because of opposition from the examiners.

Licensed plumber and board chairman Jeffrey Heise said he and other examiners also will oppose this attempt.

The eight-member board, appointed by the council, examines the qualifications of all applicants for city licenses for plumbers, mechanical installers, master drainlayers and electricians.

Board approval allows applicants to take an exam in their trade. The city licenses the people if they pass the exam, which is administered by a private testing service at various locations in the region.

Heise said it is important to have an independent board that has "more than one person" looking at an applicant's qualifications, including apprenticeship training.

The applicant is required to attend a board meeting where his or her qualifications are considered. Heise said board members can ask the applicants to clarify their on-the-job experience.

Heise, who has served on the board since 2004, said board members "look at everybody equally."

Typically, there are one or two applicants at each board meeting, Heise said.

Heise said the examiners are valuable to the city not only in terms of the licensing process, but as a mechanism to advise the city council and city staff regarding construction trades' licensing issues.

Heise acknowledged at times it can be hard to find qualified people to serve as examiners, but said that is no reason to scrap the board.

"I think the city council just doesn't understand what our job is," Heise said.

Seven of the eight members are required to be licensed practitioners in at least one of the construction trades. Four of eight board members must have at least six years of experience in addition to being licensed.

According to Anna Kangas, the city's building and code-enforcement manager, all eight positions on the board are filled.

Mayor Harry Rediger said the future of such a board has been an issue for years.

"We have been through this a couple of times," he said.

Rediger said he backs the recommendation of city staff to do away with the board.

"I do agree with staff that it is an administrative function," he said.

Several years ago, the city revised the board structure to allow two members of the board to reside outside city limits but in Cape Girardeau County. Kangas said that was done to make it easier to secure qualified people to serve on the board.

Kangas said the city's inspection staff already reviews the qualifications of construction trades' applicants before each meeting of the board of examiners.

Although the board legally could meet once a month, the board met only four times in 2015 and again this year.

Kangas said allowing the city staff to review qualifications of applicants would allow people to take the various licensing exams sooner. The current system, she said, "just slows down licensing."

In addition, applicants who have been licensed in other cities routinely are granted licenses here, she said.

Kangas said many cities have eliminated boards of examiners and turned over the review-of-qualifications task to city staff.

Cape Girardeau city staff proposed eliminating the board of examiners in February 2013 and again in October 2014.

In both cases, the council was faced with the task of filling vacancies on the board.

Both times, qualified applicants were found to serve on the board, and the council dropped plans to terminate the board, city officials said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.