State Sweep Targets Quake-Repair Crime : Law enforcement: Task force visits numerous Valley homes, finding unlicensed contractors and labor violations.

The workers repairing a quake-damaged Woodland Hills house stood next to a cement-filled wheelbarrow, shovels and trowels in hand, and stared uncomprehendingly at the state official telling the contractor:

“It appears you have committed a crime.”

“What do you mean, a crime?” the contractor asked.

“It’s a felony to do what you’re doing,” said Ken Johnson, a deputy registrar with the Contractors State License Board. He explained that the law required him to have a contractor’s license as well as workers’ compensation insurance for his employees, which he didn’t.

“I have to go call somebody,” the contractor said before getting in his car and driving off, leaving his workers to fend for themselves.

“Welcome to the world of contracting,” Johnson said as he waited for police to arrive.

Johnson was part of a multi-agency task force that conducted a sweep Wednesday through quake-damaged neighborhoods, mostly in Sherman Oaks, searching for unlicensed contractors and licensed contractors in violation of the law.

Nine individuals were cited for functioning as contractors without a license, which carries a fine of $1,500 to $2,000, and 15 licensed contractors were cited for violations ranging from lack of workers’ compensation insurance to having an expired license, which carry fines ranging from $500 to $4,500.

Armed only with cellular phones, members of the task force made random stops at work sites, issuing warnings and citations to offenders.

“It doesn’t solve the problem, but these are people, unlicensed and licensed, that (otherwise) may never have been caught,” said Mike T. Camplin, deputy registrar with the contractors board. “Only (because) we’re out there and questioning these people do these violations come to light.”

The sweep was one of many conducted by the board’s inspectors in quake-damaged neighborhoods since Jan. 17.

Finding violators is no easy task. Sometimes it involves a bit of detective work--violators are photographed and victims of construction scams are sometimes shown photo lineups of past violators to identify suspects.

And sometimes there are brushes with danger.

“I had a contractor who threatened to kill me the next time he saw me,” Johnson said. “People get hostile out here.”

In what has evolved into a running battle since the quake created a mass market for home repair work, there are also small victories.

Wednesday’s sweep began at about 8 a.m. as representatives of three state agencies gathered in the parking lot of a Riverside Drive mini-mall in Sherman Oaks to receive their assignments. Like police officers on undercover operations, they wore casual clothes that belie their titles--a necessity, given the work they do.

“What we do is not for three-piece suits,” Camplin said, standing in the parking lot. “Sometimes we have to scam these guys. We don’t exactly lie, we just don’t tell them the whole truth, to find out who the contractor is and what’s going on.”

The Contractors State License Board is not the only agency interested in finding unlicensed contractors and licensed violators.

Members of the Employment Development Department want to talk to them, too. Their goal was different: to find unregistered employers who are paying workers in cash and not paying taxes, said Bill Jenkins.

Also along were inspectors for the state Labor Commission, looking for labor-law violations.

After a briefing in the parking lot, 12 investigators fanned out into Sherman Oaks, staying in contact by cellular phones.

Investigators such as Johnson see the world through trained eyes. Driving along the freeway, he spotted a truck owned by a sandblasting company and called his office to determine if the truck belongs to a contractor he had cited before.

Each house he passes with a pile of rubble or bricks in front--a sign of repair work--is a potential crime scene, and hard for Johnson to pass up.

“Once you get started, it’s like eating peanuts,” he said, as he left one damaged house and walked toward a red brick house with a pile of bricks in the driveway.

In all, the six investigators with the contractors board made 68 stops during the sweep. In most interviews, contractors presented their licenses willingly and cooperated.

Contractor Wilhelm Braun, building a chimney at a house on Buffalo Avenue, made no complaint about showing his contractor’s identification card to Johnson.

“Everything checked out fine,” Johnson said, after calling his office to see if the license was valid or if there were any other problems.

Braun welcomed the sweep.

“I’m glad you guys are doing it because the guys that don’t have a license are taking a lot of money out of our pockets,” Braun said. He’s been a contractor for 20 years, he said, and he resents unlicensed competitors.

But at the house in Woodland Hills, Johnson was far from welcome.

Battling language barriers--the workers spoke Spanish and Tongan--Johnson tried to explain the problem.

Workers became belligerent and refused to give him their identification.

Caught in the middle was homeowner Charles Gomes, who thought he had taken enough precautions to avoid such problems.

Before signing the contract, Gomes called the automated contractors board telephone line to determine if the contractors’ license number on the contract was valid. It was, but it did not belong to the man who signed the contract, Johnson said. And the recording does not tell callers if the contractor has workers’ comp coverage.

Johnson had issued a citation to one of the workers at Gomes’ house last week for unlicensed contractor activity, but by that point workers had torn off the roof of Gomes’ house and he felt he had no choice but to continue with the same contractor.

“I got a bare roof and two block walls torn down,” a frustrated Gomes said. “I’m not going to stop the job. If it rains on me, I’m dead.”

Officer Wilton Mays of the Los Angeles Police Department and his partner--who showed up in response to a call from Johnson--calmed the angry workers and assisted Johnson in getting the workers’ names and taking photographs of them for contractors board records.

For Johnson, who remained calm throughout the incident, the encounter was just another day in the quake-repair zone.

“You hear all kinds of stories,” he said. “You see all kinds of things. It makes you feel good when you can help people. . . . Sometimes you can help them but not as much as they would like.”

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