The Oregon Construction Contractors Board has penalized a Multnomah County contractor for seven violations of state law.

The offenses by Robert Kadeem Pasiaka occurred last year, between September and October. He had been issued a “limited” Oregon contractor’s license in August 2014. A limited license costs the same as a “general” contractor’s license, but carries a lower bonding amount.

Pasiaka’s two most serious violations involved his CCB license: working outside the scope of his category drew a $5,000 fine, and employing people but not being licensed to do so drew a $1,000 fine.

The other penalties were:

• two $100 fines for failing to provide clients with Consumer Protection Notice documents;

• a $200 penalty for failing to meet minimum contract standards;

• a $200 fine for failing to provide an Information Notice to a homeowner; and

• a $50 violation for not using an assumed business name.

Pasiaka’s CCB license is currently suspended because he hasn’t paid the fines, according to the board’s enforcement manager, Stan Jessup.

In addition to the $6,650 he owes the CCB, Pasiaka could be on the hook for much more. He also is the subject of three complaints before the board’s Dispute Resolution section, and its mediated agreements typically cost contractors tens of thousands of dollars, Jessup said.

Pasiaka also is listed as a defendant in Clackamas County Small Claims Court for an action filed in November 2015. The plaintiffs are a man and woman from Damascus.

Oregon law requires all construction contractors to be licensed with the CCB before they advertise, bid on or perform construction, remodeling or repair work.

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Salem-based Green Thumb Landscaping and Maintenance Inc. has been fined $20,303 by the Bureau of Labor and Industries for a total of six violations, including an intentional failure to pay overtime and prevailing wage rates to 10 employees.

The fines are related to the subcontractor’s work on Portland Bureau of Parks & Recreation’s Fields Neighborhood Park project in the Pearl District in Portland, where Green Thumb worked from August 2012 to November 2013, said Charlie Burr, BOLI‘s spokesman.

“They were skirting prevailing wage laws by mis-classifying and under-classifying work that workers were performing,” Burr said.

BOLI’s investigation took nearly a year after the bureau received the initial complaint about the company because the owners of Green Thumb failed to provide the necessary payroll and employee contact information for several months, Burr said.

The bureau eventually issued a subpoena in order to obtain the records. But even then, the paperwork submitted to BOLI included inaccurate information about workers’ hours and pay for the project, Burr said.

One employee, for example, was left off the company’s certified payroll record and was misclassified on salary instead of prevailing wage rates. Another employee complained about not receiving daily lunch and rest breaks. The company failed to track those records as required by Oregon law.

Over the past several years, Green Thumb has paid more than $70,000 in fines and back wages to BOLI for unpaid wages. The company also has operated under several different names during that time, including Green Thumb Yard Maintenance Inc., Green Thumb LLC, and Green Thumb and Maintenance Inc., according to BOLI.

During the next six months, BOLI will determine whether Green Thumb will need to pay additional penalties on top of the back wages, Burr said. The process, which would involve a hearing, also could make Green Thumb being ineligible to work on public projects in Oregon for up to three years.

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Johnson Crushers International, a construction equipment manufacturer based in Eugene, will pay a $175,000 fine for releasing hazardous air pollutants and unpaid permit fees, according to a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice.

The judgment, signed Tuesday, orders the company to pay $60,000 to Lane Regional Air Protection Agency and the remainder to the EPA. The penalty must be paid within 5 days of the judgment being handed down, according to assistant U.S. attorney Neil Evans.

The company was fined for its emissions of xylene, a hazardous solvent  released during operations such as the application of paint to metal products.

Johnson Crushers is part of KPI-JCI, which was formed in 1997 when it merged with Kolberg-Pioneer Inc. of South Dakota. JCI manufactures rock crushing and screening equipment in Eugene.

The EPA says xylene can damage the eyes, skin, blood, liver, and kidneys as well as the nervous and respiratory systems. JCI released xylene in excess of federal limits, leading to $147,788 of the total penalty.

JCI also failed to obtain an air operating permit and avoided paying permit fees, for which the company will now pay $27,212.

The settlement reflects violations that occurred between 2004 and 2007, Evans said.

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One Oregon company last year managed to ring up a hefty total of state fines.

In April 2010, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality visited the industrial wood waste landfill in Pilot Rock and noticed smoke coming from the landfill.  In July, the DEQ sent a warning letter to Kinzua Resources, the owner of the site, and the company agreed to hire a contractor to extinguish the surface and sub-surface fires that were most likely caused by spontaneous combustion of waste material.  All the fires were to be extinguished by no later than Aug. 20, 2010.  However, when the DEQ returned on Aug. 25, it again saw smoke wafting up from another sub-surface fire beneath the landfill cover.  Penalty: $7,829.

August and September 2010 brought more bad news for Kinzua because it accepted the disposal of approximately 40,000 cubic yards of waste and log-yard debris from the Boise Cascade-Kinzua Lumber facility.  Problem?  A not-so-minor detail.  Kinzua neglected to get DEQ approval for disposing the waste.  Penalty: $12,800.

On April 15 this year, a time when a lot of people were worried about getting their taxes completed on time so that they wouldn’t get penalized, Kinzua Resources LLC appealed a total of $20,629 in DEQ penalties.

Now, are you still feeling bad about having to do your taxes?

The post For one Oregon company, where there’s smoke, there’s a big fine appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

One Oregon company last year managed to ring up a hefty total of state fines.

In April 2010, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality visited the industrial wood waste landfill in Pilot Rock and noticed smoke coming from the landfill.  In July, the DEQ sent a warning letter to Kinzua Resources, the owner of the site, and the company agreed to hire a contractor to extinguish the surface and sub-surface fires that were most likely caused by spontaneous combustion of waste material.  All the fires were to be extinguished by no later than Aug. 20, 2010.  However, when the DEQ returned on Aug. 25, it again saw smoke wafting up from another sub-surface fire beneath the landfill cover.  Penalty: $7,829.

August and September 2010 brought more bad news for Kinzua because it accepted the disposal of approximately 40,000 cubic yards of waste and log-yard debris from the Boise Cascade-Kinzua Lumber facility.  Problem?  A not-so-minor detail.  Kinzua neglected to get DEQ approval for disposing the waste.  Penalty: $12,800.

On April 15 this year, a time when a lot of people were worried about getting their taxes completed on time so that they wouldn’t get penalized, Kinzua Resources LLC appealed a total of $20,629 in DEQ penalties.

Now, are you still feeling bad about having to do your taxes?

The post For one Oregon company, where there’s smoke, there’s a big fine appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.