When Barack Obama and Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (aka Joe The Plumber) met recently in Ohio, the two got to talking about small businesses. Wurzelbacher told the senator he's a "plumber" and he's looking to buy a company. Obama asked how long he'd been a plumber. "Fifteen years," Wurzelbacher replied.
Oh, really?
Wurzelbacher registered as an apprentice with the Ohio State Apprenticeship Council in November 2003, according to Dennis Evans, spokesman with the Department of Job and Family Services. Records show his training, which was sponsored by A & W Newell Co. of Toledo, should have been wrapped last year.
"We don't have a record of completion," Evans said. "All we know is that he registered in the program and has gone through to the point where we should have record of completion, but we don't."
And that's not the only record that's missing from Wurzelbacher's file. He doesn't have a plumbing license required by the city of Toledo to practice, according to a staffer with the Toledo Division of Building Inspection. Wurzelbacher, who now works for Newell Plumbing & Heating Co., said the owner, Al Newell, has a plumbing license and that "because he works for someone else, he doesn't need a license."
But even that's not true, according to the Toledo Division of Building Inspection. Wurzelbacher can't legally do plumbing work without a license, regardless of his boss's certification.
A staff person with the Toledo Division of Building Inspection told On Call this afternoon that her division will contact Wurzelbacher to notify him that he can't work without a license.
"We're trying to track him down," she said.
In the meantime, the Democrat-friendly local plumbers' union is fuming.
"He has no license whatsoever with the city of Toledo," said Tom Joseph, the business manager for Local Union 50 of the Plumbers, Steamfitters and Service Mechanics, which has endorsed Obama. "He has no license in the state of Ohio. He has no contractor's license in the state of Ohio. He is not a plumber. He works for a plumber."
What about Wurzelbacher's claim that he is "gettin' ready to buy a company that makes about two hundred and fifty, two hundred and seventy, two hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year" ... ? Wurzelbacher told reporters that when he was hired by Newell six years ago "the possibility of him eventually buying the company was discussed during his job interview."
According to Joseph, Newell Plumbing & Heating is far from a $250K-a-year operation. Newell is running "a two-man shop," he said. "This is not a thriving business."
Isn't there a chance it could be worth $250K? "Oh, God no," Joseph said. "Maybe if he sells him the house, the garage." He explained that the address for the business "is where the man lives at."
"The real Joe Plumbers are for Barack," Joseph added.
