Plumbing Instructor Backed Up By Filing Date Switch

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang A TEACHER WITHOUT A CLASS: Retired Buildings Department Plumbing Inspector Emanuel Troise has relied on giving courses for the annual Master Plumber licensing exam as his main form of income since leaving the agency nearly two decades ago. A change in the filing date for this year's exam has placed his class in jeopardy.

For the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, it was the simple act of changing the date of the Master Plumber licensing exam filing deadline. For retired Department of Buildings Plumbing Inspector Emanuel Troise, it was a direct threat to his livelihood.

Originally, the test for the license was to be given on Oct. 10 with a filing deadline of June 23. But earlier this month DCAS announced that the new filing deadline would be May 20.

Course Too Late Now

The rub is that Mr. Troise, of Staten Island, has given a training course for this exam every year for the last 35 years, with anywhere from 60 to 100 people paying $2,500 for 24 training sessions. In March, he spent $10,000 mailing out advertisements for the registration date of May 28 for this year's courses, before he learned of the new filing deadline.

In a letter to DCAS, Mr. Troise asked the agency to accept registrations until June 23, the original filing date. He even offered to "pay a reasonable late fee surcharge on behalf of any of my students who are unable to meet the current May 20, 2009 deadline."

Mr. Troise claimed that most of the people who take the city's exam every year take his courses. Usually, he said, nearly 60 people score high on the exam, but without his course this year, that will change.

'Lucky to Get 5 Passing'

"I can guarantee you they'll be lucky to get five guys to pass the test," Mr. Troise said. "Ninety percent of the people who take that exam take my course."

Mr. Troise, who retired from the DOB in the early 1990s, has depended on giving these classes for income in retirement. This year his classes could all be eliminated, he said, with the sudden change in filing dates.

"My whole income is based on this examination," Mr. Troise said. "Give me 20 days extra for filing. Is that too much to ask?"

A spokesman for DCAS said the agency was reviewing the situation.