CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — How many times have the Troubleshooters reported on unscrupulous contractors ?
Next Tuesday, April 11th, City manager Peter Zanoni will brief city council on Development Services "STAR" program.
It's a voluntary program for contractors, but it's designed to assist residents in finding qualified residential contractors.
We first reported on the STAR program in November 2021.
STAR is actually an abbreviation for Safety, Training, Accountability, and Registration.
City councilman Gil Hernandez represents District 5, which encompasses a majority of the city's south side. "It'll give us, give us as citizens, the citizens who are wanting to do contract work, at least as a reference point to go to and see whether or not a contractor has gone thru the process to show their efforts to have some documentation behind them with our city."
It's important to note that this program. the first of its kind in Corpus Christi, is voluntary for contractors.
Al Raymond, Director of Development Services, told the Troubleshooters, there are already thousands of contractors registered with the city.
So the STAR program is intended to protect residents from situations where the contractor did not pull the necessary permits.
"Does this eliminate the unscrupulous contractors ? No it will not," Hernandez told us. "You're always going to have some unscrupulous contractors."
But for those contractors wanting to be registered with Development Services, there will be 3 levels to the star program...Bronze. Silver. And Gold.
But when choosing who you'll pay to do thousands of dollars to do work at your home, Hernandez advises "Don't give up the full amount up front. Do your due diligence. Do a little bit of back up work on these people. Better Business Bureau. Our new STAR program. Whatever it may be. It's still buyer beware in a lot of ways."
