We are proud to announce that Greg Rash, ceo and locksmith of our company has recently passed his recertification courses for the X-09 as well as the Fire & Life safety codes.

Greg flew down to California where on October 4th, 2011,  he took  and successful completed the Kaba X-09 Certification, Installation and Operation course. This was a chance to freshen up his education and allows us to continue to do provide the highest quality of service when working with various government agencies.

Greg also took the Fire & Life Safety Code class on October 6th, 2011, allowing him to continue to maintain his knowledge to help make sure our commercial clients are more aware of how the laws affect their businesses; so they will know if they are in compliance and what can interfere with fire & life safety codes.

We are proud to continue to keep ourselves educated in our trade, to assure our customers that we are staying up with the latest information and technologies available.

In Washington state, there have been attempts to create a law that will negatively impact honest locksmiths while not safeguarding from fly by night companies. Fortunately, this has not going through, but it is not the end of it. Locksmiths in Washington state need to continue to keep our eyes and ears open for more information about this in the future.

The following is the last update that we had. While, again, it has been postponed for the time being, we believe that knowledge is important.

————— January 11, 2011  SB5177 Locksmith Licensing UPDATE—————

Licensing Opposers:

There has been a lot happening today on SB 5177 (Senate Bill on locksmith licensing).

Jeff Trinin & Todd Sherman testified on the bill this morning –see the TVW link below & go to about 46 minutes, it’s good for a laugh. Sen. Conway (Vice Chair) pointed out that DOL hasn’t had out reach to locksmiths or the Trade Asc (NWLA).

I have a meeting with Sen Carrell (sponsor) next week and Patrick from the NFIB is trying to get one with Sen. Kohl-Wells (Committee Chair). There are a few other locksmiths that will also attend.

Our focus should be on contact with the Committee (Sen Labor) members. The points to make with them or their Legislative Aids (LA) is to take no action on the bill & let it die, be clear you oppose the bill and maybe something about how it might affect you. Watch the TVW video to see what the committee seems concerned with and point out the bill will not solve it, existing consumer protection by the AG should be enforced. Also that there is no way to control locksmith knowledge in today’s world with the internet etc. that it’s now public domain. With the show of some opposition to the committee, it might scare them off from action. The leg likes to see support for licensing and if there is much opposition show they will shy away from it.

If you email me with a quick note of what your contact was & who, I’ll take it with me next week when I attend the NFIB small biz day. It will be more I can show the Sen’s that there is opposition by the industry.

I reviewed the bill and found that they re-worked the Security Guard and various other licensing laws to fit us in. The bill seems based on the bill last year, but some exceptions.

No longer is there a  board of various people to set qualifications, create or select tests, administer the tests, create disciplinary proceedures etc. All of that is given to the Director of DOL (Dept of Licensing).

Criminal background isn’t limited to 10 years and it’s the Director’s discretion if the crime precludes licensing.

The written exam is still in, now it is to be developed, maintained and administerd by the department,  the Director (should it be dictator?) may choose to use an examination prepared by a national entity. Why National? Why not NWLA’s if we have one?

Renewal is yearly instead of 5 years

DOL (Dept of Licensing) Director shall establish the rules for suspension or revoking a license and setting qualifications to be a locksmith

Lock is defined to include CCTV, Card readers, Keypads, Bio scanners, etc. so we might be able to install this low voltage stuff with the law? Interesting.

EXEMPTIONS STILL IN PLACE:

Sales Rep

Hardware store employee rekeying new locks (don’t some of those places rekey old ones you take in too?)

Key duplicating employees

Property owner

Bank employees

Auto Service dealer

Carpenters installing hardware

Tow Truckers

Some of these people are the cause of some of the worst problems.

I don’t think the License # in Ads is in here and it doesn’t seem to address the scammer issue.

Committee Contacts:

http://www.leg.wa.gov/Senate/Committees/LCCP/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx

Bill details:

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?year=2011&bill=5177

Committee Hearing This Morning –Go to about 46 minutes, Jeff Trinin & Todd Sherman testify. It’s good for a laugh actually.

http://www.tvw.org/media/mediaplayer.cfm?evid=2011011135&TYPE=V&CFID=2013554&CFTOKEN=16594841&bhcp=1

Thanks

Larry Nicholas, CPL.

President

Accurate Lock & Security

Bellingham

360-733-2020

NWLA Legislative Director

A lot of people are surprised to hear that the locksmith business is seasonal. We have our busier months (summer/holidays) as people tend to be “busier” and don’t pay as much attention to ‘what they did with the keys’.

However, the other thing that can slow down business is: snow. That’s right, snow. As most locksmith’s don’t have four wheel drive vehicles. Not to mention that the cost if someone who out driving in the snow, and they don’t know how to do it, t-bone your locksmith vehicle.

Unfortunately, depending on where you live, not every one knows how to drive in the rain, not to mention snow. In our area, we have already had three major accidents at intersections, and this the first day of snow. We get more rain in our area, than snow. Today it is spiraling down, tomorrow it may be sunny and the next day we may have rain.

A locksmith can:

1. Unlock you home, car or business when you have locked the keys inside.
2. Open most combination padlocks.
3. Re-key your house, business or vehicle locks.
4. Make keys to your home, business or vehicle.
5. Duplicate keys; house, vehicle including VATS and transponder, padlocks, car carriers, motor home, motorcycle and many more.
6. Work on both residential and commercial hardware.
7. Sell and service locks, safes, and commercial hardware.
8. Open Safe Deposit Boxes.
9. Open and repair (most) Safes.
10. Sell hard to find keys and often times lock parts.

The above is just a partial list of the type of things that Locksmiths work on, sell, and/or service.