(How)Do you deal with corrupt inspectors?

[giddonah]

I was listening to my friend's father who has worked for the phone company for years. He has round hole diggers at his disposal. He wanted to put in a car port. The inspector told him he wanted a 6"x6" square form at the bottom of the holes on something like 4" of rocks. I guess I have to know what exactly code is, but he offered to pour concrete all the way up the hole, but the inspector wouldn't ok it. He decided to retire once, and the town board said "good, we're glad to see you go", so the sob decided to stay just to piss everyone off. That's the area just outside the city I don't want to build in because of the corruption in the "licensing" of plumbers and electricians. One guy in the HomeDepot parking lot said he didn't work within city limits because he couldn't afford the payoffs.

How do you deal/combat this? How do inspectors get there, and who do they report to? The city won't accept people's applications to even take the licensing tests (or, so I've heard). How do you cope in this environment?

Edit: hahaha, it edited piss. hahahaha

[Cole]

In texas you can ask for another inspector, I dont know about it in other states.

[Rich]

Always remember - an inspector can be overruled by an engineer when it comes to structural issues. If you get a hold of the inspectors boss (he does have a boss) and talk with him/her you should be able to get it taken care of. If need be - have an engineer provide a stamped drawing of the situation - that it's acceptable.

[giddonah]

An engineer sounds like a lot of money if you're just doing a small project, but I'm glad to hear that the guy can't be a total dictator. I'll have to see how many inspectors there are before I look into doing anything in that township. Do you guys have any experiences with kind of thing personally?