ALJDEC - Licensing
2025A-06950-OMC-LS-ROC · Registrar of Contractors · 2025-11-10
IN THE OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
Arizona Registrar of Contractors,
COMPLAINANT
v.
Northern Lights Electric LLC
License No. ROC 343053,
RESPONDENT
No. 2025A-06950-OMC-LS-ROC
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE DECISION
HEARING: October 6, 2025
APPEARANCES:
Complainant: Charles Hover III, Assistant Attorney General
Margaret Lindsey, Assistant General Counsel as witness
Respondent: Christian George
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE: Nedra-Su Kawasaki
EXHIBITS ADMITTED INTO EVIDENCE: Administrative notice was taken of the Notice of Hearing and Hearing Packet submitted by the Registrar of Contractors. Complainant Exhibits 1-14.
_____________________________________________________________________
FINDINGS OF FACT
Northern Lights Electric, LLC (Respondent) was the holder of License No. 343053, issued by the Arizona Registrar of Contractors (Complainant) on February 7, 2023.
Christian George was named as the Qualifying Party and member with 100% ownership.
4 Daughters Electric, LLC was the holder of License No. 323958, issued by Complainant on March 29, 2019.
Mr. George was named as the Qualifying Party and member with 100% ownership of 4 Daughters Electric, LLC on License No. 323958.
Mr. George was associated with 4 Daughters Electric, LLC License No. 323958 from March 29, 2019, until he disassociated on April 1, 2024.
A Final Administrative Decision and Order issued February 15, 2023, accepting the Administrative Law Judge Decision suspended the license of 4 Daughters Electric, LLC, effective March 28, 2023, pending payment of $38,216.29 to Complainant in case No. 2022-06478. Mr. George acknowledged and accepted responsibility for the debt owed in a written answer to the citation issued in Case No. 2022-06478.
Following a complaint filed in December 2023, the license of 4 Daughters Electric, LLC was suspended for ten days and a $500.00 civil penalty was imposed to be paid within thirty days, effective August 19, 2024.
On September 18, 2024, the license of 4 Daughters Electric, LLC was revoked for failure to pay the civil penalty.
On August 5, 2025, Complainant, on its own motion, issued a Citation and Complaint to Respondent alleging a violation of A.R.S. § 32-1154(A)(20).
The matter was referred to the Office of Administrative Hearings, an independent state agency, for an evidentiary hearing.
A Notice of Hearing was issued setting a hearing at 9:00 a.m. on October 6, 2025. The Notice of Hearing was mailed to Respondent at its address and email address of record. An Order from the Office of Administrative Hearings advised the parties of how to connect to the hearing via Google Meet. The hearing was held as scheduled via Google Meet.
Margaret Lindsey testified on behalf of Complainant and presented evidence consistent with the facts set forth above. Complainant argued that the obligations of a license holder did not end automatically at the dissolution of an entity. The license holder must directly notify the Registrar in writing of a disassociation. Likewise, being named on multiple licenses simultaneously is allowed and does not automatically disassociate the named individual from any prior licenses.
Mr. George testified that he was not aware of the requirements in A.R.S. § 32-1127. He further acknowledged the debt owed by 4 Daughters Electrical, LLC and explained it was a result of Covid-19. Mr. George argued that because he was legally blind in one eye, he was ineligible to work for another contractor and must work for himself. Therefore, in an attempt to pay the debt owed by 4 Daughters Electrical, LLC, he obtained the license at issue.
In closing, Complainant stated that the facts were not in dispute, only the application of those facts to the law was at issue. Complainant argued that even if Respondent’s argument that Mr. George became disassociated from the license of 4 Daughters Electrical, LLC on obtaining Respondent’s license, was accepted, Mr. George was still listed on the 4 Daughters Electrical, LLC license at the time it was suspended.
Respondent argued in closing that at the time Respondent obtained a license, no order had been made to suspend 4 Daughters Electrical, LLC license; therefore, no violation of statute had occurred. Respondent further argued that it should not be required to satisfy the debt of 4 Daughters Electrical, LLC because they were separate entities. Finally, Respondent asked for leniency given his disability.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
This matter lies within the Registrar’s jurisdiction.
The expiration, cancellation, suspension, or revocation of a license by operation of law or by decision and order of Complainant or a court of law or the voluntary surrender of a license by a licensee does not deprive Complainant of jurisdiction to proceed with any investigation of or action or disciplinary proceeding against such a licensee, or to render a decision suspending or revoking such a license, or denying the renewal or right of renewal of such a license.
Complainant bears the burden of proof to establish Respondent’s statutory violation by a preponderance of the evidence.
“A preponderance of the evidence is such proof as convinces the trier of fact that the contention is more probably true than not.”
A.R.S. § 32-1154(A) provides, in pertinent part:
The holder of a license or any person named on a license pursuant to this chapter may not commit any of the following acts or omissions:
. . . .
(20) Having a person named on the license who is or was named on any other license in this state or in another state that is under suspension or revocation for any act or omission that occurs while the person is or was named on the license unless the prior revocation was based solely on a violation of this paragraph.
In Arizona, when construing statutes, we look first to a statute’s language as the best and most reliable index of its meaning. If the statute’s language is clear and unambiguous, we give effect to that language and apply it without using other means of statutory construction, unless applying the literal language would lead to an absurd result. Words should be given “their natural, obvious, and ordinary meaning,” unless defined by the legislature.
In the instant matter, Mr. George was named as a qualifying party and 100% owner of 4 Daughters Electric, LLC on License No. 323958 from March 29, 2019, to April 1, 2024. During this time, License No. 323958 was suspended in March 2023 pending payment of $38,216.29 for acts occurring in 2022, suspended and imposed a civil penalty in August 2024 for acts occurring in late 2023, and revoked in September 2024 for failure to pay the imposed civil penalty. Therefore, Complainant established that Respondent violated A.R.S. § 32-1154(A)(20), by having Mr. George named on its license when he was previously named on the license of 4 Daughters Electric, LLC when it was suspended and/or revoked for acts that occurred while he was named on that license.
RECOMMENDED ORDER
Based on the foregoing, it is recommended that the Registrar suspend Respondent’s License No. 343053 until such time that Respondent provides to the Registrar, and the Registrar accepts, documentation that establishes that the debt owed by 4 Daughters Electric, LLC on License No. 323958 has been paid.
Pursuant to A.R.S. § 41-1092.08(I), the licensee may accept the Administrative Law Judge Decision by advising the Office of Administrative Hearings in writing not more than ten (10) days after receiving the decision. If the licensee accepts the Administrative Law Judge Decision, the decision shall be certified as the final decision by the Office of Administrative Hearings.
In the event of certification of the Administrative Law Judge Decision by the Director of the Office of Administrative Hearings, the effective date of the Order will be forty (40) days from the date of that certification.
Done this day, November 10, 2025.
/s/ Nedra-Su Kawasaki
Administrative Law Judge
Transmitted by either mail, e-mail, or facsimile to:
Tom Cole, Director
Registrar of Contractors
Arizona Registrar of Contractors
[email redacted]
Northern Lights Electric LLC
[email redacted]
By: OAH Staff