Pinellas County Contractor License: A 2024 Special Act

Pinellas County licenses contractors through the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board, and its governing law changed recently: Chapter 2024-294, Laws of Florida, approved and filed on 14 June 2024, repealed the 1975 special act and a dozen amendments to it. Two consequences of that change are still contradicted by material the county has left published.

The board, and what now governs it

The county describes the arrangement plainly:

“The Contractor Licensing Department manages the business of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board (PCCLB). The PCCLB has been licensing contractors, enforcing construction licensing law and protecting citizens in Pinellas County since 1973.”

The current instrument is an act of the Florida Legislature rather than a county ordinance. Its own title describes the scope of what it did:

“An act relating to the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board, Pinellas County; codifying, reenacting, amending, and repealing special acts relating to the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board”

It repeals chapters 75-489, 78-594, 81-466, 85-490, 86-444, 89-504 and 93-387 among others, and enacts a charter in their place.

The prohibition, in the charter’s own words

Section 13(1) of that charter lists what no person may do, including at (f):

“Engage in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor or advertise himself or herself as available to engage in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor without being duly certified”

Note what is absent. The equivalent provision of the repealed 1975 act read “without being duly registered or certified”. The 2024 act drops those two words, which matters for the question below.

The county still publishes the act it repealed

pinellas.gov continues to serve a retyping of chapter 75-489 — the act that Chapter 2024-294 expressly repealed — carrying its own note that it is not the authoritative copy. A reader who finds that document first will read a prohibition phrased differently from the one now in force.

Both documents are real and both are published by the county. The 2024 act is the later instrument and is the one that repealed the other, and this page does not attempt to reconcile the two beyond saying which came second.

Whether a state-certified contractor must register

The county answers this, and then contradicts itself.

A notice updated 24 June 2024, headed for state-certified contractors, states:

“This New Special Act eliminates the requirement for state-certified contractors to register with the PCCLB.”

The Contractor Licensing page, meanwhile, still carries the sentence “State Certified Contractors must register to work in Pinellas County” — and those words are the link to the notice that says the opposite.

The June 2024 notice is the later and more specific document, and it is the one that describes the effect of the act now in force. The page sentence it links from was not updated with it. Anyone relying on either should confirm with the department rather than with this page, because the county’s own two statements disagree.

The categories, including the tiers the state does not issue

The published classification list, updated 23 May 2024, carries state-corresponding classes alongside county specialty classes. Four journeyman tiers have no state equivalent: Air Conditioning Journeyman, Journeyman Electrician, Journeyman Plumber and Journeyman Pipe Fitter. The county issues no master class.

That local-only pattern is not peculiar to Pinellas — the journeyman tier counties issue sets out where the authority to issue it comes from, and why it is a county instrument by statutory design.

A May 2024 notice eliminated seven specialty categories effective 1 July 2024: awning, cabinet, finish carpentry, flatwork masonry, non-electric sign, paving, and tile and marble.

What this page does not settle

The county’s code of ordinances is published through a third-party platform that returns no readable text, so the ordinance layer beneath the special act is cited here and not quoted. Where the charter and an ordinance might differ, this page follows the charter, because that is the document available in full.

Where to go next: state certification against local registration covers the distinction this county’s 2024 act turns on, how local licensing works in Florida covers the county layer generally, and the Florida general contractor license guide covers the state framework.