Long Beach, CA · October – November 2022 · Southern California Edison / City of Long Beach

The final passed. The job card still was not signed

A clean inspection, and then most of a month of a project that looked unfinished on paper because the proof of it was in the wrong place.

Written by the Cali Energy project team · California contractor license 1032379 · Updated September 2026

This Long Beach installation passed its final inspection on 3 November 2022, but the inspector recorded it in the city's system rather than signing the paper job card, so the project still looked open to anybody holding the card. Cali Energy went back to the inspector, had the signature produced against the permit and supplied the record at the end of the month. The array is twenty REC Alpha Pure 400 W modules on composition shingle.

At a glance

Modules

REC Alpha Pure, 400 W

Roof

Composition shingle

Final inspection

Passed 3 November 2022

Where it was recorded

In the city's system, not on the paper card

What that cost

Most of a month of a project that looked unfinished

Resolved

Signature produced against the permit, 29 November 2022

Utility / AHJ

Southern California Edison / City of Long Beach

The story

The installation itself is the ordinary kind: an array of four-hundred-watt modules on composition shingle, the conduit run along the roof and down the wall, the equipment in a row where it can be reached and read. It passed its final inspection at the start of November.

Then nothing happened for most of a month, and the reason is worth explaining because it catches people out in this city specifically. The job card — the card an inspector signs at each stage — is a physical thing the contractor carries, and everybody downstream of the inspection is waiting to see that card with a signature on it.

Here the inspector recorded the pass in the city's own system instead. That is a perfectly valid record. It is just not the record anybody was looking at. The paper card stayed blank, and to anyone holding it the project was still open: no signature, no proof, no next step.

What resolves it is knowing which door to knock on. Not everybody has an account in the city's system, and there is no portal that hands a copy to anyone who asks. So it was chased with the inspector directly and the signature was produced against the permit at the end of November — the same inspection, the same date, now in a form the rest of the project could use.

The array was never in question. What was missing was a piece of paper, and a solar project does not finish when the roof is finished — it finishes when the record says it did.

If you are waiting on a solar project that everybody says has passed, ask what form the pass is in. «It passed» and «we have the signed card» are two different statements, and in Long Beach they can be three weeks apart.

How it ran

Twenty-six days between passing an inspection and being able to prove it.

What we did

• Installed the array of REC Alpha Pure 400 W modules and the equipment run on the wall.
• Requested and passed the final inspection on 3 November 2022.
• Established that the pass had gone into the city's system rather than onto the paper job card.
• Went back to the inspector directly and had the signature produced against the permit.
• Supplied the record on 29 November so the project could be closed out.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• You have been told your solar passed but nobody can show you anything.
• Your project is waiting on a signed job card.
• You are outside Los Angeles and the permit process is unfamiliar.
• Your installer says the city has it and the city says ask the installer.
• You want to know what actually closes out a solar project.

Cali Energy in Long Beach

Frequently asked questions

What is a job card and why does it matter?

It is the card an inspector signs at each stage of a permitted job, and in Long Beach it is a physical card the contractor carries rather than something that appears online by itself. It is the document the rest of the project runs on: without a signature on it, everyone downstream treats the work as unfinished even when the inspection has been passed.

The inspection passed — why is there no signature?

Because an inspector can record a pass in the city's system instead of signing the card in front of them. Both are valid records of the same inspection. The problem is that the two are not automatically the same document, and whoever is holding the blank card has no way of seeing the entry. It is chased with the inspector, not with the counter.

How long does this normally hold a project up?

It should not hold anything up at all, and here it held things twenty-six days — from a pass on 3 November to a usable record on the 29th. The delay was entirely administrative: the array was finished, inspected and correct the whole time. Knowing to go back to the inspector rather than wait is what shortens it.

Does Cali Energy handle Long Beach permits and inspections?

Yes, including the part after the inspector leaves. Long Beach runs its own permit counter and its own records, and Cali Energy pulls the permit, carries the job card, books and attends the final, and chases the signature into a form the project can actually use. License CSLB #1032379.

What this would look like on your roof

Related

• A Long Beach permit in eight days. The utility queue had a date on it Long Beach, CA · 17 modules · expedited permit, PTO in September Solar
• One house, two roofs, two ways of mounting Long Beach, CA · 20 × Q CELLS 400 W · tilted rows and flush, final 14 July Solar
• Two corrections, and a clear final eleven days later North Hills, CA · two planes · file closed in eleven days Solar
• One house, one crew, three permits — and the last one held the switch Glendale, CA · 20.8 kW · tile off, shingle on, panel rebuilt, three finals Solar

This timeline reflects this property and this permitting path. Updated September 2026.