At the end of the year, Jeff Pardini's employees at Hills Flat Lumber Co. will have to throw away $30,000 in brass fittings because a small amount of lead in them will make the parts illegal in California starting Jan. 1.

Pardini's family has sold the brass fittings for years, but state regulations say he can't even give them away at his stores in Grass Valley and Colfax.

His story was just one of many told to a packed house at a regional jobs and business retention hearing hosted Friday by Assemblyman Dan Logue and Rep. Tom McClintock at Nevada County's Rood Administrative Center.

The meeting was one in a series where Logue has been gathering testimony to bolster his economic recovery package he plans to unveil for the state in mid-December.

Forced waste, increasing complexity of regulations, the rising cost to meet regulations even as the economy tumbles and being forced to buy poor-quality equipment were among the frustrations voiced by regional business owners.

Lowell Robinson, patriarch of the Robinson Enterprises energy and timber firm in Nevada City, said clean air regulations have forced him to buy new equipment.

His company recently bought trucks with regulated engines.

“Half of them are lemons” that don't get as many miles per gallon as those he was forced to replace.

To meet vapor recovery regulations at the company's four gasoline-diesel stations, Robinson had to buy $200,000 worth of new nozzles one year ago. Since then, “ten of them have failed,” spewing gasoline, he said.

In one instance, gasoline spilled all over a customer's $50,000 boat “because the nozzle wouldn't shut off,” Robinson said. “Yesterday, I filled up, and it just spilled gas right on the ground.”

“This is not funny. It is costing us our livelihoods,” said Nevada County contractor Craig Souter, who has been doing business here more than 30 years. “The Nevada County construction industry is drying up. We're dying out here.”

In 1979, he had a simple state manual on construction rules, but now there are enough to make him invisible if they were stacked on his desk, the contractor said.

“We have to roam through these books figuring out what to do,” Souter said. “Where in the world did these regulations come from? What are you going to do to stop this?”

Breeze Cross, owner of Tahoe-Truckee Lumber Co., said his income fell from $27 million in 2007 to $12 million this year due to the economic downturn, but the cost of meeting government regulation hasn't declined.

Instead of growing his firm so he can turn it over to family members, “I'm in the process of salvaging my business,” Cross said. “I don't see government reducing its spending the way my business is and my customers are.”

Idaho-Maryland Mine Corp. President David Watkinson told the panel that metal mining “has all but left the state” due to “constantly changing regulations.”

It should be the opposite, he said.

“California should be a leader in natural resources manufacturing,” Watkinson said.

While most had horror stories, Vice President B.J. North of Plumas Bank from Plumas County suggested solutions.

“Focus on getting small loans to small businesses,” North said. “Outsource some government to private industry.”

As she travels to the northeastern California bank's branches, North sees and hears from businesses losing profits to regulatory expenses, she said.

“Don't ignore the rural communities. They're the backbone of the state,” North said.

Other members of the panel included Nevada County Supervisors Ted Owens and Hank Weston, Sierra County Supervisor Peter Huebner, Truckee Vice Mayor Wallace Dee, Grass Valley City Manager Dan Holler, Nevada City Finance Director Catrina Andes and Mary Ann Mueller, president of the Grass Valley-Nevada City Chamber of Commerce.

To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail dmoller@theunion.com or call 477-4237.