The handyman seeking to unseat fellow Republican Ann Hildebrand from the Pasco County Commission is missing something: a contractor’s license and an occupational license.

Wil  Nickerson is challenging Hildebrand in the Aug. 26 primary for the west Pasco seat. And it's Hildebrand who first brought Nickerson's handyman business --  including painting, welding and sprinkler repair -- to a county consumer affairs investigator's attention.

“Unfortunately, businesses like this operate in Pasco County and are a constant problem to deal with,” investigator Dennis R. Jones wrote in a letter Friday to Hildebrand.

Hildebrand said she recently received anonymous mail with a Nickerson handyman ad in the newsletter for his neighborhood, Forest Hills East. So she turned it over to the county.

Nickerson said he generally gets paid $20 to $30 a job, mostly for seniors in the neighborhood, but he sometimes goes two or three weeks without work. He used to have an occupational license for a classic car repair business, Nickerson said, but didn’t think he needed one for “odds and ends” he does for neighbors.

“The law’s the law,” he said, acknowledging the likelihood he needed  licensing. “If I need a contractor’s license, I guess that’s what I should do.”