Did you ever go back and check the actual rules for your own city after that? I had something kind of like this happen with the fire alarms in my old apartment building. I always rolled my eyes at this one neighbor who kept saying the inspections were fake and nobody ever really tested anything. Then I got bored one night and looked up the local code, and there it all was, dates and records and who has to sign off on it. It is all public if you know where to look, which is the part nobody tells you. So I just started pulling the records for my building every few months and now I actually know what is going on. You might be surprised how much of that paper trail is sitting there waiting for you.

Whoa, one big piece. 57 inches to center.

Been there man, ate a brand new 1/2 inch rougher on a job cause I hit cycle start without checking what the last guy left in the control. Tbh it stings way worse when it is your own money and not the boss's. Now I treat every saved offset like it is a lie until I prove it with my own eye, takes ten extra minutes but way cheaper than a busted tool. Honestly half the reason I even keep a height gauge in my box is cause I got tired of learning the hard way. Only took about three hundred bucks of scrap to figure that one out.