The Ithaca Common Council voted unanimously Sept. 10 to amend the Planning & Development departmental roster to fund a newly created senior housing inspector position while defunding one housing code inspector slot, a change staff said is budget-neutral and already approved in the city budget.

"To fund the newly created senior housing inspector and add to the department roster, defund 1 housing code inspector, but retain on roster a budget neutral change," Alderson (sic) Kimura moved. The motion was seconded by Alderperson Matos and carried without objection.

During council discussion, members asked for more detail on the proposed compensation and related benefits. Staff said the salary range for the housing inspector classification runs approximately from $62,638 to $74,471, and that fringe benefits (fringe) are typically about 40% of salary, although the percentage varies with salary level. Staff described the senior housing inspector as envisioned primarily as a promotional position placed at the next salary grade under the city’s CSEA contract; final placement will depend on the selected employee’s current step under that contract.

Council members also sought clarity on existing enforcement capacity. Staff said the department currently has four housing code inspectors and a housing code supervisor who sometimes performs field work but is primarily supervisory. Council members asked whether the new position could help track certificates of compliance or exterior property maintenance violations; staff said that expanded tracking is not part of this roster amendment but acknowledged there is interest and that some information can be provided now, though it is laborious to do so under current systems.

Why it matters: the change creates a specialized senior inspector focused on senior housing issues while keeping the department headcount budget-neutral. Council members pressed staff about the actual salary-plus-benefits cost (noted as not shown on the roster language) and potential programmatic uses — such as improving public access to compliance or certificate-of-compliance data — that would require additional staff work or policy direction.

Next steps: staff will implement the roster change under the adopted budget and proceed with hiring procedures governed by the city’s collective bargaining/CSEA rules and placement practices.