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Quincy planning and inspection staff levels stay largely unchanged in draft budget
Summary
City planning and inspections budgets for the next fiscal year largely continue existing services while carrying two planner vacancies and a vacant plumbing-inspector share; council members asked about adding enforcement staff and legal support.
City planning and inspection leaders told the Quincy City Council during a budget workshop that the departments will mostly carry existing programs into the next fiscal year while trying to refill vacant positions.
The planning and inspection budgets presented Thursday keep the departments near their current staffing and service levels, city staff said. The planning office currently lists six total positions, with two planning positions vacant. The department has had one full-time planner in the office since Feb. 4 and has been operating below its usual three-planner level for roughly two and a half months, the presentation said. On the inspection side, the city budget retains a 40/60 split for a plumbing-inspector position shared with public works after a part-time plumbing inspector retired Dec. 31.
City staff framed the approach as “status quo” after a change in departmental leadership: rather than launching new programs now, the draft budget holds salaries and benefits steady and preserves positions so the department can restore full staffing in the coming year. “We really tried to just kind of carry over from what we did last year,” Jason Parrott said while presenting the planning and inspection items.
Council members pressed staff about enforcement capacity. Alderman Bergman asked whether adding another code enforcement officer would help; staff replied enforcement shortfalls are driven not only by field capacity but by the legal backlog to process violations. “If you're going to add a position like another code enforcement officer, you'd really have to back that up with additional positions,” a staff member said, explaining that identifying violations creates demand that must be addressed through inspections and follow-up legal work.
When asked about salary figures for an additional enforcement officer, presenters pointed to the code-enforcement line in the budget (page 110 of the packet) as the model for total salary and benefits for one full-time person. The budget also holds the protective-inspections (code enforcement) and planning lines steady pending recruitment progress.
The plumbing-inspector share has been advertised for nine to ten months with minimal interest, presenters said. The draft budget retains the 40% city/60% public-works split and keeps the line in place while acknowledging the position may remain unfilled for some time.
The discussion closed with staff reiterating the plan to return the planning team to full strength once vacancies can be filled and to consider new initiatives in a later year after leadership stabilizes.
