The Manvel City Council approved a second amendment to its professional inspection services agreement (BBG Consulting division of SafeBuilt) as part of the Jan. 6 consent agenda after staff briefed council on modest rate changes, new virtual-inspection options and performance metrics the vendor provides to the city.

City staff explained that the contracted inspection team replaced a very small in-house operation in 2020 and that contracting remains more cost-effective than hiring a full-time building official and inspectors at this point. Tracy, representing SafeBuilt, told council that SafeBuilt acquired BBG in 2022 and retained the same core staff assigned to Manvel.

Under the proposed amendment, SafeBuilt will raise its per-inspection fee by $2.50 and its plan-review fee by $25 to allow wage increases for inspectors and plan reviewers. Staff noted specific line items: the elevation-certificate review fee will remain at $1.50, and a virtual-inspection/“on-demand” line item was added for limited residential, occupied-home inspections.

Tracy described how the virtual inspections work using a platform called Blitz: inspectors text a link to the homeowner or contractor, take remote control of a smartphone camera and perform inspections for items such as water-heater or furnace replacements where an on-site visit is an inconvenience and commercial or structural inspections are inappropriate. “We're never gonna do a foundation. We're never gonna do framing inspections. We're not gonna do plumbing top-outs. We're doing no commercial inspections in this manner,” she said.

City staff and SafeBuilt also discussed operational metrics. SafeBuilt reported running roughly 15,000 residential inspections in 2024 and said it assigns three inspectors to Manvel along with a full-time plans examiner and permit technician; inspectors come from Brazoria and Galveston counties. Staff noted measurable improvements in plan-review turnaround — one metric cited moved from an average 12 days in Dec. 2023 to about 3 days in Nov. 2024.

Council raised questions about quality control and oversight. SafeBuilt said it conducts internal QA (four supervisory reviews per inspector per year, using unannounced spot checks) and said the company can share QA results with the city. City staff confirmed that inspection results and red-tag information are logged into the city's myGov permitting system in real time and that inspections requested by 3:30 p.m. are scheduled for the next business day, barring special circumstances.

Council members also sought clarity about roofing permits and windstorm certification. City staff explained that roof certification for windstorm insurance is handled by engineers approved under the Texas windstorm program (TDI) and not by the city; the city's review validates contractor work but cannot substitute for engineer certification.

The consent agenda — which included the amendment to the professional inspection-services agreement — passed unanimously. Council members asked staff to return with additional data on builder-by-builder inspection performance and with vendor QA summaries to support any future decisions about bringing all or part of the service in-house.

Ending: With the amendment approved, staff will continue to monitor vendor performance, incorporate inspection metrics into regular reports and prepare budget planning to evaluate whether and when to hire in-house inspection staff.