SafeBuilt offers inspection, plan‑review and permit‑processing services; trustees question zoning scope and cyber safeguards

SafeBuilt operations manager Katie Bockovich told trustees the company provides inspection, plan review and permit‑processing services and currently serves roughly 72–74 municipal clients. “We currently I know last year at this time we were at about 65 clients. We’ve grown to about 72, 73 clients,” Katie Bockovich said. She said SafeBuilt assigns consistent staff to each municipality, conducts quarterly field quality audits and offers its operational software free to clients for nonfinancial permitting workflows. Why it matters: The village is weighing whether to contract out inspection and permit services, whether zoning review should remain in‑house, and what technical and cybersecurity protections a vendor must meet before a contract is executed. What SafeBuilt proposed: Bockovich said SafeBuilt can provide full‑service or supplemental inspection and plan review, remote or on‑site permit‑processing staff, and optional zoning review if the village includes it in the contract. She said inspectors use iPads and SafeBuilt maintains an internal backup system to continue work when client systems are unavailable. Discussion highlights: Trustees and attendees asked whether SafeBuilt could operate entirely within its own system, and Bockovich said the firm can process permits start‑to‑finish for other municipalities but that its system is not a financial system and therefore typically runs alongside a separate municipal financial platform. A trustee asked whether zoning review had been excluded; Bockovich said SafeBuilt can provide zoning review if included in contract terms. Cybersecurity and data resilience: One trustee asked about ransomware protections and CISA compliance. Bockovich said she would supply additional technical information from SafeBuilt’s IT team and that the firm had not experienced a reported hacking incident in her 11 years with the company. Pricing and operations: Bockovich said most clients are billed hourly with a one‑hour minimum and that SafeBuilt attempts to group inspections to minimize village charges. She said the firm provides ordinance review and staff training without extra charges. Requests from trustees: Trustees asked for examples of redacted invoices or sample billing for a range of projects to compare costs; Bockovich agreed to provide sample invoices and examples from other municipalities where possible. Next steps: Trustees indicated the zoning‑in‑house versus contracted decision would be a policy call for the board; contracting, pricing and cybersecurity provisions would be resolved through the normal procurement and contract process.