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Bluff council hires temporary building staff to start department work; ordinance delayed for Planning & Zoning review
Summary
The Bluff Town Council voted March 18 to approve temporary employment contracts for Corey Coleman (building official) and Kristen Bushnell (permit/administration), while deferring passage of a formal building‑code ordinance until Planning and Zoning reviews the draft.
The Bluff Town Council voted unanimously March 18 to approve temporary employment contracts to jump-start a local building department while the council and Planning and Zoning finalize ordinance language and a fee schedule. The contracts authorize Core y Coleman to serve as the building official and Kristen Bushnell to prepare permit documents and the permitting system; council members approved monthly stipends and a one‑time setup payment for Bushnell.
Erin Nelson, town manager, reviewed the contracts and pay terms for the council. Nelson said the town proposed a $1,000 monthly stipend for the building official (Corey Coleman) and $500 monthly for the permit technician (Kristen Bushnell), plus a one‑time $1,000 payment to Bushnell to assemble applications, forms and shared folders. Nelson added a $50-per-month stipend intended to defray phone and internet costs. The council also set a 120-day review of the roles and wages to evaluate how the new arrangements work during the initial period.
Nelson told the council that the ordinance giving the town authority to issue building permits should be considered after Planning and Zoning reviews the draft in a work session; she recommended delaying formal adoption until Planning and Zoning and the council had time to coordinate. "If the master fee schedule is approved on the first, Kristen has all of her documents ready on April 1," Nelson said, describing a path to make permits available quickly once the ordinance and fees are in place.
Council members said local availability of qualified inspectors and administrators was limited and that hiring the temporary staff now would let the town accept applications and stand up procedures rather than waiting through a lengthy recruitment process. The council approved the contracts by voice vote with no dissent.
Actions recorded at the meeting instruct staff to bring the ordinance back for council consideration after Planning and Zoning review and to proceed with onboarding the two temporary employees under the terms approved by the council.
