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Bluff council hires building code staff, delays formal ordinance until planning review
Summary
At its March 18 meeting the Bluff Town Council approved temporary employment contracts to stand up a building department but agreed to delay formal adoption of the town's construction code ordinance and related fee schedule until Planning & Zoning reviews the draft.
The Bluff Town Council approved temporary employment contracts for two building-code staff and agreed to hold the formal construction-code ordinance until Planning & Zoning reviews the draft and the proposed fee schedule completes its public-comment period.
Town Manager Erin Nelson told the council the hires are intended to let the town accept and process building permit applications once the council adopts the enabling ordinance and finalizes the master fee schedule. "The purpose of this ordinance is just to give the town the authority to issue building permits," Nelson said during the meeting.
The council voted unanimously to hire Corey Coleman to serve as the building official and to hire Kristen Bushnell as a permit technician under temporary contracts. Under terms described at the meeting, Coleman's proposed pay is $1,000 per month and Bushnell's is $500 per month; both positions would also receive a $50 monthly stipend to cover phone and internet. Nelson said Bushnell would receive a separate, one-time $1,000 payment after she delivers a set of permit applications, forms and documented procedures to put the new department into operation. The council directed that the two positions and their compensation be reviewed 120 days after hire.
Nelson said the council still must adopt the construction-code ordinance and the master fee schedule before the town can issue permits. She recommended that Planning & Zoning discuss the draft at its upcoming work session and that the council consider final action on April 1, after the fee-schedule public-comment period closes. "You've got options," Nelson said, describing a timeline that would align the ordinance, the fee schedule and the new hires so the department could begin accepting applications quickly.
Council members who spoke in favor said the hires respond to an immediate shortage of available inspectors in the region and would allow Bluff to process building work during the coming construction season. Nelson said the hires are temporary and that officials will reassess staffing and wages after four months.
The council did not adopt the ordinance or fee schedule at the March 18 meeting; Nelson said the fee schedule must remain open for written comment until March 28, after which the council may adopt it at its April 1 meeting.
