Committee hears proposed changes to inspections and planning units; city to insource electrical inspections

City staff said the FY2026 proposed Development Services budget includes a proposal to bring electrical inspections in-house and add an electrical assistant inspector who would be cross-trained to perform other inspection and plan-review duties.

Dan Laughlin introduced the item and said the city will move electrical inspections from an outside contractor to an in-house employee "with no impact to our general fund," because the fees are already paid by residents and will simply be collected internally. Mike, a community development staff member, described the change as mainly a customer-service improvement: centralizing inspections will reduce confusion for residents and developers who previously had to contact a separate outside provider.

Mike said the new position will be a combination inspector specializing in electrical work who can ‘‘backfill and provide backup’’ for other inspectors during peak workloads. Staff also noted a roughly $30,000 vehicle purchase in the proposed budget for inspection operations.

Why it matters: staff framed the shift as a service improvement rather than a cost-saving measure. The committee asked whether the change would reduce fees; staff said fees are expected to remain the same and the move is ‘‘not a cost savings move; this is a customer service related move’’ (Laughlin). Committee members pressed on staffing and personnel-service line-item variances; Laughlin explained year-to-year personnel totals can reflect attrition, health-insurance enrollment changes and prior pay adjustments.

Provenance: staff introduced inspections as the first substantive department presentation and returned to questions about planning, neighborhood design districts and cross-training for inspectors during the same discussion.