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St. Louis building division seeks more inspectors, boosts demolition funding as tornado recovery continues
Summary
The Building Division told the Budget Committee May 7 it needs more inspectors and new customer‑service and lead‑program managers to clear permit backlogs and accelerate demolitions tied to tornado damage. Staff say chronic understaffing — about 62 vacancies — and long permit review times are constraining enforcement and recovery work.
Acting Building Commissioner Tim Jeff and his leadership team told the Budget and Public Employees Committee on May 7 that the city’s Building Division faces persistent staffing shortages while preparing for a surge in tornado‑related demolitions and code enforcement work.
Deputy Building Commissioner Dylan Moser said the division’s permit and inspection budget totals roughly $32 million, and that the division requested funding for 217 full‑time positions but currently has about 150 active employees. “We are currently at 62 vacancies,” Moser said, and he warned that roughly half those vacancies are among front‑line inspectors, which makes it difficult to keep up with permit review and enforcement workloads.
Why it matters: aldermen pressed staff on two linked problems — how to get dangerous vacant buildings down quickly after the tornado and how to keep routine permitting and inspection services functioning across neighborhoods. Moser said the division has set aside roughly $3.5 million in additional demolition funding tied to tornado recovery work; earlier the division reported shifting about $3.4 million from a demo surplus to the tornado response while holding about $0.5 million in reserve.
Staff proposed several operational changes. The division has selected a third‑party plan‑review contractor, SafeBuilt, for surge plan‑review work and set aside $100,000 for that contract so staff can handle application spikes without permanently increasing head count. The division is also investing in BEAM software for the Office of Building Performance and finishing a migration off an aging Dataflex system into the STLcity permits platform.
Commissioners repeatedly tied slow permit turnaround and enforcement shortfalls to understaffing and pay. “When you train people and they can go make more money elsewhere, that impacts our ability to keep experienced staff,” Moser said, noting recent departures to other municipalities and private employers. Committee members urged the division to coordinate with Personnel on recruitment and to consider reallocating unfilled salary lines to improve starting pay.
On enforcement strategy, staff described a two‑track approach: maintain area inspectors who respond to general community needs and add a small unit of specialized “strategic code enforcement” inspectors to pursue chronic problem properties from intake through case closure. The division also asked to reinstate a manager role for lead remediation and to create a customer‑service manager who would help residents and owners navigate fines, tax‑sale referral paperwork and cross‑departmental reconciliation.
What’s next: staff said many tech integrations — including adding rental‑registry fields to the residential occupancy permit workflow — are budgeted for FY27 and that the SafeBuilt contract will be implemented after July 1. The Committee asked the administration to provide a clearer plan for converting demolition funds into executed contracts and for concrete recruitment steps to fill inspection ranks.
