Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Building Department topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Building inspector flags staffing gaps, consultant reliance and vehicle needs
Summary
Building inspector Scott Ransom told trustees the department remains understaffed, expects to continue using consultants and plan reviewers through late summer, and asked for equipment and vehicle support to maintain inspections and plan-review capacity.
Scott Ransom, the village building inspector, addressed trustees during the March 25 budget hearing about the department's workload, staffing needs and near-term spending expectations.
Ransom said the building department handles plan reviews, permits, inspections and code enforcement and is mostly staffed but still has one position to fill and limited inspection capacity. He identified an assistant building inspector role that needs to become full-time and said a staff member (Frank Tavolacci) is performing valuable inspection and certification tasks while working up to full capacity.
The inspector told trustees the department has been using consultants and outside plan reviewers to handle workload while staff capacity was disrupted; he said consultants will likely be needed through August or September but expects to phase them down as in-house capacity increases.
Ransom described equipment needs, including a plan desk and vehicles for inspectors. "We have, so there's code enforcement who needs a vehicle. We have Matt Ganser who does all the property file requests. And, of course, we're we have the wonderful setup of having a shuttle between here and 650 Halstead with files," Ransom said, explaining that five vehicles were requested to enable fieldwork and file transfers. He clarified one vehicle among those is for fire inspections.
On fees and revenue, Ransom said staff is reviewing fee structures and expects to realign certain fees with neighboring municipalities; trustees noted a roughly $20,000 reduction in fees was included in the draft. Ransom also said the department issues roughly 80–100 permits per month and that plan-review consultant costs should decline once internal capacity grows.
Trustees discussed whether developers can cover review costs for large projects and whether some permit lines should be reclassified (for example, sidewalk-cafe fees). Ransom suggested that, for large projects, applicants could bear some review costs. He also noted that some revenue lines (for example, miscellaneous building fees) were restructured into separate lines for fire inspections, tree permits and sanitary-sewer fees to improve transparency.
No vote was taken on any departmental appropriation; trustees directed staff to consider fee alignment, staffing plans to phase down consultant dependence and clearer revenue line presentation in subsequent budget materials.
