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Item I2BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Meeting Date: March 23, 2016 Department: Building Bulk Item: Yes _ No X Staff Contact /Phone #: Ed Koconis 453-8727 AGENDA ITEM WORDING: Approval to add three (3) full-time equivalents (FTEs) for Building Department 1 Building Inspector/Plans Examiner and 2 Customer Service Representatives to investigate, take action, and work on closing the 10,900+ open building permits. ITEM BACKGROUND: Building permits have been issued at a rate of about 4,900 per year (over the past five years.) Historically there have been a number of permits that have had one or more passed inspections, however the permits were never closed. This total number has grown to 17,970 permits that have had at least one passed inspection but none within the past 360 days. Of these, 10,906 have had at least one passed final inspection. The current practice involves investigating these open permits only upon request from the property owner or agent thereof. Staff is seeking BOCC direction on whether or not to proceed with working on proactively investigating and closing as many permits as possible via another agenda item and estimates that if the BOCC directs to move forward then three positions would be required to accomplish that task. It is estimated this task will take approximately 3 years and given retirement projections for several building staff, positions should be absorbed through attrition. Fund 180 does have adequate fee revenue to fund these positions. The adjacent three graphs illustrate the large increase in plan reviews, inspections, and permits issued over the past several years. Since 2013, the number of plan reviews has increased 41 %; the number of inspections has increased 37%; while the number of permits issued has increased 17%. The additional work of investigating, taking action, and working on closing the 10,900+ open building permits would cause the level of service provided to our customers to deteriorate without adding personnel to deal directly with this issue. Building Department Total Plan Reviews on Permits by Calendar Year zo,oao 1S 000 12,639 12,009 10,000 6,430 5, oo0 0 2007 2008 2009 16,766 11,734 S,sS2 4 4ss 2010 2011 WU M13 MU 2015 Ex,;hides ..N/A" and Logged CSR 'C resvhed r vs As of 1/25/16 Building Department Total Inspections on Permits by Calendar Year ix<7raes "N(A" fags Ckpns 2013 2014 2015 As of Building Department PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOCC ACTION: N/A CONTRACT/AGREEMENT CHANGES: N/A STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Approval TOTAL COST: Approx. $244,000 (loaded) INDIRECT COST: N/A BUDGETED: Yes No X DIFFERENTIAL OF LOCAL PREFERENCE: COST TO COUNTY: SOURCE OF FUNDS: 180-52502-510120 REVENUE PRODUCING: Yes _ No X AMOUNT PER MONTH Year APPROVED BY: County Atty OMB/Purchasing Risk Management DOCUMENTATION: Included X Not Required DISPOSITION: AGENDA ITEM # Revised 7/09