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Florida Building Department Teams to Cross Lines and Share Work

[Source: http://www.heraldtribune.com | September 17, 2008]

Charlotte County, North Port and Venice have agreed to share their building department crews after several rounds of layoffs gutted their departments following the construction industry's decline.

The unique arrangement, finalized with Charlotte County's approval last week, allows the county and the cities to keep bare-bones payrolls in their building departments without the risk of staffing shortages when more work arises.

The move allows the governments to share building inspectors and plan reviewers, who follow state guidelines.

"It can be a really good agreement that is advantageous to all the jurisdictions and help us all to work smarter," said Scott Williams, director of the North Port Building Department.

He said Sarasota County and Punta Gorda have also expressed serious interest in joining the sharing agreement.

Williams proposed the idea more than a year ago when confronted with layoffs in his department. At the same time, he noticed Venice was hiring temporary inspectors from the private sector.

Venice has gotten by with three inspectors on its payroll, down from six during the boom two years ago. The city is paying a temporary plumbing inspector and mechanical plans inspector for work Charlotte or North Port workers will be able to do for about $25 an hour less, said Venice spokeswoman Pam Johnson.

"It definitely is a cost savings," Johnson said.

At the same time, the work in Venice will help keep inspector jobs in North Port and Charlotte more secure.

"We'll be the benefactor of sending some of our guys up there to help them, so that they can save some money," said Vince LaPorta, deputy building official for Charlotte County.

Since the building boom, the number of inspectors in Charlotte's building department has dropped from 42 to 16. North Port had 49 inspectors and will soon drop to 18.

Building leaders see the sharing agreement as a benefit in being prepared for an uptick in the industry. With fewer employees, a jump in construction could have caused a damaging backlog, especially in getting plans reviewed, said Jim Sanders, president of the Charlotte/DeSoto Building Industry Association.

"If there's an overload of work, they have the ability to reach out," Sanders said. "We're delighted this is going through."

The agreement also makes emergency response easier.

If a hurricane hits and a sharing agreement is in place, securing emergency funds to pay for inspectors from partner governments is easier, said Danny Schult, assistant city manager for North Port.

[Original Release: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080917/ARTICLE/809170378/0/article&title=Building_
department_teams_to_cross_lines_and_share_work]