Staff positions needed, won’t be funded by taxpayers
To the editor:
I wanted to bring to everyone’s attention Resolution 99-16 that was presented to City Council on Monday, June 6, by the DCD (Building) Department. This resolution will benefit not only CCCIA members, but the building industry as a whole in Cape Coral. I am glad to say after the presentation and discussion; the resolution passed unanimously and will be implemented.
Just some history leading up to Monday night’s council meeting. Over the last few months, I have been involved in a Stakeholders group that met with City Manager John Szerlag, DCD Director Vince Cautero and Building Official Paul Dickson. Several members of the CCCIA membership were also represented on this Stakeholders group. Our main objective was to find solutions to help the building department run more efficiently. This encompassed the entire process from permit submittal to completion of the project. We focused on single family homes, seeing that this is not only the largest area of growth over the last few years, but the largest component in the construction industry in Cape Coral. Just this year alone, The CCCIA is projecting 1,250-plus single family home permits issued. This is up drastically from a few years ago when only 570 were issued. With all this growth, maintaining levels of service was paramount to our association.
One solution that we were looking at expanding on was the City’s on-line permitting. This will make the process of obtaining a permit easier and prevent the sometimes lengthy wait of sitting at city hall. Currently there are a good portion of permits available online, and the City is looking at by the end of this year, to have a majority of the permits you can pull now done online. The City IT Department has even partnered up with the Building Department in creating a video showing people how to pull a permit online. This video can currently be found on the City’s website under the permit page. The CCCIA is also working with the Building Department to have this information available shortly on our website as www.cccia.org One key issue the stakeholders group had with the Building Department was the number of staff they currently have. We recommend to the City, that this was one area that could help boost efficiency and with the addition of new staff to the Building Department, they would be able to provide next day inspections. This one was one request that many of our CCCIA members expressed they wanted to see. So, at Monday night’s City Council Meeting, Mr. Szerlag presented to the Council a proposal to add 12 new FTE positions in the DCD (Building) Department. These 12 positions break down as follows: (1) Plans Examiner (1) Commercial Customer Service Expeditor (2) Customer Service Representatives I’s and (8) Building Inspectors. All of these positions will be funded through the Building Special Revenue Account and will not impact the General Fund or the taxpayers. The Building Department has the Building Special Revenue Account that is funded by permit fees, and these fees are what the Building Department runs off. The annual recurring cost of these new positions is approximately $755k. There is a one-time cost of $204k for vehicles and operating equipment.
Currently the CCCIA has an oversight committee, our Building Industry Oversight Committee, that meets with the City by-monthly to review accounting as well as permits and inspections. We have one of our CPA members review the Building Fund monthly and, as of our last meeting, we currently have ample reserves and welcome these new positions. These reserves have been due to the growth that we have seen over the last few years.
The CCCIA along with The Building Department wanted to get approval for these new positions as soon as possible, allowing the Building Department the time to start the hiring process. The Building Department would like to bring these new positions online by the start of the Cities FY 17 in October.
I would like to thank all of The CCCIA members that were Stakeholders, for their participation in this much needed addition of staff. I would also like to thank City Manager Szerlag and his staff for working with the CCCIA, recognizing our needs, and working with us to get a solution. Finally, I would like to thank Mayor Sawicki and all of our City Council members for approving this resolution unanimously.
As we move forward, the CCCIA will stay on top of this and keep you up to date as these positions are filled. We will continue to work with the building department on all issues that we face as an industry.
Bill Johnson, Jr.
Executive Director / CEO
Cape Coral Construction Industry Association