In budget talks Thursday, Chief Code Enforcement Officer Oscar Turk asked the City Council not to lay off clerical staff, but Councilman William Reid urged him to consider possible loss of inspectors.
Turk said two clerical workers were facing reduced hours in the Inspections Division, which upholds the city’s property maintenance code.
“How many inspectors do you have?” Reid asked.
Turk said there were six.
“What if you lost those?” Reid asked.
“We would be ineffective,” Turk said.
“You think you are effective now?” Reid asked.
“Yes,” Turk answered, giving examples of the division’s workload.
He noted other municipalities have pickups of construction debris, for example, but in Plainfield inspectors must respond and cite owners of property where such debris is set out.
In addition, the division recently had to take action when the owner of most of the city’s multi-family apartment buildings had numerous code violations and ended up losing many of his properties. The division then had to work with rent receivers and new buyers to make sure they brought the properties into compliance. Turk said he meets with buyers to make sure they have a superintendent on site and can be reached by phone.
Reid still insisted, “You really need to think about losing some of your inspectors. Think about if it were to come and think of ways to save dollars, because we’re getting to a very critical point with the budget.”
“I watch literally every penny,” Turk said, describing the division as “the police for property.”
Without inspectors, Turk asked what would become of city property.
“Our tax base has to do with the value of our property,” he said.
City Administrator Bibi Taylor said only one person from the division was in the layoff plan and one vacancy was not going to be funded.
Turk said he wanted to close the counter for half a day each week to give remaining staff the time to do paperwork.
Although plans to purchase software for Inspections have been discussed for several years, inspectors and clerical staff are still working with paper records and notices. If the software could be purchased, Turk said, it “could go a long way” toward offsetting any loss of clerical staff.
Another issue that also came up in budget talks with the Fire Division is combining inspection duties. But officials said code enforcement and fire safety inspections are two different things, with separate training and certifications. Turk said it would cost $700 to $800 each for his inspectors to become licensed as fire inspectors, and there is a difference in salaries.
Councilman Cory Storch asked Taylor about the possibility of cross-training, but Taylor said she just heard about it and could make no decision overnight. Taylor cited “turf issues” and said the issue needs “higher-level” discussion.
Storch asked Turk to name one thing that, if eliminated, would ease the burden of Inspections and Turk named inspecting pool halls.
“Pick another,” Storch said, calling pool hall inspection "pretty small.”
Turk suggested inspections for special projects such as a program that funds repairs for low-income homeowners.
City Council President Annie McWilliams recalled her father, the late Mayor Albert T. McWilliams, describing code enforcement as a “constant issue.” Click here to see an October 2009 Plaintalker post on the issue.
--Bernice Paglia
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
As other towns have made hard decisions cutting police and fire, why does Plainfield cut someone making a third of what a fireman makes? Plainfield needs to step up just like all the other towns. Close two firehouses and save a lot of money!
ReplyDeleteI understand that Inspections just hired off the street, what happened to recalling someone that was laid off or training someone that has been targeted to lose hours or their job? You have to train the person hired off the street, it should be just as easy to train someone already in place. It still comes down to who you know or what family member works for the city and what kind of leverage can be gained by hiring that person.
ReplyDeleteOscar Turk spoke of being upset because people called and expressed their displeasure of getting summonses. He asked for the council's support.
ReplyDeleteI have heard this for over 2 years. He has council support, he has citizens support, what he does not have is the ability to support himself in doing the right thing.
Give people warnings, issues them summonses and then let them squawk. By your own admission, Oscar, home values are going down because we look like a pit. Well, you can do something about that, so do it.
I guess it's nothing new, people were hired due to the relationship to their husbands, brothers being authority figures at the time they were highered, etc. Question is can they perform the duties, you type etc.
ReplyDeleteInspections are completely uselss and Plainfield looks like the dump it always is. We don't need them.
ReplyDelete