It was my pleasure to serve as chairman of the Building Inspection Committee to study the concept of unification of the city and county’s inspection departments. Having been tasked to do so by Charles Gaynor and Richard Shickle, our committee met three separate times and traded e-mails in order to achieve the information needed for a consolidation effort.

The existing department of each locale is capably administered by very effective leaders in Richard Nelson and John Trenary. Consolidation of these two departments would improve operational efficiencies and maximize the effectiveness and value of personnel and resources.

At present, the city Inspections Department’s focus/emphasis is property maintenance and rehabilitation/renovation of existing buildings, whereas the county Inspections Department is focused almost entirely on new construction. When unifying, new construction represents an “apples to apples” operation that can be relatively easily combined.

Within the next decade, as the city reaches build-out, inspections staff that has typically focused on the city’s new construction would be gradually absorbed into the county’s new construction work program. A team of inspection’s personnel could be maintained as a “task force” with responsibility for matters unique to downtown (i.e. rehabilitation, existing building renovation, etc.).

Unifying staff and other resources should not be difficult, and it may be appropriate to structure the unified department and its operations under two distinct officials. Specifically, the BUILDING OFFICIAL would oversee and regulate all activities related to new construction and CODE OFFICIAL would oversee and regulate property maintenance, rehabilitation, and similar codes. As it stands now, the building official wears both hats in both jurisdictions.

The key issue to resolve is compatibility of databases, software, and other IT-related components. Specifically, permit application software is completely different, and although both departments employ AS400 systems, their respective databases are managed via software packages uniquely developed for each (the county uses Bright software, the city uses Sunguard HTE software).

Moreover, integrating the IT and data platform is arguably the most critical task in the unification process for the city and county inspections departments, and it will require a significant investment. This initiative should be included in the overall IT integration process being explored through the unification study.

With the anticipated growth in the county and less and less in the city, the existing personnel would be absorbed into one unified department. The administration should be physically located in the county office building, and existing staff (support staff included) and other resources (vehicles, etc.) should be used to address the work demands of both jurisdictions.