Bring back 20 city employees, to do nothing?
The City of Portland's department of buildings (a.k.a. the Bureau of Development Services) doesn't as much to do these days as it used to. The recession has killed off construction, and so the permit and inspection work, and its concomitant fees, are a shadow of what they were in their heyday.
As a consequence, the bureaucrats have had to lay people off, which is what happens in hard times.
But they don't like it. So now they want to hire a bunch of people back, just so they'll be around if and when building activity picks up again:
[T]he BDS' 36 remaining building inspectors continue to struggle to stay on top of their workload....Is that so bad? I suppose the delays are annoying, but do they warrant bringing 20 people back onto the public pad?The BDS last summer laid off 150 employees, including approximately 40 building inspectors. Jim Nicks, inspections manager for the BDS, said his department previously completed 98 percent of its inspections within 24 hours. But in February, only 70 percent of commercial and electrical inspection requests and 90 percent of residential inspection requests were met within 24 hours....
Portland City Council on Wednesday approved a $1.5 million loan that will ensure the BDS can operate through the rest of 2010, the bureau will soon ask the council to approve $3.7 million in general fund support to restore 20.5 full-time positions to the bureau.I could think of 100 better ways to spend all that money. Especially since nobody knows when the building slump is ever going to end:
Senior building mechanical inspector Jim Zarr said he has heard rumors that the construction industry could see a turnaround later this year, but he isn’t betting on it.To me the money quote is "The work is doable." Let's not blow money on rehiring staff who were laid off for a perfectly good reason."It’s like fortune-telling," Zarr said. "We hear rumors that people have plans to build, but it comes down to funding. And my understanding is the banks are requiring more collateral. The work is doable, but if someone is sick or goes on vacation, we don’t have anyone to fill in."
It's bad enough that the Great Leader and Dear Father Fireman Randy wants to blow millions on new computer systems for this bureau in the middle of an unprecedented recession. But to re-pad the payroll on top of that? Bad idea.
| Posted at 5:08 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (9)
OK, the true story on the delays. Since all the BDS people are afraid of getting cut, they are taking the available work and stretching it out.
"only 70 percent of commercial and electrical inspection requests and 90 percent of residential inspection requests were met within 24 hours"
Actually that's a heckuva lot better than when they were fully staffed.
Posted by Steve | March 11, 2010 6:59 AM
How about eliminating paid sick days and paid vacations instead?
Posted by John | March 11, 2010 7:55 AM
500 architects are out of work in the CoP, there is no uptick in permit applications and the city is completely unreliable when managing and determining staffing needs.
So it's safe to assume this is yet another bone headed, overreacting move resulting is wasted tax money with no one ever being held responsible for it.
Brought to you by these dignified people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMnY5FAKhl4
Posted by Ben | March 11, 2010 8:54 AM
Leonard and Shaff transfered dozens of BDS people to PWB in October,to train for shut-off notice messengers and downspout disconnetion violaters. With all that free cash, why not?
Posted by insider | March 11, 2010 9:27 AM
Surely one of Saltzman's bureaus has some more "extra" money they can raid for this purpose.
Posted by Snards | March 11, 2010 9:58 AM
$3.7 million sounds like it would comfortably restore the childrens' programs at the parks this summer. But of course kids don't make campaign contributions, and developers do.
Posted by Alice | March 11, 2010 11:08 AM
My wife has been on a remodel binge, so I have some observations:
* Pre-layoff, the contractors would call the night before. The inspector would be there the next morning, take a quick look around, and that would be it. Everybody's happy.
* Post-layoff, it now takes several days for the inspector to show up. The inspector scrutinizes everything, looking for anything that doesn't follow the letter of the building code (to hell with the spirit of the code, or the cost, or what previous inspectors said was ok). I'm not happy, because I'm paying more. The contractors aren't happy, because they're having to redo work, and it's now harder for them to stick with one job until it's done because of the wait for inspections. The inspectors obviously aren't happy, either from the turmoil at BDS or having to work harder or both. So yes, it's bad.
Would hiring more inspectors fix the problem? Who knows? AFAIK, the current inspectors aren't falling farther behind, which suggests that there are enough to keep up with the current workload. I suspect it's a ploy by BDS to get more funding.
As for Zarr's comment about fortune-telling, there's a crystal ball for future construction. It's called the AIA's Architectural Billings Index. If architects aren't billing clients for design work now, then you know nothing's going to be built 6 months from now.
Posted by JD in the NE | March 11, 2010 11:29 AM
When I installed a new furnace in December, it, of course, had to be inspected. It was finished on Wednesday; the inspector was scheduled for Friday. In the old days, according to my furnace guy, you would know if the inspection would be morning or afternoon. For this work, the schedule was "Friday." Fortunately, he showed up late in the morning, and I was able to go in to work in the afternoon. However, this is also costing taxpayers additional time off work, given the lack of "time certain" on the inspection scheduling.
Posted by umpire | March 11, 2010 12:31 PM
they Still have 36 inspectors , jeez there aren't 36 buildings under construction in the whole city , how hard can it be to look at one building each.....
Posted by billb | March 11, 2010 4:16 PM