NORWICH – Chenango County Fire and Building Code Division of the Department of Public Health – essentially bankrupt as of today - was given the go-ahead Thursday to fill two vacancies.
Director Marcus Flindt said revenues are off by $26,000 after the first quarter and could drop by as much as half of the $200,000 budgeted for the year. A lack of commercial permits and two less code enforcement officers collecting permits and conducting inspections have put the department in the red.
Acting on a referral from the personnel committee, finance committee members voted 3 to 1 to replace the two, full-time positions and to determine at year’s end the appropriate funding source from which to take the estimated $100,000 needed. Supervisor Dennis Brown, D-Pharsalia, opposed.
Brown also opposed a motion that asked the county’s safety and rules committee to consider raising permit fees to offset expenses.
A referral from safety and rules to consider integrating a codes unit into the county’s budget was not acted upon. Permit fees and inspection charges have supported code enforcement for the past eight years. Three to four officers were on board back in 2001 and 2002, for example, but when large box retailers such as the Super Wal-Mart and Lowe’s came to the area, more building and fire code inspectors were hired. During the same time period, New York state imposed uniform code regulations for all counties that expanded their authority to enforce junk car and other waste disposal regulations.
Brown opposed both matters on the premise that New York State “created” the uniform fire and building codes without the consent of counties. “I don’t know how responsible we are for it. The state put together maintenance regulations and gave us no funding to do it. The regulators don’t regulate it. I vote no,” he said.
Town of Sherburne Supervisor Harry W. Conley asked Flindt why his department needed to add staff since the number of commercial permits have dwindled. Bruce Bates, codes director, said new complaints are being ignored and there are currently 1,990 outstanding building permits and 16 more not yet reviewed.
“Unfortunately, yes. The number of inspections we are able to conduct with two less employees is inefficient,” he said. “Things are falling through the cracks. It makes us look unprofessional.”
Bates said the town of Norwich’s recently publicized success in cleaning up the Halfway House area on state Route 12 South – with the county’s assistance – has caused other municipalities to ask for help. Inspectors currently have put more than 30 hours of work into a property maintenance issue in Afton and Bainbridge, he said.
Only the village and town of Greene, the town of New Berlin, the village of Earlville, and the city of Norwich have their own codes units.
Bates said state regulations mandate that counties do more than buildings permits and fire inspections. “We are in charge of code enforcement,” he said. “We are already helping most towns.”
“Then you have to do less,” Brown said, adding that county law designates the Sheriff’s Office to investigate junkyards and solid waste complaints.
“It’s an impossible task that you are trying to undertake. It’s something that maybe you could pull off in Manlius, but not in Chenango County,” he said.
Committee Chairman Lawrence Wilcox suggested that more towns should have their own code enforcement or be billed for the county’s services. “It may end up being cheaper for everyone to do it that way,” he said.
Supervisors Richard Schlag, D-German, said the county had a “responsibility” to solve the department’s current situation.
“It’s the law and at some basic level, we are admitting we have this responsibility. I don’t like it either. But we have to find a way to do it. The point is they are unable to do their permit work and be where they need to be.”
Schalg said it is better for smaller towns in the county to have a professional office to handle code violations when they come up. “They rarely do in my town,” he said.
Supervisor Conley said the problem stems from the 10 percent of contractors who are not reputable. “There are just a few people who cause this whole need to hire employees,” he said.
Bates told the committee that he became a code enforcement officer because he disliked competing contractors “who weren’t following the rules.”
“Contractors are screaming at us today because they want us to do our job,” he said.
“To me the whole concept we are doing it is flawed. We do it because we were told. I have no problem telling them that this is what Chenango County can afford. If we get before a judge, we’ll tell them we don’t have any money,” Brown said.
“First it’s building permits, then we have to deal with fire inspections and now enforcement of towns regulations. The state says this ... and we go along with it. The state says that .... then we go along with it. Twenty years down the road, it will be a huge department.”