ELY – City Council members voted to approve a contract for the building official this week and will revisit the permit fee structure and office hours as ways to reduce costs in the department.

Council member Paul Kess reiterated his opposition to the one-year contract with Douglas Whitney as presented. “I believe that we should be choosing between an hourly rate or the percentage (of permit fees collected) or significantly reduce the number of hours to lower the cost of the contract to the citizens of Ely,” he said.

He pointed out a number of problems he had with the proposed contract. “It does not indicate the number of hours the building inspector can and will bill or should bill. I would think we could go to a strict hourly contract, at whatever rate is fair.”

Because this is a contract position and not a traditional city employee position, set office hours cannot be required.

The contract calls for the building official to provide working hours during regular City Hall office hours. The contract states, “He can be reached via phone during those hours. Morning in-house hours will be established as determined by the building official.”

“I believe the contract is incomplete and somewhat inconsistent on some of the issues on how we are going to be billed and how we are going to have oversight of the total costs,” said Kess.

The contract calls for the building official to receive a rate of $35 per hour on time spent on matters outside the scope of normal review, permitting and enforcement duties.

The city’s current adopted fee schedule will be in effect. A review and update of the fee schedule will be the subject of a future study session.

The contract calls for the building official to retain 75 percent of building permit fees, 80 percent of plan review fees, 50 percent of assessed penalties, 80 percent of plumbing, heating and electrical permits, 20 percent of rental license fees and 80 percent of rental inspection fees.

Kess noted an improvement to the contract in terms of billing and reporting activity by the building official. Invoices will now contain information on the types of permits issued and what they are for. “That will be an improvement,” Kess said. ‘One of the frustrations in examining the contract is that there was no understanding of what the permits were for. Were they for roofs, or fences, or decks, or commercial buildings? There really was not a good breakdown. I was gratified to see that we will get that information on a (regular) basis.”

Council member Heidi Omerza expressed her frustration over the continued discussion on the matter and called for a vote. “We’ve talked about this at a (previous) meeting. We’ve talked about this at a study session. And now we’re talking about it again and not much has changed,” she said.

After a third call to support Omerza’s vote call, Council member Jerome Debeltz seconded the vote call. A roll call vote was taken. Kess, Albert Forsman and Daniel Forsman voted against the vote call. Omerza, Debeltz, Kara Polyner and Mayor Chuck Novak voted in favor of the vote call. The vote call failed for lack of enough votes. Discussion continued.

Al Forsman expressed his concern over the hourly rate versus the permit percentage payment.

Clerk-Treasurer Harold Langowski explained the years-long process of transforming the building official position from a city employee status to a contract-for-hire position. New contracts were approved for new building officials. Enforcement and rental inspection duties were added.

Langoswki said budget discussions last year included ways to reduce costs for civil enforcement issues. “That was taking a lot of time of the building official,” he said.” And last year we had a lot of projects like City Hall, the new library and the Community Center. That required a lot of hours,” he said.

Langowski said staff is looking at ways to shift some duties, such as blight and civil enforcement, to the police department and the planning and zoning administrator.

Mayor Novak stressed that the current building official contract is expired and needs to be renewed. The current contract, with the former building official, was extended one month to give the council time to approve a new pact.

“If we do not approve a contract, we are done,” he said. The contract cannot be extended unless the former official agrees. “He (Dennis Schilling) was very disappointed that the council took that action without conferring with him,” Novak said.

“This contract can continue to be improved for the benefit of the taxpayers,” Kess said.

“We have kicked this can down the road long enough,” Omerza said.

Whitney, who is fulfilling Shilling’s current contract and has indicated a willingness to continue as the city’s building official, said, “I hate to be dragged into something that occurred in the past. I want to go forward and provide good service to the people who take the permits out. This is really a fee for service. The state has approved me as a building official and it is up to me to figure out how to get the job done.”

The council voted 6-1 to approve the contract. A review and update of the permit fee schedule will likely be on the agenda at the April 28 council study session.

Other business

In other business this week, the council took the following action:

-Approved a timber sale for three city-owned parcels to Kuehl’s Logging, Ely, for $38,769. One other bid, from Bruce Kainz, was for $20,605.

-OK’d the purchase of a 2014 Dodge Charger for the Ely Police Department from Mike Motors for $23,000, to replace the 2008 Ford Crown Victoria that has 130,000 miles.

-Authorized funding request resolutions to the State of Minnesota, Business Development Public Infrastructure Grant Program and Iron Range Rehabilitation and Resources Board for development and associated infrastructure improvements for the proposed business park near Miners Drive and 17th Avenue.

-Approved a funding request to the state for infrastructure improvements to improve access to the Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital and provide the development of a multi-use trail head facility.

-OK’s the recommendation from JPJ Engineering to award the 8th Avenue East project to Hibbing Excavating.