Program Description

The primary purpose of this budget is to provide for all of the Inspectors with the means to maintain their necessary certifications for their work and that acknowledges their public safety service is in line with other Cape communities. Our responsibilities are to safeguard public safety by the effective administration of the State Building Code as required by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 143, related specialized regulations and other referenced codes and standards. To promote this budget will provide all Town inspectors, including alternates, the ability to do their jobs armed with the most current codes and training.

At the same time this budget allows us to act for the general welfare of the community by the effective administration of the Town's Zoning By-Laws pursuant to MGL Chapter 40A and the Town's General By-Laws as they apply to the building permit process and providing a consistent and transparent enforcement process in order to address violations.

State changes have reorganized Public Safety and Inspection to be under the umbrella of the Division of Public Licensure. This resulted in a reduction of State Inspection staffing levels which has affected the ability to acquire official code interpretations, plan reviews for large redevelopment projects, and education on code amendments and has reduced the municipal inspectors access to our District State Inspectors. This shift makes attendance at all association meetings and events even more important for municipal inspectors as we are being asked to assume more local liability. This has been a challenging time with our meetings being virtual greatly reducing our ability to network with other inspectors on the Cape.

Budget Statement

The Personnel budget follows the Non-Union Compensation Plan for lines 551001 and 511002 and provides a 2.54% increase to Schedule C part-time staff on line 511009.

The Operating budget is an increase of 8 % from FY 2021.

FY 2022 Objectives

Our objectives for FY22 are:

• Get all inspectors the required continuing education, and continue to get all inspectors all State required certifications. This is an annual goal to ensure that all inspectors maintain their respective licenses and stay current with changing codes.
• Adjust to the new OpenGov Viewpoint permitting software and learn the advatages it offers compared to the two previous platforms.
• Continue to improve interdepartmental permit co-ordination by improving permit issuance to a two-week average from intake to issuance. The complexity of our Zoning, Building and Health Codes with the desires of property owners to alter the prebuilt environment makes this a challenge.
• Attend virtual meetings in our disciplines that have been previously held at a distance that was travel cost prohibitive.