Inspectional Services
City of Somerville FY21 Budget
Mission Statement
To ensure the safety of residents and community members by enforcing all laws and regulations pertaining to building construction and health. ISD provides residents and community members with consistent and high quality education; local, state and federal code enforcement; emergency services and support to improve the health and safety in the City of Somerville.
Changes from FY20
Personal Services are projected to increase by 4.0% above FY20. This is due to ratification of new union contracts increasing salary for all collectively bargained positions. There is currently one non-union position vacant, Zoning Plan Reviewer, which has been funded for 25% of FY21 with an expected hire date of 4/1/2021.
The Personal Services budget also includes the reallocation of two Food Inspector positions to transition to two Safety Inspector positions in order to comply with the new safety fee and inspection program. Both of these positions are fully-funded in the interest of filling these roles as soon as feasible.
Ordinary Maintenance is projected to increase 36.5% over FY20. This is due to the inclusion of a contract health inspector to perform required sanitary inspections at food service establishments. The use of a contract health inspector is due to the positions unable to be filled after multiple months of advertising for the open positions.
All food license renewal fees have been waived for FY21. To accommodate the increase in required reviews and inspections of safety plans a 0.35% safety review fee per cost of construction will added to building permits beginning July 2020.