By Claire Jubb, Assistant County Administrator, Charlotte County
Florida is no stranger to hot construction markets and those of us that have lived through booms like the one we are in now know how much pressure and stress can be put on your building department staff.
Staff are faced with significant increase in permit numbers coupled with demands from the contractors for their applications to get priority and be expedited. The quality of applications goes down as the contractors and design professionals themselves try to keep up with demand and yet the quality of review and inspection cannot falter.
Recruitment and retention of staff becomes a significant challenge as building departments compete with each other, private providers, and their contractor customers for the same, well qualified people with lots of construction experience. Often the higher paid construction companies and private providers win out leaving the building departments to struggle.
One of the biggest challenges during booms, and the inevitable subsequent cooling or downturns, is the relationship between the building department and the local construction industry. As people become stressed and mistakes happen, those relationships, which are difficult to establish and maintain in the best of times, can deteriorate to such a point that there becomes a combative situation between the department and their primary customers.
Here in Charlotte County, we have a very different situation, one that has taken many years to develop and one where the building department and the local contractors association (the Charlotte DeSoto Building Industry Association) work closely together to navigate and mitigate the challenges faced by both the department, and the contractors.
This relationship started over 20 years ago when the contractor sued the county for misuse of the building permit fees. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, this was not unusual, and many jurisdictions faced similar challenges. As part of the resolution, the contractors and the Board of County Commissioners agreed to form a Building Industry Oversight Committee to allow the contractors oversight of the finances of the building department.
I have worked for Charlotte County since 2003 and there has been a meeting of this oversight committee almost every month since then. The committee comprises of a variety of building contractors representing the wide reach of that industry. It is attended by leadership from the Community Development department, the Fire Marshall, Utilities staff and a representative from the County Administrators office.
Although the initial intent of the committee was to oversee at the finances only, over the years the purpose has morphed into a work group to look at all operations of the building department along with other aspects of county government which may impact land development and permitting.
Together they review the current status of the department including financial stability, staffing, timeframes, permitting volumes and contractor licensing. The main purpose of the meeting however is to discuss and collaboratively solve issues that have arisen in the past month, talk about process improvements, update the members on any changes.
Such is the level of trust and respect that has been built up between the committee and county staff, staff leverage the committee to talk about process improvements, technology enhancements, staffing increases, fees and many other topics. The committee is highly respected by the Board of County Commissioners, and although it is not a formal advisory committee, their recommendations carry a significant amount of weight. Staff will get recommendations of approval from the committee before taking the item to the Board and the Board will typically follow the recommendation from the committee as they know it has been thoroughly vetted by the group.
The relationship is so good that following the passing of one of the founder contractors of this oversight committee, staff and the committee jointly requested that they be allowed to name the building department building after that contractor and received unanimous approval from the Board of County Commissioners. Rest assured, there are not many, if any, building department buildings named after a contractor in this country.
This relationship has helped both the county and the industry navigate both booms and downturns in construction. The leaders of the local contractors association act as a buffer between the contractors and the building department, fielding complaints, answering questions, and assisting contractors who are new to navigating the processes.
Having these highly collaborative relationships in place and operating in such a transparent manner means that when tough conversations or difficult issues are encountered, we can rely on the group to work closely together to problem solve and develop mutually acceptable solutions.
If you don’t have something like this in place, please consider it. It has certainly helped Charlotte County navigate the ups and downs associated with construction and make the county a great place to do business.
