HomeMy Public PortalAboutMinutes_CCWorkMeeting_02172009WORK CITY COUNCIL MEETING FEBRUARY 17, 2009 6:00 P.M. AT THE
COMMUNITY CENTER
PRESENT: Mayor Brad Andersen, Council President Dennis McArthur, Council
members; Steve Elliott, Jane Shaw, Dan Gubler, Public Works Supervisor Zech Prouse,
City Clerk Robyn Keyes.
VISITORS: none
Mayor Andersen brought the meeting to order and reminded the Council that the
meetings were formal and the Council did not have to respond to unsolicited comments
from the audience, he then turned the time over to council member Shaw.
Building permits. Council member Shaw said she wanted to revisit the possibility of the
City of Iona contracting with Ammon regarding building permits and inspections.
Council member Shaw asked what the reasons were that the City decided to issue its own
building permits and inspections. Mayor Andersen said the reasons were for revenue and
quality control. Council member Shaw said contracting with Ammon would provide the
best possible service at no cost to the City or its residents, and the City would increase its
revenue because Ammon included plumbing and electrical inspections. Currently, the
City does not receive revenue from the state plumbing and electrical inspectors for
inspections in Iona. Council member Shaw noted that certificate of occupancys (C.O.)
were being issued for homes in Iona without the final inspection report from the state
plumbing and electrical inspectors. This, in turn, could cause problems for the
homeowners if there were plumbing or electrical issues and no record of the final
inspection. By contracting with Ammon, the City would have record of all inspections
and a C.O. would not be issued until all final inspections have passed. Furthermore,
Ammon's electrical and plumbing inspection fee is less than the state, so the City would
get better service at a lower cost. Presently the City does not have access to any
inspections reports, and when a contractor or homeowner calls for information, the data is
unavailable to the City Clerk. Council member Shaw said that the City would benefit
from excellent record keeping, accessibility to the records, and added revenue from the
electrical and plumbing inspections. Mayor Andersen asked if Ammon would want a
higher percentage of the building permit fee than the City's current inspector. Council
member Shaw said the percentage would be something to negotiate with Ammon, but the
City would be getting a percentage of all of the permits required, instead of just the
building permit when in the long run would add up to more revenue. Council member
Shaw said under the current system the City Clerk does not know when someone has
moved into a new home and often times the homeowner does not know they are required
to open an account with the City for water. Under Ammon's system, the clerk is sent a
copy of the C.O., or issues the C.O. herself, and is aware of when to begin charging for
water. Mayor Andersen said that the current City inspector only does building inspection
because he is not licensed for plumbing or electrical. Mayor Andersen also said that the
inspector had been asked to supply Clerk Keyes with the C.O. and thought that had been
corrected and the inspector was not issuing a C.O. until everything had been passed.
Council member Shaw said the City inspector does not have jurisdiction over the state
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plumbing and electrical and technically can not hold up a C.O. Mayor Andersen asked if
a C.O. can be issued without the final state inspections, and Council member Shaw said it
can, and our inspector has no control over the state inspectors. They just needed to
coordinate with each other. Supervisor Prouse commented that the inspector told him
that the state does not require a final inspection to issue a C.O. and some of the state
inspectors have told Supervisor Prouse that sometimes a C.O. is issued before state
inspectors can do their final inspection. Council member Shaw said that was a good
reason to have one entity controlling everything. Council member Shaw stressed that the
issues were not about, or against the City's building inspector, he just does not have the
capability to provide the full -range of services required for inspecting a home in Iona.
Mayor Andersen said that the inspector does the same thing for Iona that he does for the
County. Council member Shaw agreed, but Iona can not participate in the computer
software and data base that the County has; it can, however, participate with Ammon's
software and data base. Mayor Andersen agreed that the issue was not about the inspector
and that he did the best he could but was limited to the service he could provide. The
Mayor also agreed that having the ability to provide full -range service was a good idea
but was concerned about the slow economy with less people building right now. The
Mayor suggested letting the inspector know that the job would be put out for bid in
October after the end of the fiscal year to give everyone time to prepare a proposal,
unless the Council wanted to do it sooner. Council member Shaw said it would be helpful
if the decision was made sooner as building typically begins in March and the builder for
Rose Valley is planning on building this summer. Council member Gubler said if there is
an issue with the inspector, the City should talk with him and he should be
communicating with the Clerk regarding C.O.'s. Council member Shaw said the issue
isn't with the inspector and technically the City should be the one issuing the C.O. after
everything was approved. The Mayor said he would talk to the inspector and ask him to
bring in copies of all of the completed inspections and the C.O.'s. Council member Shaw
reiterated the issue was not about the inspector, but about offering the best service
possible with fulltime accessibility at the least amount of cost. Council member Shaw
said that it often takes the state inspectors up to a week or more to complete an
inspection, whereas Ammon can complete the inspection in a day. Mayor Andersen asked
what Council member Shaw proposed and she said to ask Ammon to have a proposal in
by April 1st. The Mayor said the Council could review the proposal during April's
Council meeting. Council member Gubler stated concerns with partnering with a larger
city and their dictatorship and the difficulty involved terminating contracts. The Mayor
said he will talk with the inspector and ask him to bring all the information he has into the
office so they would be in City files.
Meeting adjourned at 6:27
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