To The Editor:
At the Petersburgh Town Board Meeting held on July 20, 2015, the Town Supervisor Sigfried Krahforst announced that the Town did not need a Code Enforcement Official (CEO), because a “Building Inspector” can do the exact same work as a CEO. Additionally, the Town Supervisor stated that he checked the legality of this decision with the NYS Association of Towns regarding a “building inspector” vs “CEO”, and was told that a “building inspector” was preferred because “the CEO is a civil service title.”
[private]However, the New York State Department of State, Division of Building Standards and Codes, does not support the Supervisor’s statement that the titles are the same. According to the official state website, a Building Safety Inspector (BSI) “performs fire safety and property maintenance inspections on existing buildings”. A Code Enforcement Official performs the “enforcement activities, including building safety inspector enforcement activities; review and/or approval of plans incidental to the issuance of a permit for the construction or alteration of buildings and structures; construction inspections performed during and/or upon completion of the construction or alteration of buildings and structures; and any other enforcement activity that is not also a building safety inspector enforcement activity.” (Title 19 NYCRR, Section 1208-1.2).
Secondly, the Supervisor stated that the CEO title was a “civil service” title. This is also incorrect. The CEO title is intended for use by local governments. “Local governments (cities, towns, villages and counties) are responsible for enforcing the Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code and the State Energy Conservation Construction Code (Executive Law Section 381)”. The CEO position is NOT included in the list of official civil service titles maintained by the NYS Department of Civil Service. Admittedly, NYS Civil Service does have a similar title called “Code Compliance Specialist”. However, this civil service title is used within the NYS Department of State for their regional code enforcement personnel.
In summary – Petersburgh’s Building Department employees can only inspect existing buildings. A building inspector cannot assess new construction. Last but not least, no building inspection activities can be undertaken until/unless the employee is “progressing toward completion of the building safety inspector basic training program”. (Section 1208-2.1 & 2.2) More information can be obtained at this website: www.dos.ny.gov/dcea/
Martin Conboy
NYS Certified Code Enforcement Official, #NY0254379 [/private]