PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has reinstated a building official’s position to oversee permit applications.
The three commissioners Monday authorized Community Development Director Mary Ellen Winborn to hire a building official and fire marshal.
The $22,161 budget increase for the remainder of the year will be ratified as part of a package of debatable budget emergencies in July.
Clallam County has been without a building official and fire marshal since January.
Winborn’s predecessor, Sheila Roark Miller, cut the positions four years ago and assumed the duties herself.
“In comparison to counties our size, the county building department is large enough to have a building official,” Winborn told commissioners.
“Construction is one of the economic engines of our community. The faster and more efficient the building department is run, the sooner construction projects get started.”
If the positions are retained in 2016 and beyond, they would cost the county about $80,000 per year.
An efficient permit process should defray a portion of the additional cost, Winborn said.
“One of the things that I see in this that attracts me is the fact that you’re going to be in a position to look at policy, where you’ve got individuals that are doing the day-to-day activity,” Commissioner Bill Peach told Winborn.
Reinstating a building official will enable Winborn to attend community meetings on important land-use matters such as the shoreline management plan update without being bogged down by inspections, Peach said.
“In my view, at least for the last three years, I think your department, Mary Ellen, has more than done its job in stepping up to the plate for accommodating the tight budgets that we’ve had,” Commissioner Jim McEntire said.
Winborn defeated Roark Miller in the election last November.
‘Fair share’
“I think your department has, like I said, given more than its quote unquote fair share,” McEntire told Winborn.
“We need to look at putting some of that back.”
Winborn said half of the 20 people in her department report directly to her.
“That’s not a good model,” she said.
Under the new arrangement, some DCD staffers will report directly to the building official.
The re-establishment of a building official is the latest in a series of staff additions at the county.
Commissioners recently approved the hiring of an outside special deputy prosecuting attorney to handle complex appeals and a new cash handler/fiscal specialist employee for the Treasurer’s Office.
Summer workweek
The board also authorized a 40-hour workweek in the summer for 45 road maintenance employees and mechanics who were previously on a 37.5-hour weekly schedule.
McEntire said the onus will fall on the Board of County Commissioners to accommodate the new staffing in the runup to the 2016 budget.
“We’re going to have to look for how we fine-tune our overall general fund budget and maybe step back and look at exactly what, for instance, our reserve policy is so that we’re not doing harm or damage to departments’ ability to get their work done,” McEntire said.
“[Staffing] increase is the challenge for the commission, but that’s something I’m willing to take on.”
Meanwhile, commissioners Tuesday approved an easement modification with the state Department of Natural Resources for a short segment of the Olympic Discovery Trail between Fairholm Hill and the Sol Duc Valley.
Discovery Trail
“This easement is on the 2-mile gap that we’re trying to fill in,” county Transportation Program Manager Rich James told commissioners Monday.
“It’s between the crossing point on [U.S.] Highway 101 and the 2918 road.”
The quarter-mile-long easement will put the trail on a spur of a historic railroad grade on the south side of the highway. The county will pay the state agency $3,577 for occupation of the easement.
Once completed, the Olympic Discovery Trail will connect Port Townsend to LaPush.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.