2017-02-15 Minutes
INSPECTIONS DEPARTMENT ADVISORY COUNCIL (IDAC)MEETING
Location:Lucy Harrell Conference Room, 230 Government CenterDrive
Date: February 15, 2017
Committee Members in attendance: David Smith, Pete Avery, Shawn Lewis
Guest Attendees: Commissioner Rob Zapple, Cameron Moore
County Staff attendees: Chris OKeefe (Planning & Land Use Director), Nicholas Gadzekpo Building Safety Director),
Arthur Malpass (Chief Code Compliance Official Mechanical & Plumbing), Jimmy Shivar (Chief Code Compliance Official
Electrical), Brianna Grella (Building Safety Administrative Specialist), Teresa McCormick (Development Services
Coordinator), Gina Bombolino (Development Services Supervisor).
The meeting began with the pledge of allegiance, followed immediately by the roll call.
Chairman David Smith welcomed all present and opened with a brief introduction and how the committee
became recognized as a citizen-appointed committee for the county. At first, builders had some concerns, and
then the inspectors also had their own situations; both parties then had several meetings to address their
respective circumstances. And consequently, the County Commissioners began to recognize the committee
and later approved it as County citizen-appointed committee.
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 3:45 pm.
Cameron Moore read the minutes of the last meeting of April 2016. Pete Avery commented that he wanted
the minutes and future minutes to show the committee members in attendance. Pete Avery made a motion to
accept the 2016 minutes as corrected. Chairman Smith seconded the motion, and the motion carried.
Chairman Smith introduced Nicholas Gadzekpo, newly hired by New Hanover County as Inspections Director
and now is the Building Safety Director. Chairman Smith stated that he previously met him at the Board of
Directors meeting of the Wilmington Cape Fear Home Builders Association (WCFHBA). Chairman Smith
gestured that if Nicholas had any questions, he was at liberty to contact the committee and Cameron Moore
would be his primary contact.
Nicholas Gadzekpo said he appreciated the information and then gave a brief overview of the Department of
Building Safety, rebranded, and reconstituted from the inspections Division of Planning and Inspections.
Nicholas said he already had several meetings and dialogs with Chris O'Keefe, the previous Director of
Planning and Inspections. Most of those meetings focused on making things better for all customers and the
new department. Nicholas also stated that the new name and branding of the department emphasize a
commitment to safety. The name also links the department with builders, architects, engineers, developers,
and other construction and development community members as partners. And that, they all, by state law,
are required to ensure safe construction. Thus, all partners can work towards the common goal of safety for
all building users and structures in the county.
OLD BUSINESS
Under "Old Business," Teresa McCormick, who is also the Project Manager for implementing the New
Software replacement for One-Solution, provided an overview of the timelines in place for replacing One-
Solution. She highlighted that the county received six proposals from vendors and selected three as finalists.
And that to date, with two vendors already reviewed, one vendor was yet to be reviewed. Teresa further
remarked that county departments, homebuilders, and CFPUA staff had attended the demonstrations made
by the vendors. She explained that tallies of scores for all three vendors would determine a final decision for
the county's end-users best-suited software. Teresa mentioned that the county would announce the top-pick
vendor in a meeting on February 24th, 2017. She stated that all home builders have an invitation to attend the
meeting.
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County staff and Cameron Moore made several comments on the process in place for selecting the
replacement software.
Nicholas Gadzekpo invited the Committee members to attend the third vendor's demonstration on Friday,
February 17th, 2017. Cameron Moore stated he received information regarding the February 17th date.
Cameron Moore also gave a brief history of how a group of stakeholders met to discuss details of the failures
in the previous software and the expectations needed for new software.
Chris O'Keefe stated that the county could use an estimated 12 to 18 months to implement the new software.
Teresa added that several counties and cities in North Carolina use the Tyler/EnerGov software, which its
vendor will feature in the third and final demonstration on February 17th. Chris O'Keefe remarked that the
county is fully committed to following through with the process that would provide a user-friendly software
for improving services for contractors, home builders, and all other customers.
County Commissioner Rob Zapple informed all present that the software replacement issue is on the
Commissioners' radar. And that, overall, the county would appreciate a shorter time frame for completing
plan reviews than what currently exists.
Chairman Smith remarked that the Commissioners had tasked this committee to ask questions. Consequently,
the interactions from homebuilders, the committee, and the development community had spun the
expectations required for the prompt delivery of services.
NEW BUSINESS
New Hanover County Comprehensive Plan-Unified Development Ordinance
Chris O'Keefe passed out handouts relating to the Comprehensive Land Plan for July. There was a discussion of
what lends it through the packet. There is a map on the front showing the future land use and a map with
opportunities. It was dictated by CAMA previously, and the outside boundaries as now set. This map opens
area and allows for mixed-used development. The salmon color is commercial mixed-use and is mostly vacant.
The single-family residential zoned areas are avoiding being all developed like single-family residential. There
are sprawling locations around and opportunities to develop from the development communities and our
plans. What each color represents is: On the commerce zones it is manufacturing, intensive usage, large office
usage and mixed uses when appropriate. The large areas of existing residential communities while allowing
commercial and residential and just commercial where appropriate. Urban mixed-use are areas specified by
only a few nodes such as Monkey Junction, it is disorganized and not connected with roads or pathways.
Chris O'Keefe said, "we will work to make it connect more densely and appropriately and make it more
organized and in an efficient way. The theme is to make sure uses incur at groups instead of single areas."
Chairman Smith asked the question: "Is Pender County looking at this and aware if they would merge with this
or be specific to the lines?"
Chris O'Keefe answered: "We did meet with Pender County, and they are aware of what is going on both
ways. They have the Lake Farm project, which is mixed-use, that is the concept they are progressing towards."
Chairman Smith remarked: "Like the Market Street wetlands. We need to refer to the plans more and more
with consistency."
Chris O'Keefe remarked that Planning viewed this as an opportunity for the future and for creating unified
development plans. He said LSL was doing an audit on the existing development regulations.
IDAC Member Pete Avery said it would be unified and defined at some point.
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Chris O'Keefe said: "How they plan to redefine it is what they are working on. It will be a unified, developed
and a comprehensive tool to implement a unified plan. It will create districts and place types, zoning
ordinances and plans working together. In late March early April, it will be finished, it will take about that long
to audit it."
NFIP Flood Pain Maps-Update
Chris O'Keefe remarked that Ken Vader was not present to comment on the Flood Plain Maps. And moreover,
that there was not much of an update on the flood plain maps. And that, according to Ken Vader, it keeps
pushing the dates back.
Chairman Smith remarked that Building Code adds one foot and is the only solution.
N.C. Building Codes Update-Proposed Building Code Update
Statements by Chairman Smith: The proposals have been completed and the suggestions have been compiled
from 2015. If it goes as planned it will go in effect in January 2018. Residential is 1,000 pages and already has
existing codes, this is what we asked and what they put out at ICC. The changes were underlined with changes
or strikethroughs and were changes from over the years and through the Committees. March is the public
hearing and people may say to make more changes or have suggestions. There is nothing better than the
changes or suggestions coming from the Inspections Department and the Divisions. If you put your name on
the list, I will send alike to the website to see the changes. The code will go into effect in 2018.
Jimmy Shivar asked: "Will it incorporate electrical; they are on a different cycle and not in there but not sure if
it should be in there. The 2017 NEC code is in print, and it might be set aside for a different cycle."
Statements by Chairman Smith: There will be changes to the residential code, Chapter 4 and Chapter 11 are
the energy codes for commercial and needs to read both ways for building in residential, the section numbers
are different. People need to read it and I hope to get a ton of emails and comments about wishes for changes
on this. Dennis made lots of trips to Raleigh for meetings and we are 1 cycle behind ICC. It is based on 2009
now and unless we adopt the code now, we will not be inline. Each state wants to have a code to follow, and
this puts us 3 years behind. ICC is changed by the State and NC does it a lot, it will always be that way
probably.
Cameron Moore offered a Coastal perspective: The IDAC and Building Safety Director run into insurance
issues. Dennis Bordeaux was on the NC Building Code Council. Likewise, an active Inspector must be on the
Building Code Council to offer a Coastal perspective. New Hanover County is the largest coastal county and
so must lobby to be on the Building Code Council to represent the coast. These three regions, Wilmington,
Raleigh, and Charlotte were well represented. Raleigh is really outspoken, and people will listen to people
from these three areas and would be welcomed back.
Inspections Update Residential/Commercial and Volume of Inspections
Nicholas Gadzekpo stated that Arthur Malpass and Jimmy Shivar are two Chiefs in their respective disciplines.
Statements by Jimmy Shivar: For electrical there has been staffing issues in the last year, and Mack Blanton
was out for 4 months. Randal Gray was hired in October of last year and he has multiple trades. As of
yesterday, there are four folks in the division that can pick up HVAC inspections and create more efficiency in
the department. The mechanical side has been picking up electrical inspections. Gene Keith is part time and
has been since last year, he works two-to-three days a week.
Nicholas Gadzekpo stated that the department's goal is to minimize rollovers and to have inspections done for
the next business day. He said the plans for the future are promising; with scenarios where one Inspector
can do multiple inspections instead of having a staff to perform separate inspections and at three different
times. The multi-certified inspector approach is more cost-effective as a goal and so does cross-training, both
as investments towards improving services to the building community.
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Statements by Arthur Malpass: We have been up to speed for a while with no rollovers or any impacts. We
have two new inspectors that started in 2016 and they are excellent. Brian Shuman is very knowledgeable and
has 20 years in the industry. Michael Hoffer used to be a Zoning Official and moved from Wisconsin and he
embraces technology. We have one plumbing inspector David Osbourne who we released to start inspecting
footers. Richard Bellows is assisting in mechanical, and Douglas Geer is helping in electrical. The goal is to try
to satisfy next-day inspections to customers who may be at home waiting for one Inspector instead of two to
show up at different times. It is hard when you teach the Inspectors to do multiple trades only to be later
lured away by other jurisdictions. Inspectors with higher levels of certifications are desirable especially with
Level III certifications. It appears there must be funding to attract Inspectors with multiple certifications. There
are aging generations of Inspectors and there will be some Inspectors retiring soon and there may be less
depth in the levels of expertise.
Statement by Chairman Smith: There needs to be something done to keep the Inspectors and to attract them
here.
Nicholas Gadzekpo remarked that there are no trainee programs for recruiting entry-level staff with no
construction background.
Statement by Chairman Smith: New Hanover County could look at attracting talented staff from other areas.
On a separate matter, Nicholas Gadzekpo said the department was exploring options in technology that could
make it easy for contractors/builders and persons requesting inspections to get call automated notifications or
confirmations on the estimated arrival times of Inspectors. He said it can only be possible with the help of the
IT Department and could include an automated phone call or text back, but which should be able to
communicate with whatever software we use for inspections.
Inspections/Issues Concerns
Nicholas Gadzekpo said that there are some issues with staffing, and an aging workforce; both of which would
require some long-term planning. There will be dialogs with younger generations and interfaces with schools,
just like what Arthur and Jimmy are doing. We will have open house events and will find out what it would
take to attract new and talented staff to NHC, they could eventually buy-in and see themselves as employable
by the county.
Statement by Cameron Moore: Yesterday and last week there has been a bottleneck with plan reviews.
Nicholas Gadzekpo responded that there is overtime currently being offered to staff and that working on
Saturday is a possibility for the reviewers. Nicholas remarked that the reason for the bottleneck stemmed
from staff in training to learn the tools to use to make things better for customers through LEAN and change
processes. And that though the plan review staff was out all week, they were in good training to better serve
customers. And that, the department will bridge the gap through overtime and to put contingencies in place
to overcome the bottleneck caused by the training.
Statements by Jimmy Shivar: There were two staff members in software demos for plan review since they are
an important part of it.
Chris O'Keefe remarked that there are no current advertisements for positions at this time.
Nicholas Gadzekpo: We are coming up with creative ways to use what we have. With new people, there is a
slight tendency to slow down to get acclimated to everything, and with employees currently there already
they are there to embrace the processes with no slowdowns. DSC will cross train to do plan reviews, so in the
future it could be all-hands-on-deck.
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Question by Commissioner Rob Zapple: Is there a way to track an average time for plan review? If a plan is
submitted, what is the average time and cross check with other counties on how we rank?
Nicholas Gadzekpo: So there are pieces that has to do with One-Solution that do not allow for that.
Approximately, no more than 10 working days, staff time, no third parties or other departments. With
different jurisdictions and comparing them and complexity of oranges vs apples (levels of difference) with
Wilmington, Brunswick County, Kure Beach, and Carolina Beach. Staff will compare/contrast those levels.
Commissioner Rob Zapple: So there is not a quick and concise way with not apples to apples.
Nicholas Gadzekpo: CFPUA is not included in the timeframe, it would be longer. Staff had very valuable
training, figuring out batching, waiting for work to get to you, the delays with the process, small number wins
and an increase in the number of outputs. All hands-on-deck is seeing what a person does and moving things
along, it is a good investment. The 10 working days will get better.
IDAC Member Shawn Lewis - Question: Electrical and plumbing footing inspections. How is the building
inspections side keeping up with inspections when there are five (5) roll overs before they get to today's
schedule? What is your plan to help out and any to hire?
Jimmy Shivar: We work with each Division Chief on how to do that schedule with the number of Inspectors
we have. We worked on Holly Ridge and the level of backup in each Division. For example, Randal has a Level
III and some Level II's so we are doing everything we can with multilevel Inspectors and every little bit helps
with cross-training. It is hard to recruit, and money is an issue.
Question by IDAC Member Shawn Lewis: What is the plan to get everyone cross trained?
Jimmy Shivar: With sickness and retirement it is hard to jump over this hurdle, staff can take over that
training now since we have help.
Arthur Malpass: Some more inspections for each trade might be an option.
Jimmy Shivar: We fulfill the biggest need each day and roll overs have priority.
Nicholas Gadzekpo: Expanding work hours is something we are looking into, maybe ½ day Saturday and if
somebody needs one, they can get an inspection.
Cameron Moore: What are the timeline stats with contracts, the dates are sliding on dates with move ins. On
the building side is the level of number of permits going up?
Nicholas Gadzekpo: It has been three times more in just this month, both State and Nationwide. The
consumer confidence has gone up since pre-2008 days. This is good and bad on many fronts.
Cameron Moore: We need more Inspectors and how do we go find them?
Nicholas Gadzekpo: The challenge is how to find them.
Chairman Smith: When the economy was down, they (Inspectors) got other jobs. They might decide it is a
better job to be an Inspector now.
Discussion, by all, later focused on when the next meeting could be.
The meeting adjourned at 4:44pm
Minutes prepared by:
Brianna Grella
Building Safety Administrative Specialist
Building Safety Department.
New Hanover County.
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