Randall will seek to negotiate sharing a building inspector with Twin Lakes, after action taken Thursday night.
The Randall Town Board has been considering the renewal of its contract with building inspector David Sturdevant for the last several meetings. Last month, there was discussion centering on how Sturdevant is paid; he receives 80 percent of the building inspection fee charged by the town.
Supervisor Ken Mangold has been making the case that the arrangement means the town ends up missing revenue it could be using in these lean times. Since the board’s last meetings, he researched the situation and said he found all neighboring municipalities have either a full or part-time inspector who is paid a salary, instead of a percentage of fees. Those arrangement end up costing those places $25 to $33 per hour.
Last year, Randall paid $25,000 to Sturdevant, which Mangold computed as $48 per hour.
Mangold suggested the town pursue negotiating sharing Sturdevant’s services with the village, with the town paying perhaps $10,000 to Twin Lakes. Sturdevant already is Twin Lakes’ full-time inspector.
“I think this would be a win-win situation for the town and the village..,” Mangold said.
Sturdevant, who was at the meeting, defended the current system, saying since his pay comes out of the fees that it is a good deal for the town that requires no outlay for times he is not working.
“There is no other cost to you,” Strudevant said.
But Mangold countered that the issue is really that by changing the way the building inspector is paid, the town may be able to keep more building inspection revenue.
If that is the goal, Sturdevant said, the town could raise its inspection fees, keep the percentage system and still realize more revenue. Randall’s inspection fees have not been changed since 1994 and are out of date with its neighbors, Sturdevant said.
Exploring the joint inspector seemed to have the support of other board members and passed unanimousily.
“In my mind, this is something that makes a lot of sense,” said Chairman Bob Stoll.
