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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-14-19 Public Comment - P. Eibs - Wage IncreasesFrom: agenda@bozeman.net To: Agenda Subject: Thank you for your public comment. Date: Thursday, March 14, 2019 7:20:24 AM A new entry to a form/survey has been submitted. Form Name: Public Comment Form Date & Time: 03/14/2019 7:20 AM Response #: 188 Submitter ID: 16126 IP address: 172.24.96.111 Time to complete: 1 min. , 12 sec. Survey Details Page 1 Public comment may be submitted via the form below, or by any of the following options. Public comment may also be given at any public meeting. Email: agenda@bozeman.net Mail to: Attn: City Commission PO Box 1230 Bozeman, MT 59771 In-person delivery to: Attn: City Commission City Clerk's Office City Hall, Suite 202 121 N. Rouse Ave. Bozeman, MT First Name Patrick Last Name Eibs Email Address peibsk9@yahoo.com Phone Number 406-539-1366 Comments March 14, 2019 Commissioners: I am writing in support of raising, significantly, the wages of the building departments inspectors and plan reviewers. I am the owner of Higher Standard Homes, and we build 18-20 homes per year in the city of Bozeman. At the present time I feel the building department has just crossed the bridge to being in crisis. One of the best inspectors the city has had in a long time, Derryck Jones, has tendered his resignation, and one plan reviewer is retiring in 2 weeks. Another top inspector is rumored to be seriously looking at finding other employment, and a relatively new inspector has left in the past few weeks. Rumors are that more departures may be on the way. Building inspectors and plan reviewers are hard to come by. This is not a position you can pick someone up off the streets and have them functioning in a reasonable time frame. In the world of supply and demand, the few inspectors available are in high demand and they likely can’t be sourced locally. I worry now, with the experienced folks leaving, who will train the next wave of inspectors? How efficient will the new inspectors be? How much time do they drain from the few remaining experienced inspectors as they have to train the new crew? If the remaining residential plan reviewer has to spend his time out doing inspections/training new crews, who will be doing plan reviews? How long will builders be waiting before they can pull permits for new homes? What is the cost of training new staff, that recently has only about a 50% chance of staying 6 months or more? I think all of these questions need to be evaluated immediately and action taken, without delay, to retain anyone looking. It will very soon be to late. I understand there is a bargaining group, and negotiations begin soon. Still, I would think there is some emergency action that can be taken now. It needs to be done. In the paper the other day I read the results of the needs assessment for housing in the city. As stated, 1460 homes are needed now, and 6340 homes in the next 6 years. That is a lot of plan reviews, that is a lot of inspections. A builder can’t do anything until the city first moves on our plans. If we can’t get plan reviews completed, we can’t start the home. If inspections start taking longer to get completed it will take longer to build, slowing the amount of homes built. I believe strongly our supply of homes in Bozeman is greatly impacted by the choices the city commission makes. I have recently started to pursue doing more homes outside of the city of Bozeman as it makes more business sense for me to go to where it is easier to build, and far less stressful. I am currently working on an affordable housing project that I can’t make pencil out in Bozeman because of the delays and added time involved in building in Bozeman. It is unfortunate that I don’t feel I can make this work in Bozeman. In Bozeman it takes me approximately 8 weeks to break ground on a home after I get the plans from the architect. In other local areas I can start within 2 weeks, if not less. A few weeks ago I had a nice sit down with Marti Matsen and Chuck Winn. I appreciated their input, as I believe they did mine. I feel strongly coming out of that meeting that their hands are tied by the actions of the commission. It appears the commission has not created a direction that allows the city to maintain the growth that is coming whether it is desired or not. If the city doesn’t want growth, just announce it. But, if you do so, you then also need to acknowledge “affordable housing” is off the table, and stop spending money on consultants to identify the issue, but not be willing to take action to do something about it. The ability of developers to develop, and builders to build, goes a long way in keeping pricing down. I have to admit, I got a “D” in economics in college, mostly because I couldn’t understand my professors very rough English, but I definitely understand the concept of supply and demand. If 6340 housing units are to be built in Bozeman over the next 6 years to keep supply in line with demand (keeping prices from rising ridiculously) then the city needs to take the lead on making that doable for the building community. Catching up on the already needed 1460 units is going to be tough enough. It can’t be done without inspectors. It can’t be done without plan review staff. Please take action now. I would gladly sit down with any one of you, or all of you, to discuss this further. Sincerely, Patrick Eibs Higher Standard Homes 406-539-1366 Thank you, City Of Bozeman This is an automated message generated by the Vision Content Management System™. Please do not reply directly to this email.