St. Clair Shores, Roseville

St. Clair Shores to contract with Roseville for inspection services

By Kristyne E. Demske
C & G Staff Writer

St. Clair Shores will contract with the city of Roseville and two other companies for inspection and code enforcement services for the next three years.

“How our city looks is very important to us,” said City Manager Ben Hughes at the July 16 City Council meeting. “Code enforcement will be one of the top issues for the rest of this year and 2013.”

One of the benefits of using Roseville for building, plumbing, electrical and HVAC inspections is that inspectors will now be available five days a week instead of just Monday, Wednesday and Friday as they are now.

“They have the capacity, and they will have the staff to make sure that we’re not second fiddle, so to speak,” Hughes said.

Councilman Chris Vitale said he wished there was a way to make Roseville step up its own code enforcement.

“The areas of Roseville that adjoin St. Clair Shores are atrocious,” he said. “This is the one time we have a chance to hold a carrot and stick over them. I’m not inclined to reward the city of Roseville; I’m conflicted.”

But Community Development and Inspection Director Chris Rayes said the contract can be cancelled with 30 days notice, and Roseville was already supplementing inspection services for the city before the contract was approved. The motion approving Roseville for building inspection services and plan review passed unanimously.

Annually, St. Clair Shores will pay $75,000 for a building inspector, $28,000 for a plumbing inspector and the same amount for an electrical inspector, and $33,000 for HVAC/refrigeration inspector from Roseville.

Roseville will receive 20 percent of building and structural plan examination fees, and 10 percent of plan examination fees for plumbing, electrical and HVAC/refrigeration inspections.

City Council also decided to contract with Landscape Services for code enforcement. The company will charge $35 per hour for a supervisory employee and $25 per hour for other employees.

“They have done work for us satisfactorily in the past,” said Rayes.

He said the city anticipates having three employees from the company in the field for inspections. The city’s biggest challenge, currently, is Saturday, which could be accommodated, as Landscape Services employees are available Monday through Saturday.

Hughes said he envisions a supervisor being able to create a weekly report for council members to be kept appraised of blight conditions in the city.

“The communication that I think you deserve will be coming to you proactively,” he said. “As you increase code enforcement … some of these positions will be creating revenue.”

Although he voted in favor of the motion to hire Landscape Services, Vitale said, in the future, he would like to see some sort of citizen panel put in place to review the decisions of Landscape Services because, he pointed out, the same company handing out violations is also the same company hired by the city to cut the grass of violators.

The city decided to contract with Kevin Stultz, for $25 per unit, for rental inspections.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Kristyne E. Demske at kdemske@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1041.