GREENFIELD — Because of budget cuts and lack of qualified applicants, the city’s health and building inspection departments are running at half strength.
The city has two vacant inspector positions between the Health and Building departments, and no overall supervisor in the Health Department.
This has caused a logjam of inspections.
Mayor William Martin said the lack of qualified candidates and budget cuts have led to the situation.
“We are not satisfying the need for health inspections or building inspections at this time,” Martin said.
The budget contains money for two full-time health inspectors. It also has money for a full-time building inspector and a second building inspector that was cut from full time to half time in the budget year that began July 1. But the city has only one full-timer in each department at present.
Martin said the city is looking for one half-time building inspector and one full-time health inspector. Martin said a health inspector left last week for a new job, causing an additional vacancy in an already thinly staffed department, which is still looking for a director.
“The two departments are in a mission crisis,” Martin said.
According to an email from the only building inspector still on the job, Mark Snow, the city’s building department is behind in dozens of orders.
These include 22 complaints related to building codes and zoning ordinances and 45 inspections of existing buildings. The building inspector was also unable to respond to three requests from the Greenfield Fire Department to inspect structure fires recently.
Martin said the city has contingency plans in place through the Franklin Regional Council of Governments to use the cooperative inspection program’s staff when needed, but it is also understaffed.
“Building inspectors are hard to find,” Martin said. “The county is having the same issue in the same area.”
Budget cuts that happened earlier this year have limited the city’s ability to find replacements, Martin said, specifically when the City Council cut $52,920 from the health department and reduced the building department budget so that a vacant full-time inspector position became half-time.
Martin said the building department budget cut “stopped cold our interviews” the city was holding for the position. He said they had a person in line for what had been a full-time position around the time the cut occurred.
“We advertised and interviewed and were ready to hire but couldn’t,” he said.
And according to a memo sent by Snow to the City Council, budget cuts forced him to “reevaluate and prioritize” services provided by his department. The memo outlined several tasks that would be impacted, including delays in approving permits and reduced time available for inspections.
Martin said the he and remaining inspectors are meeting this week to determine what the next steps will be.
“Our next move will be to go in front of City Council and request additional funds so (the departments) can do the job they’re mandated to do,” Martin said.
Both Martin and Finance Director Elizabeth Braccia said previously that a supplemental budget could be a possibility after the budget cuts.
City Council President Karen “Rudy” Renaud said the council would need more information before deciding whether to give additional funding for the departments.