Everyone’s Looking for A Building Inspector

La Grange City Manager Jack Thompson said the City will try to hire an in-house building official. And La Grange isn’t alone in that search. Schulenburg and Weimar are looking to hire a building official as well.

A big crowd of business owners and building contractors came to the June 23 La Grange City Council meeting to express frustration with ATS, the third-party company that conducts plan review and building inspections for the City. The City hired ATS back in April following resignations by the former assistant city manager and building inspector.

Thompson told the Record after the meeting that it has become more and more difficult for cities like La Grange to hire an in-house building inspector.

“There are two components,” Thompson said. “One is inspections and the other is plan review. I’m hearing they want a building official who does both. It’s a sense of comfort, knowing somebody. I understand that.” However, Thompson said few people possess the necessary qualifications.

“It takes a lot of licenses,” Thompson said. “Those people are becoming unicorns.”

The Texas Municipal League, which represents cities in Texas, hosts a job posting board on their website. There were more than 80 open positions for a building official or inspector listed on the site last week.

Nevertheless, Thompson said the City will seek out an in-house building official by advertising an open position.

“It’s going to be tough finding someone,” he said. “Maybe we get blessed and someone wants to come back.”

The cities of Weimar and Schulenburg are facing a similar problem. Weimar recently hired a third-party firm to provide plan review and inspections. Schulenburg hasn’t handled those duties since 2014, when they outsourced them to Bureau Veritas. But recently, the two towns decided to team up to try and hire their own regional building inspector.

“For some time now, Weimar and Schulenburg have been in conversations to discuss how combining resources would allow us to offer qualified services at half the costs,” said Schulenburg City Administrator Tami Walker.

“Probably one of the biggest issues was inspectors,” Walker said. “Never the same one, no consistency on the building code for passes and fails, and (Bureau Veritas) experienced some turnover with inspectors. In the beginning, they were traveling from Inks Lake and Kingsland area, which is quite a distance. We have had inspectors travel from the Yoakum and Gonzales area.”

Walker said long waits for plan review also caused delays for builders.

Walker said that by combining resources, she hopes Schulenburg and Weimar can provide a qualified person to serve both communities.

“In conversations with Weimar, we want to build a partnership and have an inspector that is consistent and a face within both communities,” Walker said.

“The beginning may be trial and error,” she added. “Balancing the needs of the communities will be a learning curve. But we are confident that this is a step in the right direction.”