Building inspection fees

You may recall a recent post I did following the PZC public hearing. I questioned the legitimacy of the fiscal impact study and said that in particular it

concerned me because while the Town Manager presented this revenue of $1.16 million (with offsetting costs of approximately $100k), he didn't mention that in CT, it is basically illegal for towns to "turn a profit" in a municipal building department. In other words, building department revenues cannot exceed building department expenses... or at least that's what the Council has been told for each of the past four years whenever we've discussed the building department fees. And when I asked for clarification... perhaps I missed it, but I didn't hear anything about the law changing. So I'm still wondering... is this "million dollar windfall" for real? Or will the town approve this project, get paid these fees, then get sued by the developer and refund this $1,000,000? I don't know, but I know the Town Manager has testified with some very contradictory information.

Anyway, since I finally saw Tuesday's agenda on Sunday, I noticed that the fiscal impact study was not on the agenda. So I spoke with the person who matters... Matt Hall... and he assured me that the fiscal impact study is going to be addressed tomorrow. Specifically, the Town Attorney will be addressing my concerns on the legality of these possible building inspection net revenues.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands around this issue.

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District