Building permit services may shift to county

According to Grimes and Struck, building permit fees would be significantly less than customers of the two cities are currently paying.

"The county's building permit fees are substantially lower than what the citizens of White Salmon and Bingen are used to paying," explained Struck. "Because of the revenue from our landfill, we can keep our fees lower than almost anywhere in the state."

Grimes pointed out that the fees White Salmon charges are approximately 20 percent higher than the county charges, while the fees Bingen charges are approximately 40 percent higher than the county's.

White Salmon Mayor Roger Holen said the contract with Hood River County came about in the first place because it was a difficult job for a small city staff to take on.

"Building inspections are a tough thing to do," Holen explained. "You can't make everybody happy. Working with an established organization with professionals was better than us trying to manage it ourselves."

Laura Mann, a member of the Bingen City Council, pointed out that Mann Made Construction, a business she co-owns with her husband, John Mann, has always been pleased with the performance of the county.

"Klickitat County is very customer friendly, and lets contractors know the requirements. They have always been very polite, courteous, and helpful; even bending over backwards to help," she said.

"We're there to help," Grimes said. "We don't go looking for violations. We don't throw someone in jail for building a garage without a permit. It's a civil infraction."

Struck concurred.

"We're very sensitive about the public," Struck said. "We don't want to be a watchdog. We give people every chance to comply. We're here to serve people."

Key points of a draft "inter-governmental agreement" called for the county to handle the following services for the cities of Bingen and White Salmon:

receive applications and structural plans, collect fees, issue permits, provide plan reviews, conduct structural, plumbing, and mechanical inspections, field evaluations and other services with the exception of excavating, fill, and grading permits, and enforce the provisions of the Washington State Building Code;

provide inspection services during working hours Monday through Friday; the inspection policy allows that requests will usually be accommodated within 24 hours; and

provide all forms, including applications, technical expertise, handouts and complaint forms to the public.

"We'll take over inspection services. You don't have to do anything," Grimes said, adding that a full-time building official would be stationed at the new Pioneer Center building if the agreement is approved.

In turn, the cities would:

adopt by ordinance the most current version of the Washington State Building Code, including a civil infraction process for code violations; and

bear the responsibility of verifying proposed construction projects comply with planning and zoning rules and regulations within the cities, including applicable utility connections starting two feet outside the structure and extending to a legal connection.

The draft agreement calls for the new arrangement to be in effect for one year after all parties agree to it.

White Salmon City Council member Susan Benedict said the concept made sense to her.

"I want to read the contract carefully and see how much we're spending," Benedict said. "But keeping it on this side of the river sounds good to me."

Bingen Mayor Brian Prigel said he thought any controversies about the arrangement could be handled.

"I have some concerns, but they can probably be worked out," Prigel said.

He noted, however, that the Bingen council would hear a presentation from Hood River County officials -- who are vying to continue handling Bingen's building inspections -- later in October.

Prigel said the city would decide about whether to stay with Hood River or switch to Klickitat County in early November.

"I think Klickitat County's proposal would save us some money, perhaps $6,000-$8,000 a year," Prigel said.

Prigel added that the city has worked with Hood River County for about five years, and has been paying $19,000 a year.

"If all things are equal, we ought to keep the money in our county. But we have no complaints with the job Hood River County has done for us. In fact, I think they've done a good job for us," Prigel explained.

Mayor Holen agreed.

"We had no problems with Hood River County; on the contrary," Holen said. "But this is more the notion that when we can keep money on this side of the river, we ought to do so. It's taxpayer money, after all."

Holen said he anticipated that the White Salmon City Council would vote on switching building inspections to the Klickitat County Building Department at the first council meeting in November.

"There is some wordsmithing to be done, but there are no drawbacks I can see. You never know what the service level will be until after the fact, but the county is acting in good faith, and I'm pretty optimistic about it," Holen said. "It will save money for developers and people building houses. It's going to be less expensive than what they're currently paying."