M.G. is close. The inspections department takes in much more in fees than it runs on to do its job. The rest goes to the general fund. What people pay for is not what they get, they get less by a long shot. Its a travesty IMHO that we pay for inspections and do not get them. The city makes a lot of money on its inspections department and uses the money for non inspection things.
This information comes right from the mouth of one of my instructors (who shall remain nameless) for an Inspections Department Administration class I took about 2 years ago. This instructor works for the city of Mpls in inspections as an administrator. Some of this persons stories help me decide never to go into inspections: the pay is crap, the bennies getting cut, the politics terrible, and the remote possibility of getting shot. Mpls does have a model, for the most part, that other cites do follow. MN has some of the most stringent codes and ordinances in the nation. Kudos to us for that. Now we just need those departments to be funded properly. Perhaps if our city council could pilfer the coffers of something other than the inspections department. Landlords should take note that your paying for inspections and not getting them (unless you like that idea). Ron Leurquin Nokomis East M.G. writes: A reminder about the housing inspections department (my information is from a friend who is a long-time inspector): There are about 160,000 housing units in the city. There are about 30 inspectors. Do the math yourself. The department's budget has been cut again and again, despite the fact that the inspections fees more than pay for the cost (in fact, I believe some of the revenue goes to general fund). In most cities, the mayor lives in fear of his inspections department, because landlords and property owners will often offer bribes to inspectors, and newspapers and TV stations like to run stings on them to boost sales/ratings. However, the Minneapolis department was examined minutely by the FBI during the investigations of our former council members (Herron, Biernat). They found exactly nothing wrong. Zilch. Nada. Now I won't say that the deparment is perfect; nor will I say that all the inspectors are models of efficiency and rectitude. But Minneapolis' housing inspections program is considered a model, one which is copied by other cities. Its inpsectors sit on boards of national and international inspections groups. If you want an interesting question, ask why the mayor wants to take about 30 percent of the deparment's budget to give to the fire department--when the fire deparment will only be doing about seven percent of the inspections work. This means a huge cut in the number of inspectors who would be checking units like the one that burned. --M. G. Stinnett Jordan Neighborhood REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
