Building department bashed over permits
Acropolis says too many open permits is 'dereliction of duty'
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer
Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis wants to know why there are so many open building permits in town.

Acropolis said at the Feb. 26 Township Council meeting that he had recently been given a list of open building permits, some of which dated back 10 years.

"They gave me a stack, it had to be 2 inches thick," the mayor said. "That's a problem."

Some residents have complained lately that building department employees have come to their homes and told them the work listed on their permits is incomplete because they never had a final inspection, Acropolis said.

"Anybody that has all of these building permits for this number of years, to me it's a dereliction of duty, official misconduct," he said. "I don't know who is responsible, the attorney, construction official, subcode official. I have no idea who is responsible. But I can tell you I'm going to find out who is responsible."

Township Engineer James Priolo, who works for Birdsall Engineering, has agreed to take the position of building department director at no additional cost to the township, the mayor said.

Acropolis said he told Priolo, who was expected to take over on March 5, to take a look at the problem of open building permits.

Township Construction Code Official Daniel F. Newman Jr. said he watched the Township Council meeting on BTV last Thursday night and asked to see Acropolis the following day.

"All I'll say is that after hearing his remarks, I wanted to speak to him to discuss the situation," he said.

But Newman did say it is ultimately the homeowner's responsibility to call for the final inspections they need to close out a permit, Newman said.

"Unfortunately, what happens is often people take out a permit and never actually do the work or complete the work," he said. "So the permit remains open."

The construction department even has a form for pool permit owners to sign acknowledging that they need to call for a final inspection before they can use the pool, he said.

"We don't know when the work is done or when the work is complete," Newman said. "There is no way for us to know. We don't visit every job every day."

The building department issued roughly 4,000 permits last year and 5,000 permits in 2006, Newman said.

"Unfortunately, when you do 4,000 permits a year, a small percentage may fail to call for a final inspection," he said.

The department takes advantage of slow times, especially in January and February, to go out in the field and attempt to close old permits, he said.

"It's part of our normal operating routine," he said. "We do it when we are slow. We have to use our manpower in the most logical way. It's basically an allocation of our resources."

And the faltering real estatemarket has also given the construction department more time to check up on open permits, Newman said.

"In themiddle of the summer, when construction is at a boom, we don't have the time to go back to older permits. When we have the time, we do."

Acropolis is also concerned about the behavior of an employee in the engineering department.

A resident had been waiting for over an hour last week to speak to someone about a building project, but was told to wait until employees were finished with lunch, he said.

"Those days are over in Brick,"Acropolis said. "We want to treat our residents in Brick in a professional way. The days of the frat house are over. Whether it's public works, the building department, no matter where it is, we have got to conduct ourselves in a professional manner."

Themayor said he doesn't blame people for not wanting to visit the building department for permits.

"Getting a building permit in Brick Township is like going to the dentist," Acropolis said. "It's not something that people want to do."

Newman is the construction code official, but doesn't consider himself to be in charge of the department, Acropolis said.

"There really wasn't anybody in charge of the entire department," the mayor said.

Open building permits are a problem in any municipality in the state, Newman said.

"Any kind ofmunicipal governmental office can usually do a better job of customer service," Newman said.

Themajority of complaints come during the "prior approval" process, in the engineering, zoning and affordable housing departments, before they even come to the building department, he said.

"You are always going to get some complaints, when you are a regulator and you have to say no," he said."

People also don't realize that the building code changes every three years.

"We don't write those code sections, we enforce them," he said.