Permits and Code Enforcement

The primary focus that prompted me to run for city council is refocusing the permits department to be more citizen friendly. Citizens and the city both are losing contractors due to the cat they have such a difficult time obtaining permits within the city of Irving. The job of the permits department is to ensure that work is being done safely and up to code. As long as the permit is showing that plans are up to code, it should not be a difficult task to issue the permit requested. When inspecting, as long as the work is up to code and not placing any unnecessary risks, the inspection should pass. The inspector should not be scrutinizing the work done in such a way that it fails a project that is safe because the diagram showed a cosmetic difference.

Another area that needs to be addressed is code enforcement. They should be working to keep our city looking nice, not working to assign fines that essentially make revenue for the city. Also, it is important to allow for code enforcement access to be able to check for permits that have been issued or applied for in order for them stay in loop on matters happening within the city as well as any logs pertaining to any calls that have reported on code violations. The code enforcement personnel need to know if they are getting calls to harass a resident (repeat calls from one person/house on another house in particular) or if there may be a continuous code infraction occurring on a singular property (several residents calling about the same property on the same issue). They should also try working with residents that have any code violations to see if there is something the city can assist them with to ensure that they become in compliance with the city codes.

Cities are formed to support the citizens and not to make the lives of its citizens harder. All of the departments should be working together towards making the city safe and beautiful.