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2003

City might hire 1 more inspector


Slugline Publication Date Section(s) Page Byline By Margaret J. Stair Daily Times Staff Writer City Manager Ed Wyatt recommended Thursday that City Council hire one more housing inspector to enforce the city's minimum housing standards for rental units. "I have changed my initial position because of the magnitude of the problem and the catching up that needs to be done," he said at a budget workshop. The Development Services Department had requested three new inspectors. The U.S. 301 Task Force had recommended four. Wyatt had not included any positions in his original budget proposal because he wanted to discuss it with development services director Tim Hollomon, who has recently returned from leave. Adding the recommended position will bring the number to three of people doing routine systematic inspections of the city's 11,000 residential rental units. Two will work on the 4,400 units in the inner city, where there are more problem properties. The other inspector will take care of the rest of the city. Hollomon expects this to allow more frequent inspections of houses that are at greater risk of not meeting minimum standards. "I think Tim has come up with a common-sense approach for deploying these three people," said Wyatt. The money for the new inspector's salary will come from reductions in other parts of the Development Services Department's budget. The new inspector will use a vehicle the city would otherwise have sold as surplus. Wyatt's recommendation brings the total number of new full-time positions in his proposed 2003-04 budget to nine, with four more part-time positions to be upgraded to full-time. city budget hearing Wilson Daily Times May 30, 2003 Local News a1

Council members raised a number of other issues during the budget workshop. A.P. Coleman suggested that council might want to look at raising minimum housing standards. Hollomon said there needs to be an appearance standard. Currently, a house does not violate standards unless more than 75 percent of its exterior paint is gone. "A lot of these houses meet minimum standards, but do not look like houses you'd want in your neighborhood," he said. Mayor Bruce Rose asked about the possibility of reading utilities meters electronically, without using meter readers. Fred Horne, director of utilities, said the city is experimenting with meters that can be read remotely in some new subdivisions, but the cost of putting such meters on existing buildings would be prohibitive. It would cost $50 per meter, and there are three meters on each housing unit, one each for water, electricity and gas. Coleman asked Wyatt if he was satisfied with the diversity of city personnel. Wyatt replied that the city actively recruits women and minorities for positions, but has room for improvement. Coleman asked for consideration of ways to improve living standards for the lower-paid employees. Don Evans and Bob Thaxton asked what has happened to the money the city used to reallocate from the electric fund to the general fund. The Local Governments Commission, which is part of the state treasurer's office, has required cities to decrease the amount of utilities income that is used to subsidize city government. Horne replied that some has been used to absorb some of the increased costs of buying electricity, instead of passing all of the increases on to customers. Some will be used to fund the salaries of the new customer service representatives in the budget proposal. But most of it has gone into savings, which will be used for capital improvements. Horne anticipates the need for $20 million in improvements to the electricity transmission system over the next five years to meet increased power needs as the city grows. Gordon Baker, city finance director, said that the Local Governments Commission wants city utilities departments to build up as much financial reserve as possible to assure repayment of bond debt undertaken as part of ElectriCities. Following the budget workshop, council held the first of two public hearings on the proposed budget. Two citizens spoke to council, one on each side of the issue of increased wastewater fees to fund capital improvements to the wastewater treatment system. Bill Biddle, representing Wilson County Taxpayers Association, equated the proposed increases in water and sewage fees with taxes and said they burdened local industries and families

struggling to make ends meet. He did express support for the addition of three positions in the fire and police departments. Rob Robbins commended council for funding the improvements in wastewater treatment. You may reach Margaret J. Stair at margaret@wilsondaily.com or at 265-7878.

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