ANNA MARIA – Mason Martin Builders and Agnelli Pools & Construction owner Frank Agnelli and other Anna Maria builders are calling for the city to replace contracted Building Official Craig Greene and the Joe Payne Inc. firm he works for with a full-time building official employed directly by the city.
In January, the city commission authorized Mayor Mark Short to execute an agreement with Joe Payne Inc. (JPI) that completely outsourced the city’s building department and floodplain management responsibilities to Payne’s firm, as well as providing some additional construction-related city engineering services.
According to the current agreement that’s scheduled for renewal or expiration on Sept. 30, JPI receives 50% of the building permit application fees generated in Anna Maria each month, and JPI is guaranteed a monthly minimum of $35,000 if permit fees don’t reach that monthly threshold.
The agreement also states that on average, the designated building official is to spend 6-8 hours at least one day a week at city hall, with the remaining services to be provided remotely.
When seeking commission authorization to enter into the agreement, Short said outsourcing the city’s building department would cost about the same as having an in-house city building department.
Builders upset
Approximately 30 members of Anna Maria’s construction community attended the Aug. 14 city commission and three of them shared their concerns with the mayor and commissioners.
Speaking first, Agnelli said, “I’m here to discuss the current situations the builders and taxpayers are dealing with. It’s not good. Since I’ve been here, 20-plus years, we’ve gone through 19 building officials. Everyone comes with a new set of rules, a new interpretation of codes and it’s making it very difficult for us to do our jobs.”
According to Agnelli, Green became the city’s contracted building official around April.
“Since then, contractors and private providers (inspectors) have been seeing a lot of resistance with red tags (stop work orders) on jobs and additional permits needing to be pulled. The building official has refused to allow private providers to inspect swimming pools. FEMA is being used as a reason, but FEMA doesn’t recognize swimming pools. Up until yesterday, I was denied another permit to have a private provider inspect my pools,” Agnelli said.
Agnelli said using private inspectors reduces the inspection fees paid to the city, which reduces the revenues shared with JPI.
He also said builders aren’t getting their permits when they need them and builders are being asked to pull multiple permits that should already be covered under the initial single-family home building permit.
“I really want to encourage the city to cancel this contract with JPI,” Agnelli said. “I feel that a full-time building official would benefit all of us in this room, and the taxpayers. Joe Payne needs the inspectors, but the inspectors don’t need Joe Payne because they have all the credentials. He doesn’t.”
According to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), Payne is a licensed certified general contractor and that’s the only state-issued license listed for him at the DBPR website.
According to DBPR, Greene is a licensed building code administrator, a licensed plans examiner and a licensed inspector. His plans examiner license expires on Aug. 22. His electrical inspector license expired on June 11 and his plumbing inspector license and his provisional mechanical inspector license expired on Feb. 14, according to DBPR.
Agnelli said the city previously issued a job posting offering a $188,000 salary for full-time city building official. With the current 50% fee sharing agreement, Agnelli said the city could hire a building official for $250,000 and still pay less than what JPI is getting paid.
Agnelli thinks JPI has a hidden agenda and the intent is to increase the permit fee revenues shared with the city.
“Please reconsider this approach. I think it’s very dangerous for the city,” Agnelli said. “We don’t need this private firm here. Joe Payne told Craig this is a one- to two-day-a-week job. That is so inaccurate. We need somebody fulltime. We all need help.”
Anna Maria-based Gagne Construction owner Dan Gagne said he seconded everything Agnelli said. He then offered to help the mayor and commissioners better understand how the city’s building codes and regulations impact builders and property owners.
“We love this city. We just have a problem right now with the existing building official. It’s just unbearable,” Gagne said.
Elements Pools and Spas owner Tyler Lancaster agreed and said, “We’re here to play by the rules, but we keep getting rules stacked on us we’re blind-sided by. We need help.”
Commission Chair Charlie Salem acknowledged the mayor was already aware of some of these issues and he thanked the builders for sharing their concerns with the commissioners.
“I think there will be in-depth discussion of what the issues are, how it’s changed since we’ve hired this new firm and what needs to change going forward,” Salem said. “We want to protect this Island just as much as you all do; and we want to make sure our residents and our contractors know what the rules are and that they’re as consistent as possible. This is the not the last time we’re going to have a conversation about this.”
Regarding the number of builders in attendance, Short said, “I have had the opportunity to meet with a couple of you regarding your concerns. This is clearly a demonstration of bigger concerns.”
Short said he would coordinate a meeting where he, city staff, Payne, Greene and the builders can discuss their concerns in greater detail. Short said that meeting will happen sooner rather than later and Agnelli offered to keep the other builders informed as to when it will happen.
Additional insights
The previous week, Holmes Beach-based builder Pete Dospel contacted The Sun and said Greene denied one of his Anna Maria clients a permit to laterally expand their hurricane-damaged ground-level home. According to Dospel, Greene said the new addition would have to be elevated per FEMA guidelines and the property owners were considering filing a Bert Harris claim against the city. On the morning of the commission meeting, Dospel was informed that the city would issue a permit for the lateral expansion.
Monica Simpson provides consulting services to many local builders and property owners. She attended Thursday’s meeting but didn’t address the commission. The following day, she shared her insights with The Sun.
“The building official keeps changing the rules of the game and he’s not communicating well. He’s battled back and forth with me about the legal rights he has as building official to not have private providers. He’s not reading the laws correctly. He’s also interpreting the codes we’ve been working with forever differently. Everything you’re hearing about inconsistency, overreaching and overarching power, changing the rules without communication and misinterpretation of the code is all very true and something needs to happen,” Simpson said.
“Having previously run the building department in Longboat Key, I understand the budget side of things as well. If you really start looking at the numbers and how much we are paying for building permits in Anna Maria, it’s about double what you would pay in Longboat Key, and for no good reason. And a lot of that money is going to Joe Payne’s company. His contract runs out soon and he doesn’t have to be involved anymore,” Simpson said. “We deserve to have a dedicated building official, not a building official who works for three or four different cities and is here one day a week. Meanwhile, he’s failing everybody and denying permits for no good reason. It’s a mess, but I am positive Mark Short and the city will figure out a remedy to the situation.”
