BRADENTON BEACH – The city commission unanimously approved hiring Benjamin Carr to serve as Bradenton Beach’s new in-house building official.
Carr currently serves as the building official for the city of Avondale, Arizona.
The city’s previous building officials were provided by third-party contractors. Carr will be a full-time city employee.
The commission approved Carr’s hiring after a public interview was conducted remotely via Zoom on Friday, Aug. 14. Carr’s start date will be Sept. 14 and his starting annual salary will be $140,000.
“As per our city charter, it’s the mayor’s job to make the nominations for department heads,” Mayor John Chappie said. “But I want the commission to be part of the process, which is why we’re having this hearing.”
Commissioners questioned Carr for nearly an hour on topics ranging from disaster recovery and floodplain management to code enforcement, budgeting and his long-term commitment to a small barrier island community.
“Currently I’m the chief building official for a city in the metropolitan Phoenix area with a population of around 100,000,” Carr said. “We do roughly about 3,000 permits annually. I think the challenge of the city of Bradenton Beach is going to be a really neat opportunity for me because yes, the population is smaller, but it’s also much more involved when it comes to the coastline barrier island requirements for floodplain and floodplain mitigation and disaster recovery. This is just an amazing opportunity.”
Carr said he would be 100% active and involved in the event of disaster recovery.
“I am not a sit back type of individual,” he said.
Commissioner Debbie Scaccianoce said the challenges can amplify tremendously during a storm event and recovery process, especially when significant flooding has occurred.
“With that comes with boots on the ground mentality,” she said. “You’re going to be out there in that 100-degree heat walking around doing your job and after a storm. It’s a dirty, sweaty, messy job.”
Commissioner Ralph Cole said Carr’s qualifications matched what the city was looking for.
Carr discussed his experience with the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System. He said improving the city’s CRS rating to further lower flood insurance premiums for Bradenton Beach property owners would be a top priority, along with implementing Florida’s updated building code, which takes effect Dec. 31.
Commissioners asked Carr about his experience with FEMA disaster recovery requirements, stormwater management and working with a contracted planning staff. Carr said he has not worked directly with FEMA in the field but has experience navigating related compliance and grant processes.
While serving as the city’s in-house building official, Carr will also serve as the department head for the building and planning department. His responsibilities will include coordinating the functions of the city’s third-party contracted planning services provider. Carr will also supervise code enforcement. The city’s lone code enforcement officer, Evan Harbus, works out of the city hall building, but under the supervision of Police Chief John Cosby. Carr will become the code enforcement department supervisor.
“You were kind of the missing piece to the puzzle that Bradenton Beach has been looking for a while,” Commissioner Scott Bear said. “We’ve subbed out the building official for so long and a lot of people don’t even know what it was like when we had our own building official and our own department head. I’m seeing energy and someone that can get out and do the things that need to be done.”
