County staff proposes tripling inspection hourly rate to $150 to cover wages and travel

Jay Leipzig told commissioners the county is updating its valuation/fee schedule to align with ICC recommendations and that the county proposes increasing inspection fees from $50 to $150 per hour to account for higher payroll and inspector travel time.

"We're also increasing our inspection fees from $50 to $150 per hour," Leipzig said, adding that inspectors sometimes spend considerable time driving across the county — "it takes almost 30 minutes to drive from one side of the county to the other" — and that increased operational costs drive the change.

Leipzig said the updated fee schedule and inspection fee change would be included as part of the code update package that staff will return to the board for formal review. Commissioners noted the size of the increase and asked staff to include fuller cost and revenue projections in the Oct. 22 packet.