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Council gets measure to merge it with Summit County agency
By Carl Chancellor
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008
Akron took the first official steps Monday to shut down its building department.
Rick Merolla, the Akron service director, presented legislation at a committee meeting before Monday night's City Council session that would allow the city to transfer its building inspection, plan review, permit issuance and code enforcement operations to Summit County.
''We won't have a building department anymore,'' Merolla told council members attending the committee meeting.
Merolla said the plan to have the Summit County Building Department take over was amenable to the city, county and, most importantly, the state, which is investigating the city building department.
The state Commerce Department has been looking into the practices of the building department because of scores of complaints.
The state is also investigating allegations of misconduct by Greg Burgoon, the city's chief building officer, and three other building department employees. Burgoon resigned in July. The other employees — Robert DeGeorge, Richard Hickman and Kim Wooley — remain on paid leave.
The four reportedly accounted for the bulk of the complaints.
Merolla said the move to merge with the county was made necessary ''in response to pending decertification action.'' It's possible that after the state finishes its investigation, it will strip the city building department of its authority.
In August, Mayor Don Plusquellic announced the merger plan, saying it would streamline government and save tax dollars.
Merolla said a merger of the two departments is a nod to ''regionalism.''
The county's building department already serves 26 jurisdictions, including Green, New Franklin and Hudson.
Merolla said that county building inspectors ''ride right through Akron now'' to do their jobs at the county office building downtown.
Merolla said the remaining ''14 to 15'' city building department employees would be absorbed into the county's department.
The ordinance, which the committee tabled to allow more time for review, calls for the transfer to be made by Sept. 30 or ''at the earliest time allowed by law.''
Carl Chancellor can be reached at 330-996-3725 or cchancellor@thebeaconjournal.com.
Akron took the first official steps Monday to shut down its building department.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 06:32 AM, 09/16/2008
Several administrations should be run by a county oversight. Duplication of services in Summit County such as school boards, buildin departments and others is where most of your tax dollars are going. And believe it or not, many of these small cities do not need their own school administration, building depts and others. The savings, I think would be tremendous on our tax bill
Posted 12:01 PM, 09/16/2008
You are very correct, but I will bet it never show up on your tax bill.
