Partnerships work well for Covington and it recently formally extended its agreement with Black Diamond to continue one such relationship.
Covington, thanks to an interlocal agreement approved by the council members of both cities, provides building official services to Black Diamond. This partnership began in 2011 as part of a larger conversation at the 2010 tri-council meeting between Covington, Black Diamond and Maple Valley which laid the groundwork for such partnerships.
Covington’s Community Development Director Richard Hart explained in 2011 that Black Diamond hired Robert Meyers to do consulting work. Meyers, who worked for the city once before, is now Covington’s building official.
The ILA worked so well, Black Diamond asked Covington earlier this year to extend the agreement for a variety of building safety services, according to documents provided by Hart.
“The revised ILA is very similar to the (first) ILA, except for the removal of code enforcement services currently provided, a slight reduction of the minimum hours from 56 hours to 45 hours a month, and a $3 per hour increase in hour rates for our services,” the document, dated March 26, stated.
This agreement will generate about $40,000 in revenue which will cover the costs of the building safety services hours provided to Black Diamond as outlined in the agreement, the document states.
From Covington’s perspective, Hart wrote in an email interview, the agreement is mutually beneficial for all involved.
“Covington believes this is a great benefit to us because it allows us to supplement our revenue a bit from our charges to Black Diamond for the building administration and plan review services we provide,” Hart wrote. “That way we can maintain our building official and plans examiner as full-time employees in an economy where we might not be able to sustain them full-time 100 percent of the time due to a lack of work or reduced building permit revenues in Covington.”
Meanwhile, Black Diamond doesn’t have to suffer because of its current limitations due to being a smaller city, explained Stacey Welsh, the city’s community development director, in an email interview.
“At this time with our low level of permit activity we don’t have a workload or budget for full time building staff,” Welsh wrote. “To provide quality building services to our citizens, continuation of the ILA with Covington was the best choice.”
It’s an agreement that also makes sense from Hart’s perspective.
“And for Black Diamond they often don’t have the demand for a full-time position involving building administration and plans examinations services so they can request and pay for only the amount they need whether it’s half-time or quarter-time,” Hart said. “Plus the hourly charges we have for Black Diamond are less that they could find on the open market with outside consultants. So, it’s a win-win for both cities. And the building codes that both cities enforce are the same, the ones adopted by the state. That makes the application of building code standards the same in both cities.”
Welsh agreed with the idea of the agreement being a “win-win.”
“We are really fortunate to have access to certified staff with their knowledge and expertise,” Welsh wrote. “They provide on site counter service to our citizens and do building plan review here in our office. We would be hard pressed to find anyone with their experience level willing to work only 12 hours a week. The ILA gives us good customer service, plan review, inspections, and a certified building official with our limited budget, which is a great benefit for Black Diamond.”
