A shift in oversight of problematic Minneapolis building inspections will start Jan. 1 if the City Council signs off on that Friday, but a possible amendment may allow the Fire Department to win back the job of overseeing the inspections.
A staff recommendation presented Thursday sets Jan. 1 as the date for shifting some inspections from fire officials to the city's Regulatory Services Department. That's expected to win council approval Friday.
The proposal shifts supervision and scheduling of inspections of larger apartment buildings and inspections of mixed-use commercial buildings. Fire captains will keep doing the actual inspections between fire and medical runs.
Regulatory Services inspectors already inspect buildings with up to three rental units. Council Member Elizabeth Glidden said the shift will allow more consistency in inspections.
An April 2 fire on Lake Street that killed six people in an uninspected apartment lent new urgency to the reorganization discussions. The idea originally stemmed from concern that the Fire Department had fallen behind on inspections since assuming oversight of them in 2005. The cause of the Lake Street fire has not been determined.
Also up for a vote Friday is Council Member Betsy Hodges' proposal to allow the Fire Department to win back supervision of its inspections if it can demonstrate that it has developed the capacity to manage the program consistent with Regulatory Service inspections.
Hodges' proposal would limit the shift to two years or for a period to be determined by the council after a performance audit of fire administrative and management skills in the second year. It would direct Regulatory Services, headed by former Fire Chief Rocco Forte, to aid fire officials in building those skills.
Recommendations by Forte and Fire Chief Alex Jackson call for an agreement implementing the shift by July 1. Fire officials would start additional training for inspectors immediately, complete a first round of training by Oct. 1 and repeat it annually.
