On April 1, the Brooksville City Council discussed implementing heftier penalties for those who have multiple permit violations. According to Community Development Director David Hainley, there are some contractors working in the city who have multiple violations on the same building site.
Currently, in the city code, there is a penalty process where if someone begins a project without a permit, the building official can double the permit application fee.
Hainley asked the Council if that permit application fee can be more than doubled for a property owner or contractor who are habitual offenders, neglecting to pull a permit prior to beginning more than one project.
Hainley said that, often, contractors double bill their clients for increased permit fees due to being penalized for not pulling permits.
In order to address the problem with stricter penalties, he explained that the City would need to put in place a local amendment to the state building code.
“For multiple violations with a specified time frame, you guys would decide that we could triple or quadruple charge and maybe try to put something in the ordinance that says they wouldn’t be able to back bill that to the client because the client shouldn’t have to pay for them doing work without permit,” Hainley suggested.
City attorney Becky Vose stated that for licensed builders, the city could adopt an ordinance to create a special board to hear and decide on penalties for those who intentionally violate the building code. Penalties could include removing their ability to pull permits in the City.
The City Council or Planning and Zoning Commission could act as the Contractor Review Board.
Attorney Vose said that she drafted a similar ordinance for the City of Anna Maria due to issues with contractors and they did get the message and have not had to convene that board.
Council Member Tanner suggested that they have Vose draft a review board ordinance with P&Z acting as the review board. Other council members agreed with this direction.
