The Union County Health Department and Building Department are working to “disentangle” the county’s plumbing program, which is currently operated between both agencies.
“There’s overlap in a lot, a lot of areas,” said Chief Building Official Sam Cronk.
The Union County Board of Health voted during its most recent meeting to resume the administrative functions of the plumbing program, effective Jan. 1, 2024.
Health Commissioner Jason Orcena explained that the county’s plumbing program is administered by the building department, although it is technically a health department program.
Orcena said he and Cronk have been discussing whether that is the best way to handle the program.
Both said they feel it should be “wholly within one agency,” though neither had strong opinions as to whether the health or building department should absorb it.
Cronk, who has been with the Union County Building Department for three years, said he feels it is more common that plumbing programs are run entirely through one entity.
“I was very, very confused when I first got here,” he said.
Due to the rapid growth in the area, Cronk said he feels there are “too many complexities” of the plumbing program to split between agencies.
He said doing so causes issues for those working behind the scenes to issue permits, as well as homeowners and contractors who are seeking them.
Cronk said the building department collects the permit fees, which are sent back to the health department on a monthly basis.
Then, the building department bills the health department quarterly for its time.
Orcena said resuming oversight of the program would require the health department to hire an additional administrative position.
However, Cronk said the building department has averaged $105,000 in personnel costs billed to UCHD each year over the past four years for administering the plumbing program.
Cronk said those dollars could balance the increased administrative costs UCHD will experience. On the flip side, while the building department will lose that revenue stream, Cronk said they will also lose the responsibility and personnel hours that come with it.
Cronk said he has worked with Orcena to increase communication between the two departments, but running the program jointly can still be a challenge. He noted that the building code explicitly requires that he have the approval of the health commissioner in order to issue some permits.
The program can be confusing for those seeking permits too, Cronk said. He added that he often fields questions from contractors wondering whether their requests relate to the building or health department.
“It would be nice to have a clear demarcation of, that’s the health department’s purview,” Cronk said.
While the process may be more streamlined for homeowners, Orcena said the majority of changes would happen on the back end.
“Back office, it’ll change a lot, probably,” he said.
Aside from additional personnel hours, some of the difficulty stems from the technology that is used to manage the program.
As of now, Cronk allows the health department access to his OpenGov software system. He does the same for the fire department, so both can access permit information.
“It really is a three-headed monster between us, the health department and fire,” he said.
The health department recently agreed to begin using the same software, but Orcena said “we aren’t even to a functioning state with OpenGov yet.”
He noted that UCHD will also need to modify its contract with OpenGov to include a plumbing module since it was not included at the time.
Orcena explained that technically, the Board of Health owns the historical database of plumbing permits the building department has managed, but the question is how to get them into UCHD’s own system.
“A lot of this hinges on work with the software,” Orcena said.
He said the “ultimate improvement” would be if OpenGov allowed the building and health departments’ systems to communicate with each other so staff from either agency could access appropriate information.
While resuming administrative oversight of the plumbing program by Jan. 1 is “an aggressive timeline,” both Orcena and Cronk said they feel it is possible.
Following board approval to do so, Orcena said upcoming meetings will include updates on progress toward the switch.