Keep Anchorage Safe
Mayor Dave Bronson is cutting critical positions for the municipal budget, including many of our electrical and plumbing inspectors. Email your comments about these actions to wwmas@anchorageak.gov today!
We respectfully ask the members of the Anchorage Assembly to amend the proposed budget and restore the proposed cuts of inspector positions in the Building Safety department.
We do not support the proposed removal of the municipal inspectors who have a high standard of licensure, training, and experience for the process of inspecting buildings in the Municipality of Anchorage.
During the last major earthquake in 2018 the areas in the MOA covered by building codes suffered minimal structural damage. We had no home explosions from hot water heaters, no building fires caused by electrical faults. In short, because of our stringent codes our community survived with very little damage. Building inspections are a public safety issue and are important to all citizens.
By contrast, many structures in Eagle River suffered significant damage during that earthquake event, due to the fact that building inspections in Eagle River can be completed by a private entity. Such inspectors do not possess the same qualifications and experience that Municipality of Anchorage inspectors do.
The lack of an adequate number of building inspectors, coupled with inspectors being forced to perform more inspections per day, will result in lower quality inspections and safety violations being missed. As a result, building and construction project inspections would not have the level of scrutiny that they deserve. The overall safety of the public is at risk when such
With the recent passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Alaska will be experiencing a boom of construction work which will require more inspections, not fewer. This influx in projects that will need to be inspected would compound the problem of reducing current levels of inspectors.
We strongly protest the proposed cuts to of inspection employees when the Municipality is not facing a budget shortfall. We do not feel that these position cuts are justified.
Electrical Inspectors
The administration claims that it has too many electrical inspectors and does not have sufficient work for them all. This is not true. Here are the facts:
The MOA Electrical inspectors are currently performing more than three times as many inspections as the state electrical inspectors. The four MOA inspectors performed 1900 inspections in the past 4 months. This is a total of 475 inspections per inspector. Even if you included the Lead (who has other duties and only performs 1/3 of a permitted inspection load), the average would be 380 inspections per employees in the past 4 months.
In comparison, Alaska Dept. of Labor Inspectors are each expected to perform 400 inspections per year.
There has not been a reduction in the number of electrical inspections being performed that would justify a reduction in electrical inspectors:
Aug-Oct 2021: 1567 Permitted Electrical Inspections completed Aug-Oct 2020: 1353 Permitted Electrical Inspections completed (fewer inspections due to covid-19) Aug-Oct 2019: 1596 Permitted Electrical Inspections completed
Aug-Oct 2018: 1548 Permitted Electrical Inspections completed
Aug-Oct 2017: 1629 Permitted Electrical Inspections completed
Aug-Oct 2016: 1571 Permitted Electrical Inspections completed
The Administration claims that inspectors are only performing 4 inspections per day. This is not true. The actual numbers are as follows:
June 2021 - 5.2 permitted inspections per day July 2021 - 5.83 permitted inspections per day Aug 2021 - 5.25 permitted inspections per day Sep 2021 - 6.9 permitted inspections per day
The Administration's proposed reduction of electrical inspectors would result in safety issues and project delays:
•The electrical inspectors are usually inspecting on or around live electrical installations. Rushing these inspections can cause damage to equipment or severely injure or kill an Electrical Inspector.
•The Administration's proposed 50% CUT in electrical inspectors would result in only 1 full time Electrical inspector covering the whole MOA from Girdwood to Eklutna on many days.
The Administration's numbers also fail to include other duties of electrical inspectors. The Administration's numbers do not include:
-Time spent by electrical inspectors on the phone and at the front counter with contractors and homeowners explaining code, work methods, and inspection procedures and requirements.
-Time spent on code compliance inspections for electrical inspections generated by the compliance officers on non-permitted jobs.
-Time spent helping plan reviewers on jobs they are reviewing.
-Time spent meeting CEA personnel and Fire department personnel on unsafe electrical services and conditions.
-Time spent writing up stop work/notices of violations on jobs sites without electrical permits.