Lower Southampton supervisors have taken the first steps toward hiring a new zoning and building officer, a move that the current zoning officer says has caught him off guard.
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| William Oettinger |
William Oettinger, who serves as zoning officer and township fire marshal, said Thursday that he did not request to be relieved of his zoning duties, and he does not feel overwhelmed working both full-time jobs — something that supervisors cited as the reason they want to replace him.
The supervisors voted 5-0 Wednesday to direct the township solicitor to advertise for the position to replace Oettinger, who took over last year after the retirement of former department head Carol Drioli. Oettinger will continue in the position until a replacement is hired. The vote came following an hour-long executive session where an undisclosed personnel issue was discussed.
Before voting on the motion, supervisor Ed Shannon said that in the last year the board has asked some employees to pull double-duty, and it shouldn’t have happened. Shannon mentioned Oettinger and Finance Director Joe Galdo in his comments.
Supervisors named Galdo as acting township manager in September after the retirement of John McMenamin; the board recently finished interviewing candidates for the permanent position.
Oettinger, a licensed building code official, was interim zoning officer for five months before the board officially hired him in the position last July.
Supervisor Chairman Ray Weldie on Thursday echoed Shannon’s comments, saying the board felt the need to have a full-time building code official and it was “unfair” for Oettinger to split his time and “heap that amount of work on one person.”
He also pointed out that before Oettinger was hired in his dual capacity, the zoning officer was a standalone position.
“The board felt it was important to do that again,” Weldie said. “We felt it was important to have one person in each job.”
Weldie did not answer whether he was satisfied with Oettinger’s job performance.
Since he was hired, Oettinger said that supervisors have never brought concerns to him that they felt he was overwhelmed before Wednesday.
“I always did the best I could do. I cross my T’s and dot my I’s,” he said.
There are 281 Pennsylvania residents who hold dual state certifications for fire marshal and building code official, including 34 in Bucks and eastern Montgomery counties, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry.
While the vote to advertise the position was unanimous, on Thursday supervisor Kim Koutsouradis expressed reservations.
“I supported this motion with the thought process that Mr. Oettinger had too much on his plate. Regretfully, now I am hoping the board did not rush into this decision,” he said. “Mr. Oettinger had this position dropped into his lap and he has been doing the best to clean up the swamp that was left behind from our prior department head.”
Oettinger was hired weeks after supervisors received an outside consultant’s report on zoning and building department operations under Drioli that found an unusually large number of common administrative “irregularities” in two dozen zoning files for projects in 2015 through 2017.
The report also found the current building inspector was performing inspection work he was not state-certified to do, and evidence of poor record-keeping, missing land development plans, missing inspector signatures, inconsistencies between documents in project files and applicants issued building permits without going through required land development approval process.
The report’s findings prompted the state Department of Labor and Industry to open an ongoing investigation into the township zoning department last year; the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office also is investigating past department operations at the request of supervisors.
Over the last year, residents who’ve attended supervisor board meetings have praised Oettinger for quickly addressing concerns. Some residents said that they had received little or no help under the previous department head.
Oettinger had made several changes in the department, including implementing recommendations in the outside consultant’s report and recommended by the state Labor and Industry Department and new checks-and-balance systems.
The department now requires applicants sign professional service agreements, which are common in other municipalities, to ensure fees and escrow are paid; Oettinger also is revamping the township’s fee schedule and created a new notice sent to applicants when project escrow amounts dip below the township-required minimums that includes potential penalties for failing to replenish escrows.
An investigation by this news organization last year of 134 zoning and land development projects revealed at least $60,000 in lost revenue for the township as a result of unexplained wrongly charged application fees between 2012 and 2017, as well as applicants who were required to post less in escrow, which is money applicants are required to set aside to pay for project-related expenses, than the township fee schedule required.
An internal report obtained by this news organization and prepared by Oettinger analyzing 56 of the same 134 projects estimated a more than $75,000 loss in wrongly charged application fees, and a $144,623.97 shortage in collected escrow.
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