NEDERLAND — The Town of Nederland is looking for alternatives to a long-time contractor for building department services amid complaints about the company and pending 60% increase in cost. 

Nederland currently contracts with SAFEbuilt to provide plan review, inspections, and code enforcement support. The company typically spends about four hours per week on Town work, primarily for code enforcement, at a cost of $50 per hour.

SAFEbuilt intends to raise its rate for that service to $65 per hour, a 30% increase, through August 31. On September 1, the fee would increase again to $80 per hour, up 60% from what Nederland is currently paying. The contract would also require a minimum of 8 hours paid work per week.

At the February 17 meeting, staff asked Trustees for permission to look for alternative service providers or bring the work in house. A competitive bidding process hasn’t happened since 2007, according to Community Planner Britt DeMinck—and the town isn’t necessarily happy with the services it’s been getting from SAFEbuilt.

“Currently, I’m not very content with code enforcement services,” DeMinck said. “There’s been a lot of turnover, so it’s a lot of training. It’s taken a lot of pushing to get to the communication level we’re at now. We’ve had quite a few complaints from homeowners, contractors, and staff.”

Town Manager Jonathan Cain and multiple Trustees backed up DeMinck’s assessment of SAFEbuilt’s reputation. 

“We do get quite a few complaints when they’re out and about,” Cain said. Trustee Tania Corvalan added, “There have been issues since they began working here,” noting the Board conducted a “survey” several years back about “getting rid” of the company.

“I haven’t talked to one jurisdiction that says they love SAFEbuilt,” Mayor Pro Tem Nichole Sterling said.

DeMinck said she has personally taken on a lot of the building services work.

“I went from spending maybe one hour a week to probably 5-10 hours a week depending on how much communication needs to happen with the resident,” she said. “ I’m basically doing most of your work besides sending out your violations.”

Options now are to find a replacement contractor via a Request for Proposals (RFP). Sterling and Corvalan said they’d also like to see a proposal for bringing the services back in-house. DeMinck estimates the work could be done in 6-10 hours per week.

"It does take away from planning and grants I like to do for our community," she said. "If you have the right partner and they kind of know the town, it’s a very simple job."

“We’re about to run our own ski area,” Corvalan said. “I think we can handle running code enforcement.”