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Corvallis firm will do inspections After hiring former building officials By Dani Dodge Three top officials who resigned recently from Jackson County�s building department will continue to do inspections for the county as employees of a private firm. On Thursday, Jackson County commissioners signed a six-month contract with Clair Company, a Corvallis-based building inspection consulting company, which has hired the three officials who recently resigned. Clair Company will do inspections the county can no longer handle after losing its building official, associate building official and chief building inspector � the three most senior-level building department staff members. Clair Company hired former building official Dale Bohannan to head a new Medford office two weeks ago, according to president Allan Clair. It also hired Pat DeBenedetti, whose last day with the county as associate building official is today. It is negotiating an employment contract with former chief building inspector Todd Meador, Clair said. The contract with Clair Company is part of an interim plan that will allow the county to continue to provide inspections, plan reviews and issue building permits with the loss of the three. The plan includes promoting county parks manager Paul Korbulic to a newly created position of land use manager � expanding his duties to include management and supervision of the county�s building and planning programs. Also, to meet state requirements that every local jurisdiction has a building official, the county negotiated a three-month agreement with Ashland that allows building official Mike Broomfield to double temporarily as Jackson County�s chief building official. "Now it�s time for the county to pick up the pieces and put them back together again and it�s my hope Ashland can help them do that," Broomfield said. "We have a nice relationship." Joe Strahl, director of Jackson County�s roads, parks and planning departments, said the county intends to hire a new building official in the next three months. And before the six-month contract with Clair Company is completed, the county will ask private building consultants to bid on a new contract to handle the county�s overload. Strahl said he envisions the firm working on some of the county�s larger projects while current staff continues to do the bulk of routine inspection work. He expects that using a private firm will save money and increase expertise in the county�s building services. After Bohannan and the two others announced in November that they would leave the county, they started a business called Building Department Services. The trio had already been doing inspection services in several small cities while they were working for the county and they hoped to expand those contracts. Their practice of working for both the county and other jurisdictions caused one county resident to file a conflict of interest complaint with the state�s Government Standards and Practices Commission. The commission is conducting a preliminary investigation into whether there may have been a conflict of interest. Strahl said he did not offer the county�s interim contract to Bohannan�s firm. "I said (to Bohannan), �Even though it would make a lot of sense to hire you, it would cause a lot of problems from a perception standpoint,� " Strahl said. Strahl said he got a list of other inspection consultants and started talking with Clair Company, which was highly recommended and has done major projects in Ashland, including the remodel of the Ashland Springs Hotel. It was only after negotiations began with Clair Company that Allan Clair informed Strahl that the company had hired the county�s former building officials. Strahl said county commissioners were aware when they signed the contract that Clair had hired the officials. Bohannan said he closed his business after Clair made him "an offer I couldn�t refuse." He and Clair said the contracts the three had with other cities will be folded into Clair�s contract or go to other private firms. Bohannan said although his compensation will be roughly equal to what he was making at the county, he considers it a great opportunity to work for Clair Company. "This allows me to do what I really like," Bohannan said. "And that is to get my head back in the code book and help the development community do things right." Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.