Title
Recognition of the Building Inspection Department for Receiving IAS Accreditation
Summary
COUNCIL GOAL: Operational Excellence
MEETING DATE: July 19, 2016
DEPARTMENT: Building Inspections
CONTACT: Rick Herzberger, Chief Building Official
RECOMMENDED CITY COUNCIL ACTION: Recognize IAS Accreditation
ITEM SUMMARY:
• On October 7, 2015, the Building Inspection Department submitted an application to the International Accreditation Service (IAS) for accreditation under AC251.
• IAS uses criteria in 13 accreditation categories to assess building departments. These include basic jurisdictional information, department staff, permitting, budget, construction codes, plan reviews, professional credentials/licenses, inspections, certificate of occupancy, on-site evaluations, annual reports, service goals and complaints/appeals. Throughout the accreditation process, IAS evaluators assess critical elements of the building department, such as customer service, code interpretation and enforcement, and fiscal strength.
• On June 16, 2016, the IAS Evaluation team issued an Evaluation report for the Building Inspection department that recognized substantial compliance with AC251, and followed with a recommendation of approval to the International Accreditation Review Committee. The report summarized the Building Inspection Department with two noteworthy comments as follows -
o “If there was a best practice for submitting information to the IAS evaluation team, McKinney’s submittal would be the model. It was well organized with direct links to supporting evidentiary documents so that the evaluation team was able to speed through the review with minimal questions for the building department staff. IAS wishes to review the City of McKinney Building Inspections department’s quality manual, quality system, and/or procedures for internal audits and management review for possible inclusions in the joint IAS/ICC Major Jurisdictions Committee Best Practices presentation to be given at this year’s ICC Annual Conference in Kansas City”.
• On July 12, 2016, the International Accreditation Review Committee approved the Accreditation of the City of McKinney Texas Building Inspection Department. The City of McKinney joins 23 other Cities in the United States with this accreditation with the City of Plano and San Antonio in Texas.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
• IAS accreditation has helped us identify and implement opportunities that drive a high performance organization and encourage professional growth, while raising awareness of building codes and safe building practices.
• Our job tasks and procedures have become much more consistent which will strengthen our departmental accountability and improve our quality of customer service.
• We have an established and proactive, continuous plan of improvement for the department that will be under continual review by the IAS.