No building may mean no inspector for Bluffdale

BLUFFDALE — The Bluffdale City Council is putting the job of the city's building inspector on the chopping block, in an effort to trim the city's budget.

The council has discussed laying off the city's full-time building inspector, a $90,000-a-year position that some city leaders consider superfluous during a building downturn.

"There's no building going on, basically," Councilwoman Nancy Lord said. "So it's like, why do we want to spend $90,000 on a building inspector, when (building) has dried up to almost zero?"

Councilman Bill Maxwell said the city might save a substantial amount by nixing the "fairly expensive" position and subcontracting it out.

"The last thing I want to do is lay employees off," Maxwell said. "It's just an idea, but it's something we need to look at."

While surrounding cities have had to trim their staffs in the past year, Bluffdale has not laid anyone off.

City leaders also have written off granting funds to extra projects outlined in individual city departments with wish lists for specific equipment and pet projects.

Two years ago, the city took a similarly conservative approach and cut back 25 percent.

"We're tightening, because we still don't want to raise taxes," Lord said. "Because it's not their own money, some officials get used to thinking we can just, with the stroke of a pen, get the money we need to fund all these programs. We're not taking that approach. We're saying, 'Look, anytime we increase a tax, it's on real people; it's on us.' "

If cutting back still doesn't fill the city's already-conservative coffers, the council may step where it's never trod before and levy a utility franchise tax.

Bluffdale is the only city in Salt Lake County that hasn't charged the semi-lucrative regressive tax, a fact Maxwell wears like "a badge of honor," he said. The tax would likely attach itself to the bottom line of residents' gas and power bills.

"Do we really want to do that to our neighbors and friends right now, when times are tough?" Lord said about the possibility of finally giving in and snagging more funds like Bluffdale's neighboring cities.

If passed, the tax could be implemented as soon as October, allowing the city to collect about $250,000 — 7 percent of its $3.6 million budget — over nine months next fiscal year.

"So far, we've fought it, but I'm not sure we'll be able to this year," Maxwell said. "This may be the year (for the tax), but what bothers me about those kind of things is, once they go on, they never seem to come off … I'm not real excited about doing that, but it may be our only alternative."

E-MAIL: jhancock@desnews.com