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Item 9A vAGENDA ITEM # 9A SEPTEMBER 11, 2pp6 September 5, 2006 MEMORANDUM TO: The Honorable Mayor and Members of the Commission ~. FROM: Jim Hansa City ~' SUBJECT: City Mara is Report Mavport Road Medians; The next report from the consultants designing the medians for Mayport Road will be presented to the public in a meeting scheduled on Monday, September 18~' at 6:00 pm in the Atlantic Beach Commission Chambers. Elected officials, the media and the public are invited to attend. Hosting African Leaders; The City of Atlantic Beach has been asked to host a group of newly elected officials from several African nations for a day. Several other groups have visited our ~, city in recent years. They will be in Atlantic Beach sometime between September 23rd and 28~' (exact dates yet to be determined). The request for hosting this group comes from the International Visitor Corps of Jacksonville through a program of the U. S. State Department. Typically, past delegations have been greeted by a welcome from the Mayor, presentations from various city staff about the counciUmanager form of government as well as details about various city services, a luncheon and tours of city facilities. Often, these visits provide an opportunity not only for our visitors to learn about our form of government, but also for us to learn about government in foreign countries. One recent question from officials representing formerly soviet block countries was "Who on the city staff makes the decisions about how many used car dealers (or other businesses) would be permitted?" The details of the visit will be provided when available. Buildins Official; In recent months, Atlantic Beach has required more information on the applications for building permits than was required in the past. This is in connection with the retirement of our past Building Official and utilizing the contract services from a private provider until a new official can be hired. The change has created some problems for builders, mostly by delays in getting their building permits approved. By the time of the commission meeting on September l l d', one change will have already been made to ease the situation and another step will be taken soon. The first change is to have a building official or plans examiner on a five day per week basis so that there will be someone in City Hall every business day for builders to ask questions about their permits. Previously, the City had contracted for a building official on a '~ AGENDA ITEM # 9A SEPTEMBER 11, 2006 three day per week basis to keep the costs down. A second step is to schedule a workshop for builders to meet with the managers of GFA (the private provider to the City) and City staff and learn how to expedite permit approvals. This workshop is scheduled for Friday, September 1 Sth at 10:00 am. The City of Atlantic Beach is still accepting applications and interviewing candidates for the Building Official position. Since this job was originally posted, the City has received a total of 30 applicants, 12 of which have the state certification as a Building Administrator. Most of those have already been interviewed. Many of the 30 candidates that do not have the building official certification include architects, builders and others with extensive knowledge of the Florida ~" Building Code. However, according to State rules they cannot approve building permits until they get a "provisional" certification which can take as long as 90 days to approve. Anyone operating under such a certification has additional limits on their authority. ~. Atlantic Beach is not the only city in Florida that has had difficulty in hiring people with the necessary State certifications. The Building Officials Association of Florida, Inc. website currently has postings of over 100 openings in Florida for building officials, inspectors and related jobs. Atlantic Beach will continue to advertise for a Building Official until the position can be filled. ~.