Backlog Prompts More Cuts to East Hampton Town Building Department Counter Hours

The East Hampton Town Building Department has cut its public-facing counter hours down to 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. Monday, November 10, was the first day for the new hours.

In August, the Building Department shuttered itself on Wednesdays to tackle a growing application backlog. Effectively, then, this most recent change cuts the public-facing hours for building inspectors from 20 to 10 hours per week, with that same goal in mind.

“The level of daily activity our department is seeing makes it challenging to keep up with the backlog,” said Richard Normoyle, the town’s new principal building inspector. “Just yesterday, we had 50 people come to our counter and answered 133 phone calls. That’s nearly 200 separate interactions in a single day.”

To tackle the backlog, he said, the building inspectors in the department need to be reviewing applications and conducting inspections — “but that’s become increasingly difficult when so much of the day is spent fielding questions.”

The hours will give the staff the time they need to focus on reducing the backlog and getting permits moving through the system, he said.

And this follows an overhaul of the department that saw the Town Board add one new and one additional building inspector and two new building plans examiners — the latter of whom will review applications for code compliance, allowing building inspectors to devote more time to field inspections.

The cut hours will continue until the Town Board hires two new office assistants, who, once they start, will take over counter and phone operations and field general inquiries from the public.

When the town government hires for civil service jobs, officials must choose to pull from either a county list or a local list. But officials don’t know who will be on each list, prior to making that decision. Encompassing a broader swath of people, the town government elected to choose from the county list for the two new positions.

“The county list is being canvassed,” town spokesman Patrick Derenze said on Friday, after being asked if anyone has applied for the jobs. “Interested candidates have until today to reply, so we do not know yet. If we have less than three willing acceptors, we can break the list and advertise the positions.”

Despite the reduced building inspector hours, the office will be open for document drop off from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays.