VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A routine audit of Volusia County’s Building Department found problems at every step of the inspection process. Three people have now resigned in the midst of an HR investigation.
Questions are being raised about how building inspections are handled in Volusia County after an internal audit found weak safeguards to prevent and catch conflict of interest, thousands of permits that expired without final inspection and inconsistent fee practices that may have cost the county up to $400,000 in lost revenue in a year.
“It was not necessarily that we lost that revenue, it was a decision to keep that reinspection fee low so that we don’t charge more fees to the people,” said County Council Member David Santiago.
Council Member David Santiago said county leaders have already taken steps to correct some of the issues.
“Well three of the people involved no longer worked here so that part has been solved,” said Santiago.
Channel 9 Volusia County Reporter Demie Johnson asked if the auditor found anything criminal.
“I haven’t seen any indication of any criminal activity with the three people,” said Santiago.
The audit points to possible preferential treatment involving the former Chief Building Inspector, revealing several issues with the permit process including multiple recalculations of the construction cost that reduced the permit fee.
The audit also mentions potential public safety concerns saying thousands of unverified permits involved critical life-safety systems including electrical, mechanical and structural work… meaning people could have potentially been living or working in buildings that were never officially checked. It also found 45 seawall permits expired without final checks since 2008, posing failure risks during hurricanes or other major ocean events.
“So, what he did is took 100 permits from over the years and he evaluated those so of those 100 samples permits he found some discrepancies and we’re addressing them,” said Santiago.
Santiago said while he’s not for raising fees for builders, it could be something the county looks into as a result of these findings.
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