By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com

INDEPENDENCE TWP. – At its first meeting back after the new year, the Independence Township Board of Trustees unanimously approved the creation of two new positions within the building department and subsequent budget amendments.
Up first was a budget amendment to include a non-union position of Deputy Building Official to the township’s budget for 2025.
According to township Building Director David Moran, the position itself had already been approved by the board but was not included in the 2025 budget.
“I was told three times that this was taken care of and it wasn’t. So, I’m here before you today to present this amendment to the budget as directed and outlined,” Moran said. “It’s a non-union position. And again, this is due to the fact that we’ve more than doubled our volume and increases of building permit fees, all trade permits and inspections. So, this was an approved position, and I’m just here to present this as an amendment to the budget and it’s a formality of getting your approval on that.”
Township documents show that under that title, the official will perform plan reviews and inspection activities to assure compliance with codes and ordinances in the township. They will review construction plans, specifications and perform field inspections. Additionally, they will review building permit applications and requests for certificates of occupancy with regard to building codes. Salary range listed in township documents for the deputy building official position is $37.50 to $43.27 per hour.
Next, the board approved the creation of a new non-union position, Senior Building Administrator.
According to Moran, the position was created by him for his Office Specialist Kate Konczal.
“I’m proposing tonight to present and amend the budget to account for an increase in her salary outside the union scale. So, this is a presentation for a new position that’s outside the union and the reason for that is because the union scale doesn’t allow for me to promote from within my department at a compensation plan that is reflective of the increased volume of her performance. So, I proposed to putting Kate into a non-union position with an increase in her salary,” Moran said.
Moran also added that this position and salary increase were being requested in order to retain Konczal as her salary would increase from $59,923 a year to $75,000 a year.
“We have more than doubled our volume of permits and inspections and work. I started three years ago, and I have less staff today than I did three years ago, and we’ve more than doubled our volume of performance based work. So she’s been performing at another level,” said Moran. “We have to retain good people and she’s not being compensated. Now, my fear is to lose a person with that kind of skill set that knows our business, who knows the contractor base, who knows the community. I literally would have to replace her with two people if I lost her in that sense. So, this is a big increase for her, I know, and it looks like it’s almost 20% of her current salary, but I’m confident that you know she’s going to continue to perform on our behalf.”
The approval of this new position and salary increase would essentially make the position previously held by Konczal obsolete.
“That specialist position still stays there, it’s just vacant at this point,” explained township Supervisor Chuck Phyle. “It sounds to me like you’re creating a new position. We’re not eliminating the previous position. Then we have this individual who happens to be in the specialist role now applying for the new position.”
Union representatives at the meeting informed the township that they would be pushing for the previous position to be filled despite Moran’s claim that they would not need that position filled.
“Kate is performing at this high level position. The union scale doesn’t allow me to compensate her appropriately on her performance. So, this is the direction that I’ve decided to go. I think it’s appropriate at this time. I don’t need a third support person in the front office. We’re handling business as it comes our way,” Moran said.