'It's asinine:' Winnipeg contractor calls foul on city inspection fine
Business owner calls city inspections 'a system that is built to cause failure'
Jerry Roitelman describes his latest brush with the City of Winnipeg inspections branch in some very direct language.
"It's beyond frustrating. It's asinine. It's ridiculous. It is a system that is built to cause failure [so] that you cannot win," says the owner of Roy's Electric.
It is yet another complaint against a department that has seen 20 staff fired, suspended or reprimanded this year after a video commissioned by an anonymous group found several inspectors using work time for personal matters.
In August, Roitelman, who took over Roy's Electric from his father in 2004, was hoping to close an electrical permit he had opened for a residential customer.
He was given an appointment in a four-hour window on Aug. 27.
That afternoon he got a voicemail on his mobile phone that the inspector was on the way. Roitelman tried phoning back to the department as he left his office for the residence, about a 10-minute drive.
"I get to the site and he's already long gone. I got to the site just before 3 p.m.," Roitelman says.
So he turned around and headed back to the office. Twenty-five minutes later an email popped up in his inbox "saying that I've been fined $158 for not being at the site," a frustrated Roitelman said.
"I listen to his voicemail and he said he was on his way at 2:39 p.m. Well, given the time frame, as he's 10-15 minutes away, he should have been there the same time I got there."
The next morning Roitelman phoned the assistant chief inspector at the city.
"He told me that he [the inspector] clocked in at 2:38 p.m. [at the residence] and left at 2:58 p.m.… Meanwhile, on his voicemail at 2:39 p.m., he tells me he's 10-15 minutes away. So where was he?" Roitelman asks.
"Why am I being fined for him not showing up, or for him potentially not telling the truth or alleging something that didn't happen?"
Roitelman is now faced with filling out a waiver request for the fine, something he figures the city will deny anyway.
"In the meantime we can't finish processing the job because all the permits are on hold until then, until this issue is dealt with, so I'm pretty much at a standstill," he said.
'People there that should not have their jobs'
To add insult, Roitelman has to pay the fine before the city's fee waiver committee will consider whether it was fair.
CBC News sent the city an outline of Roitelman's complaint and a spokesperson responded with a generic answer, saying fines and notices are subject to appeal and applicants can reach the inspections branch by phone or email.
"The department of planning, property and development takes complaints seriously and looks into any issues filed with the permit and inspections office. The department is improving its administrative processes in order to provide better customer service and coordination of inspections," the city response said.
Roitelman has watched the inspections branch under months of scrutiny and believes the city has still missed the mark, despite the terminations and suspensions.
"There are people there that should not have their jobs, and I don't have a problem saying that," he said.
"We had made the city aware of this situation many years ago, repeatedly, and we were basically told 'yeah, don't worry about it, it's fine.'"
Accountable or not far enough?
Brian Mayes, the chair of the property and planning committee, was relieved someone like Roitelman came forward on the record, having grown weary of anonymous accounts of wrongdoing within the department.
The councillor from St. Vital feels confident an external consultant's review will set the department on the right track.
"My view is we're continuing to look at it, we're continuing to deal with it. People have been terminated, there have been people held accountable," he said. "I think that stands in contrast to some other matters here over the years."
Other councillors aren't as confident.
"We are hearing complaints from all across the city. We're hearing it from residents, we're hearing it from contractors, we're hearing it from developers, and we're not doing anything to fix it," said Coun. Kevin Klein, who sits on the property and planning committee.
"We have to dig deeper now. We have to look into this further."
- City fires 8, suspends 7 in property and planning department for doing personal errands on public dime
- City interviewed nearly 70 employees during inspectors investigation
The real fix involves a "wholesale cleaning, then starting over," Roitelman said.
"Get rid of everybody that is causing these problems. We know it's endemic, we know it's deep, we know it's entrenched."
The unions representing the 20 staff disciplined or fired by the city have grieved those actions. The head of the inspections branch, Stan Dueck, retired last week.
The city is in the process of hiring an outside consultant to review the operations of the planning, property and development department.
