By James Tinley
Register Staff
MILFORD — Mayor James L. Richetelli Jr. can expect to receive a letter shortly urging him to follow through on his plans to improve the efficiency of the long-criticized Building Department.
The Economic Development Commission Wednesday voted unanimously to request that the mayor form a Building Department Commission and start customer service training for Building Department employees.
Chief Building Official Thomas Raucci, however, said customer-friendly procedures have already been implemented and he does not see any benefit from receiving advice from non-experts in the field.
“I’m not in line with a commission of people who don’t know what it takes to run a building department,” Raucci said.
The proposal to send a letter to Richetelli was brought by Economic Development Commissioner Cyrus Settineri. He has been an outspoken critic of the department and said Richetelli agreed to implement improvements in January.
The Building Department now has longer hours, a long-vacant position was recently filled and more applications can be dropped off, greatly reducing lines and waits for permits, Raucci and Richetelli said. Both also maintain the department is one of the busiest in the state.
A state building inspector has observed the Building Department twice and by the second visit, his initial recommendations had already been implemented, Raucci said.
Richetelli said there has been a delay since January because he didn’t want to rush into forming a commission and has been looking for the right people to advise the Building Department.
Richetelli also wants to send all city departments, not just the Building Department, to a seminar to improve their customer-relations skills.
“We have a lot of hard-working departments, but there is always room for improvement,” Richetelli said. “We need to treat our residents like they are customers, because that’s what they are.”
Bringing in a consultant has not been ruled out, but Richetelli said it would be costly.
Raucci said he is in favor of bringing in a consultant who could provide expertise. Depending on which consultant is brought in, the Building Department could also gain accreditation through the evaluation process, Raucci added.
Richetelli would not commit to a timeline for implementing changes.
He said they will be made “within a short period of time, I can’t refine it better than that.”
James Tinley can be reached at jtinley@nhregister.com or 401-3530.