Code Inspector’s Township Car to be Taken Home Again

Move made in hopes of preserving township's ISO rating

Worries about the effect of a low insurance rating for the township’s code inspectors, the Township Council has decided to partially reverse a ban on taking township-owned cars home.

The township’s chief multi-purpose inspector will be allowed to take his official car home, the council decided at its Sept. 24 meeting. This is so any overnight inspections can be completed.

Township manager Bob Vornlocker said the move was needed to preserve the The township’s rating with an insurance organization, which in turn could have an effect on residents’ homeowners’ insurance premiums.

The township’s current rating is a “2,” Councilman Philip Kramer said, but there’s a danger that could slip to a “3.”

That could mean more money out of homeowners’ pockets for insurance, he said.

The rating organization, called the Insurance Services Office, reviews the township every four years, Vornlocker said. The township suffered severe budget cuts after the last review, which resulted in a ban on taking home township-owned cars and an end to stipends paid to certain employees, including an $8,000 yearly stipend paid to code inspectors.

“The ISO told us those incentives for multi-licensed code officers are taken into consideration” when giving a town its overall rating, he said. “We need to get some of those points back. One or the other would keep us at a ‘2’.”

Kramer said a change in the township’s rating could cost township homeowners as much as $200,000 in the aggregate.

“The township saving $8,000 but costing the citizens of the township $200,000 doesn’t make much sense,” he said.

Vornlocker’s recommendation was to allow the chief multi-licensed code inspector to take his car home with him at night.

“If we do this and it doesn’t meet the needs of the ISO to give us a ‘2’ rating, we have the ability” to change the policy again, Vornlocker said.

None of the council members opposed the suggestion.

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