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Dearborn Launches New ‘Residential Services’ Dept.

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Read the State of the City Speech by clicking: state-of-city-address-feb-2009.doc

Dearborn’s Building and Safety Department, long a lightning rod for criticism, will be undergoing a major reorganization to better serve the needs of residential and business customers, Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., announced Wednesday night during his State of the City Address.

“For a long time now I’ve felt that we haven’t been meeting our service goals with regard to our Building and Safety Department,” O’Reilly said.  “Despite our employees’ best efforts, they’ve been undermined by a structure that just didn’t work.”

The mayor said the reorganization will be built around residential customers and business customers.

“For too many years we’ve blended these groups together despite their distinct needs, frustrating everybody,” O’Reilly said.

So under the mayor’s new plan, a new Residential Services department will be created to offer current and new residents the services “they require to maintain and improve their properties,” he said. The leadership of the Dearborn Area Board of Realtors also provided valuable feedback to the city about the new system.

“Our goal is to give (residents) the time and attention they deserve using the tools and processes that will make it much more convenient to do business with us,” O’Reilly said. “We’ve already made a major improvement for those selling or buying a home in Dearborn. Through new technology, we’ve converted hard-to-read and often confusing inspection reports to reports that are clear, printed and produced on the spot.”

O’Reilly said the new technology in the Residential Services department will be linked to the city’s scheduling system to dispatch inspectors more efficiently. The technology also will be tied to the city’s record system so that the city will always have “complete and clear documents to eliminate confusion and misunderstanding. We won’t end up with missing or lost documents,” O’Reilly promised.

An important focus of the new Residential Services department will be on the city’s Neighborhood Stabilization program, which since May 2008 has been purchasing marginal or undervalued foreclosed homes with the intention of reusing the property in ways that bolster the surrounding area.  Dearborn will receive $2.4 million in federal neighborhood stabilization funding in 2009 to continue this work.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 11:01 pm and is filed under City Hall. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Businessowner

    So let me get this straight. The under FBI investigation Building and Safety department is now going to have another group that deals just wtih residents? So how does that make it better for businesses who still have to deal with the corrupt Building and Safety department?

  • RJ

    What is happening with the FBI investigation of the B&S Dept. Is that done yet? Funny how that has gone silent.

  • Hotair

    More hot air from the mayor. No specifics. When does this new department kick off. How many people will be in it? Are these new hires? His speech had a lot of words last night but no hard dates to it. Without that it’s hard to measure success, wouldn’t you say?

  • dearborn 48128

    I see for lease/sale sign on Niewicks and Village Art Gallery?

  • LX

    Come on now, it’s an election year. You’re not going to get hard dates and details from those that are prepping a campaign. Matter of fact, it just dawned on me that this year the State of the City Address transcript isn’t available online at cityofdearborn.org.

    2007 State of the City:
    http://www.cityofdearborn.org/departments/mayor/stateofcity2007.shtml

    2008 State of the City:
    http://www.cityofdearborn.org/departments/mayor/stateofcity2008.shtml

    Don’t you people remember Mr. Deep posting the transcript as a topic here last year the very next morning? I do.

  • Donna Hay

    You wern’t there last night LX, I find that hard to believe.

  • LX

    Donna, I never suggested that I wasn’t.

    ;)

  • Donna Hay

    LX Very true, I just assumed that if you had attended you would have given us a brief account as to what was said – guess I just assumed too much so sorry.

  • Michael D. Albano

    I just checked the city web site and all the new stories end last December, which may be the reason. Nonetheless, it still makes me wonder why something as important as this is not listed on the website immediately after the State of the City Address as LX states it has been previous years.

    Perhaps LX can scan his copy and show it here if he doesn’t mind.

  • Louie D

    LX, I believe we spoke last night at the event and I don’t own a scanner so can ya help us out here with the report?

  • candymanpat

    I think it is a great idea and much needed improvement to City Hall, done right it will be alot easier than the old way, time will tell.
    Mayor Jack did a great job on his speech and I for one can see that in time things will get better for Dearborn, as The Mayor has a great passion for the City and the Residents in it. Remember you can’t please everybody.
    And before anyone says anything I did not know he was going to mention the Cafe, nor did I want him too, even though I appreciated it.

  • Michael D. Albano

    I was impressed that our mayor showed his integrity by stating that Dearborn is facing the toughest times it has ever faced as far back as we can remember and he did not try to place the blame on others. What impressed me even more was how sincere he was in stating that he truly believed that during the toughest of times are when the greatest of ideas surface and that his administration is working on many new ideas to resolve these issues.

    He spoke about things that really can make a difference like teamwork, neighborhood and citizen involvement and how every one of us with even a little involvement can make a huge difference in our city. Just as citizen involvement can make a huge difference as it did in World War II after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, no great city or nation can survive without citizen involvement. If we all truly love and want to improve and save our city, then it will require our involvement and support as well. I was amazed at learning how many citizens donate their time on numerous committees and organizations that benefit Dearborn as they are a big part of the solutions.

    Mayor Jack gets it, he is an outstanding, passionate public speaker and even though I disagree with him sometimes, he still has an unsurpassed love and dedication to our city that I respect and admire. It is hard for even his harshest critics to not like and respect him because he is very down to earth, very approachable and has unbridled enthusiasm about our city, our residents, and his job under circumstances so tough that most would just give up, but Mayor Jack is not a quitter by any means.

    I feel confident that he is the person that is best suited to take us through times like this that we’ve never faced before and as long as we contribute and the city council cooperates we’ll all be the better for it in the long run.

  • msommer

    Nice try Big Jack — its a good thing you were a bit actor at one time, because your address to the City was a joke. You should get new blood in your Bldg. & Safety Dept., as it is long overdue. Don’t try and b.s.us residents, actually do something, instead of giving us lip service. Get thos empty houses, and buildings filled, any way you can, instead of busting everybody’s balls the way they are currently being treated. Your departments want respect — how about giving the residents the same thing. I hope the FBI ontinue their investigations, because your departments have a lot to be repaired (you know what I am talking about.

  • 1 who knows

    msommer, if you had a brain you’d be dangerous. do you want the city to be sued if jack openly mentions issues that are under investigation? aren’t you smart enough to realize that things are being done to improve that dept as the mayor stated? aren’t you bright enough to know that when the investigation is over that unlike the previous administration this one will be firing or prosecuting a number of people in that dept maybe some major dept heads? do you think jack being a lawyer makes him stupid enough to not do his homework and allow the investigations to run out before he takes action?

    i’m sure the s is going to hit the fan when this is over and if for some insane reason it does not then you have something to complain about. otherwise give them some time cause the time is near to fix this big problem. so cut the mayor some slack until then

  • Donna Hay

    I thought I read somewhere that the FBI pulled out of this investigation and said the city could handle it. Anyone agree/disagree?

  • 1 who knows

    The FBI investigation is just about closed. The city is on top of this and what to do with deptartment head Norwood is also an issue. They’re considering moving him to another dept and not quite sure if that is enough. One guilty party has been prosecuted and has yet to be sentenced and the other is being prosecuted. Jack and council are on top of this and it is one very delicate issue and no matter what they do, typical of Dearborn not everyone will be satisfied.

    At least Building and Safety has been reorganized, with permits being accessible online and divided into Commercial and Residential. I can’t say anymore than that for now.

  • larry

    1 who knows must be one of Jack’sflunkies, from the way he responds. Norwood is in over his head, and everyone but Jack seem to realize this. They got rid of his right hand man, now its time for him. He could cost Jack the election, as I am a builder and I can tell you we are talking about pooling our money together if this incompetent person stays, and Jack leaves the status quo to continue. Enough lip service, lets see a shake-up.

  • Food4Thought

    1 who knows, so there solution is to move ppl who extort money from the city to another department. What happened to firing ppl who don’t abide by policy rules? Who don’t hold the best interest for the ppl around them but only when it benefits them? Trust me transferring to another department especially to the legal department is not a solution it will bring bigger problems and more files being erased. What about Rob Creamer, Deli Greco, Bob D., to name a few and the ppl on the outside who don’t work for the city who are helping these ppl to extort money??? This isn’t a secret bc ppl like them think their invincible and can’t get caught so they walk around bragging.

  • 1 who knows

    Since you most likely don’t know this, Norwood has not been convicted or even accused of any crimes. It is almost certain the price he will have to pay for this as department head though is being demoted, moved to another department or even terminated.

    If Mayor O’Reilly fails to follow through with any of these actions, I agree that it will probably cost him as well.

  • Sean Hannity

    1 Who Knows and Food For Thought,

    You both seem to imply that you know know about criminal activity and other questional employee city behavior. You seem to lead us to believe that you’re both connected to the city in some way too.

    So what’s keeping you both from doing something about it? If you tell us that you’re worried about losing your jobs or revealing who you are for whatever reasons, can’t you see this lack of action on your part is also part of the problem?

  • allen

    Norwood is a sleaze ball, and Jack knows it as well, but he can’t do anything about it,because he will need funds to run for re-election, so unless the Feds blow this thing wide open it will be the same old way of operating, and by the way wait until they squeeze Delia, and some others, then things will come down.