CITY OF WHITESBORO
Building Official & Development Services Manager
BUILDING & INSPECTIONS / DEVELOPMENT SERVICES
Reports To City Administrator
Supervises Permit Technician and other assigned staff
Coordinates With Planning & Zoning, Public Works, Fire, Electric, Utilities, Economic Development, City Engineer, City Attorney, and third-party plan review/inspection providers
OUR APPROACH
We want to help people be successful building and investing in Whitesboro.
Position Purpose The City of Whitesboro is seeking a knowledgeable, practical, service-oriented professional to lead its Building and Inspection functions during a period of significant community growth. Whitesboro wants development done safely, correctly, consistently, and successfully. The Building Official & Development Services Manager is expected to help residents, builders, developers, businesses, and City employees understand what is required and, whenever reasonably possible, help them find a compliant path to accomplish their goals. This position is not intended to create unnecessary barriers to development. The successful candidate will understand that building codes and City ordinances protect the community while also recognizing that good municipal service means explaining requirements, identifying solutions, communicating early, and applying regulations consistently and reasonably. The Building Official & Development Services Manager will provide leadership and vision from within City Hall while effectively using qualified third-party resources when workload, technical complexity, or specialized expertise makes outside assistance appropriate. How We Work
- Protect life, safety, property, neighborhoods, and the long-term interests of the community.
- Apply adopted codes and ordinances consistently without becoming unnecessarily rigid or adversarial.
- Explain why a requirement exists, not merely tell someone that something cannot be done.
- Look for a lawful and technically sound path to yes whenever one exists.
- Identify outdated, unclear, conflicting, or unnecessarily burdensome regulations and recommend improvements.
- Communicate expectations early so applicants are not surprised late in a project.
- Treat homeowners, contractors, developers, design professionals, and businesses as customers and partners in Whitesboro's success.
- Maintain high standards while recognizing that excellent customer service and effective code enforcement are compatible.
Essential Responsibilities Department Leadership and Customer Experience
- Lead the Building and Inspection Department and establish expectations for responsiveness, consistency, professionalism, teamwork, and customer service.
- Serve as the City's primary technical authority on building-code administration and coordinate difficult or unusual development questions.
- Develop clear processes that help applicants understand requirements before construction begins.
- Work collaboratively with applicants to solve problems rather than simply identify deficiencies. Conduct pre-development and pre-construction meetings when beneficial and help coordinate issues involving multiple City departments.
Building Code Administration
- Administer and interpret the City's adopted building, residential, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, energy, accessibility, property-maintenance, and related construction codes together with locally adopted amendments and applicable state requirements.
- Review or oversee review of plans, specifications, permit applications, certificates of occupancy, alterations, additions, remodels, signs, demolitions, and other regulated construction activities.
- Exercise professional judgment when applying model codes to the conditions and scale of Whitesboro while maintaining required life-safety standards.
- Identify provisions of the City's adopted codes or ordinances that are outdated, unclear, inconsistent, impractical, or no longer appropriate for the community and prepare well-supported recommendations for administrative or legislative consideration.
Inspections and Field Operations
- Perform building inspections within the employee's qualifications and certifications and coordinate other inspections through City staff or qualified third-party providers.
- Maintain appropriate inspection documentation and communicate deficiencies clearly. Whenever practical, explain both the deficiency and the steps necessary to achieve compliance.
- Prioritize inspections to keep projects moving while protecting public safety.
- Remain willing and able to work in the field; this is not intended to be solely an administrative or supervisory position.
Third-Party Plan Review and Inspection Management
- Manage the City's relationship with qualified third-party consultants and inspection providers.
- Determine when reviews or inspections should be performed internally and when specialized expertise or additional capacity should be utilized.
- Maintain City ownership of interpretations, departmental policy, customer relationships, and overall project coordination.
- Use outside resources as technical expertise and surge capacity - not as a substitute for internal leadership, institutional knowledge, or accountability.
Permit Technician Development
- Directly mentor and develop the City's Permit Technician.
- Provide regular instruction in code interpretation, plan review, zoning, permitting, inspections, development processes, customer communication, documentation, and municipal operations.
- Create opportunities for progressively greater responsibility as knowledge and certifications increase. Encourage professional certification, continuing education, field exposure, participation in development meetings, and cross-training.
- Measure part of personal leadership success by the growth and capability of the employees around you.
Code Enforcement and Community Appearance
- Provide strong leadership for code enforcement and property-maintenance activities as part of the City's effort to enhance neighborhoods, commercial corridors, community appearance, and overall attractiveness for residents and investment.
- Use an education-and-compliance-first philosophy where circumstances permit. Clearly communicate violations, expected corrective actions, deadlines, and consequences.
- Recognize the distinction between property owners who need assistance understanding requirements and situations involving repeated, intentional, or serious noncompliance. Escalate enforcement appropriately when voluntary compliance is unsuccessful.
- Maintain or obtain applicable state registration or credentials when personally performing regulated code-enforcement duties.
Development and Growth Management
- Participate in meetings involving subdivisions, commercial development, multifamily development, redevelopment, certificates of occupancy, zoning questions, infrastructure coordination, and major construction projects.
- Work closely with developers and their architects, engineers, contractors, and consultants to identify issues early.
- Coordinate internally so applicants receive a consistent City response rather than different answers from different departments.
- Assist the City Administrator in evaluating development-related ordinances, fees, policies, design standards, permitting procedures, and staffing needs as Whitesboro grows.
Process Improvement
- Continually evaluate the City's permitting and inspection processes.
- Recommend improvements that reduce unnecessary steps, improve turnaround times, clarify responsibilities, improve documentation, and make regulations easier for customers and employees to understand.
- Develop checklists, written interpretations, standard operating procedures, handouts, website information, and other tools that reduce confusion and improve consistency.
- Track recurring questions or problems and determine whether the better solution is staff training, public education, a procedural change, or amendment of an ordinance.
Leadership Expectations Whitesboro is looking for a leader and teammate, not simply an inspector with a supervisory title.
- Bring solutions with problems.
- Be comfortable saying, "Here's what we need to do to make this work."
- Be firm when public safety or the law requires it without becoming unnecessarily confrontational.
- Understand the difference between maintaining standards and exercising authority for its own sake.
- Communicate effectively with experienced developers and contractors as well as homeowners who may be navigating the permitting process for the first time.
- Be willing to make decisions and take responsibility for them.
- Ask for assistance when specialized expertise is needed.
- Respect and develop the knowledge of other City employees.
- Share information rather than create departmental silos.
- Welcome constructive questions about existing practices.
- Maintain a positive, accountable, team-first attitude consistent with Whitesboro's Energy Bus-style culture.
- Take pride in seeing good projects completed - not merely permits issued and inspections performed.
Minimum Qualifications A combination of education, training, certification, and progressively responsible experience sufficient to demonstrate the ability to successfully perform the position will be considered.
- Significant experience in building inspection, plans examination, construction management, building-code administration, municipal development services, or a closely related field.
- Demonstrated knowledge of the International Code Council family of model codes and their practical application.
- Experience interpreting construction drawings and specifications.
- Experience interacting directly with contractors, developers, architects, engineers, business owners, and members of the public.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate technical requirements in understandable language.
- Supervisory, project-leadership, or departmental leadership experience.
- Ability to use modern permitting, inspection, mapping, document-management, and office technology.
- Valid Texas driver's license or ability to obtain one as required for the position.
Preferred Qualifications
- ICC Certified Building Official designation.
- ICC Building Inspector and/or Plans Examiner certifications.
- Residential and commercial ICC certifications across multiple disciplines.
- Texas Registered Code Enforcement Officer credential.
- Texas Plumbing Inspector license.
- Experience serving as a municipal Building Official, Assistant Building Official, Chief Building Inspector, Development Services Manager, or similar position.
- Experience working in a growing Texas municipality.
- Experience administering both residential and significant commercial construction.
- Experience with zoning, subdivision, property-maintenance, nuisance, and code-enforcement regulations.
- Experience supervising or managing third-party plan review and inspection services.
Important: Whitesboro values the right leadership philosophy as much as the longest list of credentials. The City may use qualified third-party resources for specialized reviews or inspections while the successful candidate builds internal capacity and develops staff. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities The position requires the ability to interpret codes without losing sight of their purpose; exercise sound professional judgment; distinguish life-safety issues from technical or administrative issues; explain complicated requirements simply; resolve disagreements professionally; organize multiple projects and deadlines; document decisions; mentor developing employees; manage consultants; and build effective relationships with contractors, developers, residents, businesses, and other City departments. The individual must also be capable of transitioning between a construction site, a developer meeting, a code-enforcement conversation, a staff coaching session, and a discussion with the City Administrator during the same workday. What Success Looks Like
- Applicants know what Whitesboro expects and receive consistent answers.
- Commercial and residential projects move through the process without avoidable City-created delays.
- Life-safety and construction standards remain strong.
- The Permit Technician is measurably more capable and is assuming greater responsibilities.
- Third-party services are used intentionally for expertise and workload rather than because the City lacks leadership.
- Code enforcement activity is consistent, documented, professional, and increasingly effective.
- Contractors and developers may not always agree with the City's answer, but they understand the answer and believe they were treated fairly.
- Recurring ordinance and process problems are identified and corrected rather than repeatedly worked around.
- Other departments view Building & Inspections as a partner.
- The Building Official is helping Whitesboro prepare for the community it is becoming, rather than merely administering the community it has historically been. Recruitment Message We aren't looking for someone whose favorite word is "no." Whitesboro is looking for an experienced building professional who believes excellent development and strong building standards can coexist. Our community is growing, commercial construction is increasing, residential development continues, and our Building Department is evolving with it. We want someone who knows the codes, understands construction, exercises good judgment, enjoys teaching others, and can sit across the table from a homeowner, contractor, developer, architect, or engineer and help them understand how to successfully complete a project in Whitesboro. This is an opportunity to do more than conduct inspections. The person we hire will help shape the City's development-services culture, mentor a talented emerging staff member, improve our ordinances and processes, guide code enforcement, and prepare Whitesboro for its next stage of growth.
This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications. The City may assign additional duties as organizational needs evolve.
To apply, please click here for Employment Application. Applications can be turned in to City Hall: ATTN City Administrator at 111 W Main St, Whitesboro, TX 76273