The Leelanau County Building Inspections department is currently under a microscope.

A team of six officials from the state Bureau of Construction Codes was slated to visit Leelanau County today and tomorrow, Nov. 1-2, to conduct an on-scene investigation into allegations made this summer by the former head of the county Building Inspections department, Robert VanDyke.

According to the deputy director of the Bureau of Construction Codes in Lansing, Mark Sisco, the team will be reviewing Leelanau County’s policies and procedures as well as records kept in the Inspections department office in Leland. State inspectors will also accompany Leelanau County inspectors to various job sites throughout the county.

“I expect our people will visit a number of sites, and that will certainly include the BayView condominiums,” Sisco said.

VanDyke was fired by county administrator David W. Gill in June – just days after VanDyke had rescinded certificates of occupancy for the BayView condos in Suttons Bay. VanDyke rescinded the occupancy certificates because of what he said were defects in the installation of furnace and water heater exhaust vents in the condos. The day after he fired VanDyke, Gill reversed VanDyke’s decision and reinstated the occupancy permits for BayView.

VanDyke has since filed suit against Gill and Leelanau County under the state Whistleblower Protection Act. VanDyke said he had tried to fire the county’s two unionized mechanical inspectors but was prevented from doing so. One of the mechanical inspectors had inspected and approved the BayView furnaces and water heaters. Since then, four different engineering reports have provided conflicting opinions on whether furnace and water heater exhaust vents were installed properly at BayView.

Meanwhile, both of the department’s mechanical inspectors are being sued by owners of The Homestead resort in Glen Arbor township over their review and approval several years ago of fireplaces in a Homestead lodging facility that were subsequently declared to be unsafe. The suit has been under way since 2005 and another hearing will be held in Circuit Court next month.

Sisco said an official report from this week’s Bureau of Construction Codes investigation in Leelanau County will not likely be available for “several months” – after the team returns to Lansing to compile and analyze information gathered here. Sisco added that the report will not be released until it is accepted and approved by a Construction Code Commission that meets periodically in Lansing.

Sisco added that if any immediate “life-safety” issues are uncovered by state inspectors during any of their on-scene visits, the inspection team is empowered to take immediate action that would negate any danger.

Sisco also pointed out that the Bureau of Construction Codes was “invited” to conduct its “performance evaluation” of the Leelanau County Building Inspections department by Leelanau County officials. State law indicates that the bureau can initiate its “performance evaluation” process if it receives a complaint about a department – as it did from VanDyke.

Responding to complaints filed by VanDyke in June, the bureau sent a letter to Gill in August requiring that he turn over reams of documents outlining the county’s inspection process at The Homestead and at BayView, as well as an explanation of circumstances surrounding VanDyke’s firing.

“Due to the nature and scope of alleged inspection failures and financial damages currently under review by the courts, as well as allegations from a veteran (16 years) county building official that his efforts to carry out his duties were inappropriately thwarted, the situation in your county is of particular and growing concern to the Bureau,” according to an Aug. 10 letter Gill received from the bureau.

The state law governing the bureau’s operations allows the bureau to conduct an on scene performance evaluation following receipt of a complaint under two circumstances – if authorized by the Construction Code Commission after it reviews the situation, or if the bureau is “invited” by the department that is to be evaluated.

“It’s important to note that we invited the bureau to conduct this performance evaluation,” said Robert Meyer, who was hired this summer to replace VanDyke. “We are looking forward to cooperating with the team in every way possible and expect that the performance evaluation will provide us some useful insight into how we can do a better job,” Meyer said.