The Leelanau County Building Inspections Department appears to be getting its mojo back – along with a new name.

The county Board of Commissioners on Tuesday evening officially re-named the department as the Leelanau County Construction Code Authority and authorized board chairman Robert Hawley to sign a settlement agreement with the state Bureau of Construction Codes that will allow the county to continue conducting inspections and issuing construction permits.

In January, the state Construction Code Commission sought to shut down the county’s Building Inspection Department and turn responsibility for enforcing state construction codes over to state officials following a detailed “performance evaluation”conducted by state officials in November 2007.

But county officials appealed the state agency’s decision and subsequently agreed to work toward improvements demanded by state officials. A formal settlement agreement between the state and Leelanau County was presented to county commissioners who voted unanimously to accept the agreement.

County administrator David W. Gill explained that many of the requirements outlined by the state in the settlement agreement had already been met. Among the requirements that will still require a significant amount of work, however, will be a re-review of plans and re-inspection of five percent of all mechanical projects for which permits were issued over a period of several years.

The county last year settled a lawsuit filed by owners of The Homestead resort in Glen Arbor Township who alleged that the county’s mechanical inspectors allowed the installation of fireplaces that turned out to be dangerous. In addition, when state inspectors conducted their performance evaluation in Leelanau County last year, they discovered that mechanical items installed at the BayView condominiums did not meet state construction codes. According to county officials, problems at BayView have since been corrected; and state officials were expected to conduct their own reinspection at BayView in the coming weeks.

The state’s decisions to conduct a performance evaluation in Leelanau County, and to remove code enforcement authority from the county earlier this year, were prompted in part by a complaint filed last year by the former head of the Building Inspections Department, Robert VanDyke.

VanDyke was fired by Gill in June 2007, just days after VanDyke reported mechanical code violations at BayView and rescinded occupancy permits at the Suttons Bay condos. The day after VanDyke was fired, Gill, acting as the “interim”head of the Building Inspections Department, reinstated occupancy permits at BayView.

VanDyke has since filed a Whistleblower Protection Act lawsuit against the county and Gill, and the suit remains active. Gill has consistently denied that his decision to fire VanDyke was related primarily to issues associated with the BayView condos.

In July 2007, the county hired building official Robert Meyer to replace VanDyke. State officials have noted that Meyer has initiated a number of processess and procedures that have improved the performance of the Leelanau County Construction Code Authority.

The settlement agreement requires Leelanau County’s inspectors to receive additional training –something Meyer said is already under way. In addition, Meyer said last week that he was in the process of interviewing candidates for a part-time mechanical inspector position, to replace an inspector who voluntarily resigned earlier this year. The inspector had been a subject of the lawsuit filed by The Homestead, and had been involved in the BayView inspections that failed a state re-inspection.

According to the settlement agreement, the state Bureau of Construction Codes will conduct a re-evaluation of Leelanau County’s code administration and enforcement program around this time next year.