Earlier this month, the Department of Building and Safety was recognized for earning national accreditation. International Accreditation Service (IAS) President Chuck Ramani  presented the certificate of accreditation to Building and Safety Director Paul Wilkins at the May 3, 2006, City Council meeting.

The International Accreditation Service, a subsidiary of the International Code Council, has offered building department accreditation since January 2005. Several major cities across the nation are going through the accreditation process, but the city of Las Vegas is the first city in the nation to gain accreditation. Accreditation signifies that the city’s Building and Safety Department operates under the highest professional and technical standards.

The IAS building department accreditation evaluation team conducted a full evaluation of the city’s Building and Safety Department in November 2005, assessing the department in 13 categories including basic jurisdictional information, department staff, permitting, budget, construction codes, plan reviews, professional credentials/ licenses, inspections, certificate of occupancies, on-site evaluation, annual reports, reevaluation and complaints/ appeals.

Throughout the process, IAS evaluators carefully assessed the three critical elements of the building department including customer service, code interpretation and enforcement, and fiscal strength, and even visited construction sites to appraise the performance of the city’s inspection process.