Tom Quinn, Woburn City building commissioner, asked the Finance Committee on May 28 to approve modest increases in the Inspectional Services budget and said he expects to add a second full‑time inspector by September to handle growing permit and enforcement workloads.

Quinn said the inspection office covers seven full‑time positions and asked that the committee approve raising the temporary help line from $10,000 to $12,500 “one is with the contracts being settled, there were some adjustments in salaries,” and to add a new $3,800 clothing-and‑boots line tied to the collective bargaining settlement. “If nothing happens during the fiscal year, I won't have to request any more money within that particular account,” Quinn said.

The commissioner told councilors he hopes to have a second full‑time inspector in place by September, reversing a prior reliance on consultants and temporary hires. “With the additional person, it's gonna give us a little more breathing room. Instead of a response time of, you know, 5 to 7 days on nuisance things, we wanna get back to the 3 day average that we were running this, you know, many many years,” Quinn said.

Council members repeatedly pressed Quinn about incoming work tied to accessory dwelling units and a forthcoming floodplain ordinance. Councilor (unnamed) asked whether the department is tracking ADU applications; Quinn said the office already logs all permits monthly and will track ADUs in the same way and can report counts to the council. He also noted multifamily permitting has been cyclical: “Multifamily right now is down. A year ago, we were way up.”

Quinn emphasized the value of institutional knowledge in enforcement and permitting, pointing to property histories and special permit conditions on particular sites as reasons to keep experienced inspectors on staff. He told the committee he hopes younger staff will learn historical files: “The files tell the story for the property.”

No formal vote was taken during the presentation; Quinn made budget requests and answered council questions. Committee members expressed broad support for restoring the second inspector and for maintaining the proposed maintenance accounts, noting potential workload increases from ADUs and the floodplain ordinance.

Quinn's presentation covered staffing and operating lines; councilors suggested the department return with periodic permit counts after the ADU policy is active so the legislative delegation and the council can assess operational impacts.