Cities often engage consulting firms for a variety of consultant services. Cities often must rely upon the consultant to provide a professional services agreement that outlines the terms and conditions for consultant services to be provided by the consultant to the city. Professional services agreements provided by consultants are often prepared to protect the interests of the consultant. A sample Professional Services Agreement has been prepared collaboratively to provide cities with an agreement template that can be used by a city as an alternative to utilizing an agreement prepared by the consultant. The sample agreement may require further customization to fit the policies and practices of the city as well as the type of consultant services being rendered.

An ordinance to adopt the International Building Code of 2003 with SEISMIC deletions.

Since this draft ordinance was prepared the International Code Council (ICC) has prepared subsequent editions of the International Building Code (IBC) that include provisions for seismic considerations. It is recommended depending upon the edition of the IBC adopted by the jurisdiction and subsequent amendments as provided in the sample ordinance correctly reference sections and subsections of the IBC to ensure proper reference in the Ordinance.

Following an ordinance passing on the first reading in a Tennessee town, MTAS Legal Consultant Elisha Hodge responded to questions from the Town Administrator.

A letter explaining the benefits of strategic planning for the city.

MTAS was asked to explain the sales tax referendum process; an ordinance calling for a referendum is included.

A survey of selected cities regarding whether they have a building inspector on staff, and if not, do they contract for those services.

Municipalities in Tennessee are continuing to experience growth and development that in some instances is unprecedented placing significant demands on municipalities in the areas of plan review, permitting and inspection services. Often municipalities are not periodically reviewing fee schedules to ensure they are current and providing sufficient fee revenues to cover related expenditures for plan review, permitting, and inspection services. Municipal leaders desiring to ensure development is paying sufficient fees to generate revenues that cover related expenditures need an objective methodology for performing the necessary financial analysis to determine what, if any, adjustments may be necessary to generate sufficient revenues along with having tools to organize the often scattered and obscure adopted fees into a more comprehensive compilation that can be efficiently and periodically reviewed and amended as needed. A guide has been prepared that outlines an objective process for preparing a financial analysis to evaluate plan review, permitting, and inspection fee revenues to corresponding expenditures. Templates and a sample ordinance are provided to assist consultants with preparing the various tabulations, exhibits and ordinance documentation. Example fee schedules from studies completed for Shelbyville, Signal Mountain, and Lakesite are included to demonstrate how the templates were utilized and customized to fit the specific fee structures of each municipality. MTAS consultants should work collaboratively with municipal staff to prepare the financial analysis and if sufficient disparity between revenues and expenditures exists, to prepare a comparative exhibit of the existing fee schedule with an adjusted fee schedule that can provide the opportunity for increasing permit revenues. Where significant disparities may exist, a phased or incremental approach is suggested where adjustments may be spread over an extended period of time.

A citation form to be used by the City of Smithville for offenses that are not traffic related.

MTAS provided information on the annual training requirement for planning commission members and staff.

Job description for the position of Assistant City Manager in Development Services.