Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug said Thursday that he would recommend the county hire an independent, third-party reviewer to determine whether building inspectors took actions outside the county’s authority regarding a house Secretary of State Kris Kobach is building.

Weinaug also would like the independent reviewer to determine how to improve the county’s code enforcement process.

Weinaug said it was clear to a number of people the county had made mistakes after an inspector learned Secretary of State Kris Kobach was building a house inside a barn in north Douglas County last year.

“There are clearly some things we could have handled differently given the experience that we have had,” Weinaug said. “It’s clear that mistakes were made by me in terms of the penalty.”

Weinaug had waived a code-required penalty fee for Kobach, who violated the rules by beginning the residential building process without a permit. The county also gave Kobach a certificate of occupancy although he has no approved water source.

Weinaug was speaking at a meeting of the Douglas County Board of Construction Codes Appeals on Thursday.

On Wednesday the county commission, during its regular meeting, had opted not to change the county’s building code to make the penalty fee optional instead of mandatory.

Weinaug said Thursday he would recommend to the commissioners as early as June 17 that they consider his proposal for a third-party reviewer. Commissioners expressed some interest in that on Wednesday, but delayed the decision to a subsequent meeting.

Weinaug said the person who is hired should have building inspection credentials. He wanted that person to consider whether the decisions being made are “appropriately within the authority of the building official” and ways the county could make its code enforcement process better.

“I anticipate that the county commission will support that,” Weinaug said.

Weinaug was asked whether the board of construction codes appeals would be asked to conduct the review.

Weinaug said the commission could choose the board for the work, but he added there might be concerns that a couple members who had been critical of the way the county handled the Kobach case are conflicted.

“Some members of this board have made statements that would cause one to question if you were in a position to be perceived as being objective on those questions,” Weinaug said. “That is my speculation.”

“That sounds like a reasonable speculation,” said J. Stephen Lane, the board chairman and a local architect.

Lane said he believes the decision to hire someone was a good idea. He also said he was concerned there are other code violations with the Kobach project that have not been resolved.

Kay Pettit, a county inspector, said at Wednesday’s meeting that there were at least 30 administrative code violations, several life safety code violations and seven questionable zoning items in the case.