Douglas County’s chief building officer takes job in Ottawa
Jim Sherman, the director of the Douglas County Zoning and Codes Department, has submitted his resignation to accept the position of chief building officer for the city of Ottawa, a county official said Friday.
Sherman has been at the center of a controversy over a house that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was building inside a barn last year without a building permit as required by county code.
The Lawrence Journal-World reported recently that the codes department did not require Kobach to comply with several building code requirements, including paying a penalty for not having a building permit, and issued an occupancy permit despite the lack of an approved water source.
Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug told the Journal-World on Friday that Sherman’s resignation was not related to any departmental issues.
“The reason he is leaving is because he has accepted a job with the city of Ottawa,” Weinaug said.
An attempt to reach Sherman for further comment was not successful Friday.
Sherman said in a recent interview he became the chief building officer for Douglas County on Feb. 28 of last year. Previously he had worked in Gardner and Westwood as codes director. Prior to that he spent a number of years as a building inspector for De Soto and Lawrence.
Weinaug said he would talk to staff members regarding the director position in the interim.
“We’ll continue our efforts to enforce the code in a manner that is seen as a service to the community rather than being perceived as a department that is seeking only to be punitive,” Weinaug said Friday. “That will continue to be our focus.”
Sherman’s resignation is effective June 29.
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- June 9 — Your Turn: Commissioner addresses code issues
- June 4 — Douglas County administrator wants third-party review of Kobach building case, code process
- June 3 — Douglas County keeps mandatory building code fine for now
- May 30 — Appeals board questions Douglas County codes enforcement policy
- May 23 — Commissioners support new building codes policy, say Kobach did not get special treatment; others not so sure
- May 17 — Douglas County says Kobach was not shown favoritism in building case; failure to be strict on building codes was result of new, unwritten policy