The City of Houston has approved a $20.4 million contract with SAFEbuilt Texas LLC to bring in outside help with permitting, plan reviews, inspections, and code enforcement. The contract gives the city spending authority over five years as officials say growing workloads have overwhelmed existing resources.
Houston City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow SAFEbuilt to provide on-demand services for Houston Public Works. The agreement caps spending at $20.4 million across the five-year term. City officials say the extra staff is meant to cut backlogs and move projects through the permitting and inspection process faster.
The services would be delivered through individual work orders, letting the city add staffing and technical resources based on need. Houston City Councilman Joaquin Martinez said Houston’s development growth has pushed up the number of projects the city’s permitting office must handle.
“Think of how much development that has happened over the past five, 10, 20 years. It’s increased the number of projects,” Martinez said.
The Work SAFEbuilt Could Do
The city’s motion lists a wide range of services SAFEbuilt could provide:
- Permitting and administrative support
- Multi-discipline plan reviews
- Engineering and development reviews
- Residential and commercial building inspections
- Mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire inspections
- Right-of-way and infrastructure inspections
- Code enforcement and compliance support
- Other technical services
The city says the agreement is built to handle changes in workload, cut backlogs, and answer to specialized or emergency needs while keeping permitting, inspection, code enforcement, and public safety running normally. The deal does not call for the city to replace its existing permitting workers with SAFEbuilt staff.
Why Martinez Says the City Needs Help
Martinez said the city’s resources are limited and that it needs additional help to keep projects moving.
“It is because, at the permitting center, we have limited resources. The personnel can only do so much work,” Martinez said.
He pointed to the costs tied to keeping permanent workers. “Some folks should understand, when you have personnel, that’s usually the highest cost in our budget because not only are you paying their wages, you’re paying their benefits, vacation, sick, all of those things,” Martinez said.
The contract is meant to let Houston scale outside resources up or down as needed, rather than hold a fixed level of contractor staffing. Martinez said the arrangement lets the city become more efficient and move through older projects faster.
“We need to become more efficient to give the community the services they deserve,” Martinez said. “Specifically in this case, projects we should’ve been doing 10 years ago, five years ago, this allows us to move through those projects a little bit quicker.”
The Contract Breakdown
The agreement covers up to $20.4 million over five years. Under the deal, Houston would spend an estimated $1.31 million during fiscal year 2027, with about $19.09 million set aside for the remaining years of the agreement. The funding comes from the city’s Building Inspection Fund.
The funding is included in the FY2027 adopted budget, according to the city’s motion. The procurement is exempt from the city’s Hire Houston First ordinance because the city is using a cooperative purchasing agreement.
| Year | Estimated Spending |
|---|---|
| Fiscal Year 2027 | $1.31 million |
| Remaining Years | $19.09 million |
What the Deal Leaves Open
The city has not explained why its own staff cannot manage the work. Martinez cited personnel costs as the reason for hiring contractors instead of hiring people, but he did not lay out a detailed comparison of what each option would cost.
The deal also does not specify how many workers SAFEbuilt would provide or what their qualifications would be. Those details are left to individual work orders issued as the city’s needs arise.
The Cost Question
The $20.4 million cap covers five years of service. The city expects to spend $1.31 million in the first year and about $19.09 million across the remaining four years.
The cooperative purchasing agreement exemption means the Hire Houston First ordinance does not apply to this contract. That ordinance generally requires the city to hire local workers first when bidding out contracts. The cooperative agreement route avoids that requirement.
What Comes Next
The contract takes effect once the agreement is signed and funding is confirmed. Individual work orders will determine how SAFEbuilt’s services are used from month to month.
The city’s motion says the agreement is designed to address fluctuations in workload, reduce backlogs and respond to specialized or emergency needs while maintaining permitting, inspection, code enforcement and public safety operations.
The council’s vote came after Martinez made his case for the deal. He framed the arrangement as a way to free up city staff who would otherwise be stuck with a fixed headcount.
The city’s motion says the funding is included in the FY2027 adopted budget. The deal is structured so the city pays for services only as it orders them, rather than committing to a steady stream of payments.
Our View
This is a large contract for a city department that officials say has been overwhelmed by work. The city says the arrangement is about efficiency, but the numbers raise questions the city has not answered.
The $20.4 million cap is real, and the city has committed to spending it over five years. The first-year number is relatively small compared to the total, which suggests the later years will carry a heavier share of the cost.
What is missing is a full accounting of what the city gets for that money. The city has not said how many workers SAFEbuilt will provide, what their qualifications are, or how the arrangement compares to simply hiring more permanent staff.
The city’s motion lists a wide range of services SAFEbuilt could provide, but it does not say which ones the city plans to order or how often. That leaves the contract open-ended in a way that raises questions about value for money.
The cooperative purchasing agreement route is standard for contracts of this kind, and the city’s motion says the funding is included in the FY2027 adopted budget. The Hire Houston First ordinance does not apply because the city is using a cooperative purchasing agreement.
The deal is meant to give the city more flexibility when demand spikes. Whether it actually cuts backlogs remains to be seen.
The city says the agreement is designed to address fluctuations in workload, reduce backlogs and respond to specialized or emergency needs while maintaining permitting, inspection, code enforcement and public safety operations. Those are reasonable goals, but the city has not shown that SAFEbuilt can deliver them at a lower cost than hiring permanent staff.
The $20.4 million cap is real, and the city has committed to spending it over five years. The first-year number is relatively small compared to the total, which suggests the later years will carry a heavier share of the cost.
The city has not explained why its own staff cannot manage the work. Martinez cited personnel costs as the reason for hiring contractors instead of hiring people, but he did not lay out a detailed comparison of what each option would cost.
The deal also does not specify how many workers SAFEbuilt would provide or what their qualifications would be. Those details are left to individual work orders issued as the city’s needs arise.
The contract takes effect once the agreement is signed and funding is confirmed. Individual work orders will determine how SAFEbuilt’s services are used from month to month.
The city’s motion says the agreement is designed to address fluctuations in workload, reduce backlogs and respond to specialized or emergency needs while maintaining permitting, inspection, code enforcement and public safety operations.
The council’s vote came after Martinez made his case for the deal. He framed the arrangement as a way to free up city staff who would otherwise be stuck with a fixed headcount.
The city’s motion says the funding is included in the FY2027 adopted budget. The deal is structured so the city pays for services only as it orders them, rather than committing to a steady stream of payments.
The cooperative purchasing agreement route is standard for contracts of this kind, and the city’s motion says the funding is included in the FY2027 adopted budget. The Hire Houston First ordinance does not apply because the city is using a cooperative purchasing agreement.
The deal is meant to give the city more flexibility when demand spikes. Whether it actually cuts backlogs remains to be seen.
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