Department of Buildings – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

The Department of Buildings is responsible for enforcing Chicago’s building code, including permitting, inspections, trade licensing, and enforcement actions. 

• The Department of Buildings has been shrinking slightly over time, with negative annual average change rates in both inflation-adjusted appropriations and budgeted positions. The current proposal keeps budgeted headcount unchanged, with a 2.8% increase in appropriations.
  
• Only 57.8% of DoB’s professional and technical services appropriation for outside contracting was spent in 2025, the most recent year for which full-year actual expenditures are available. Despite the underspend in 2025, DoB’s recommended $2.9 million professional and technical services appropriation is unchanged in the 2027 proposal.
  
• DoB’s appropriations remained relatively unchanged from the previous year’s budget, with a $1 million (3.1%) increase in salaries and wages, the largest increase from 2026. 

From 2011-2026, DoB’s budget grew at an average rate of 1.1% annually, or -1% when adjusted for inflation through 2025, compared to a citywide average rate of 5.5% (inflation-adjusted 3.2%). The current proposal would increase the department’s appropriations by 2.8% from the previous year.

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out “fringe” pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae. 

Based on the city’s fringe formulae, the DoB fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 32.4% from 2018-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%. 

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, DoB spent on average 89.8% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Staffing levels at DoB have declined slowly over time, down an average of -0.8% annually since 2011, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%. The current proposal for 2027 makes no changes to DoB’s budgeted headcount. 

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, DoB averaged a 14.2% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%. 

31 of the department’s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data): 

The 2027 proposed budget does not make any changes in DoB’s budgeted positions.

DoB is entirely locally-funded in this year’s budget proposal, with no grant funding, as in the 2026 budget. 80.3% of the department’s appropriations come from the city’s general-purpose corporate fund, with the remainder from the water, sewer, and vehicle tax funds. 

Largest Appropriations

As with most departments, personnel costs make up the bulk of DoB’s appropriations, with salaries and wages on payroll by far the largest expense category. 

In 2025, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, DoB spent 88.8% of its locally-funded budget. Only 57.8% of DoB’s professional and technical services appropriation for outside contracting was spent in 2025. Despite the underspend in 2025, DoB’s recommended $2.9 million professional and technical services appropriation is unchanged in the 2027 proposal. 

Change from Previous Year

DoB’s appropriations remained relatively unchanged from the previous year’s budget, with a $1 million (3.1%) increase in salaries and wages the largest increase from 2026.