Posted on 06/25/2023 11:02:12 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A new Santa Cruz County grand jury report focusing on the Code Compliance Division was released Friday.
The jury found that the division is extremely understaffed, was missing basic organizational structures and has a 40 year backlog of cases. The jury assessed that these issues are causing mistrust with the public.
In the 18-page report, the jury examined six parts of the division, including staffing, training and record keeping.
Insufficient staffing is the cause of several issues in the CCD, according to the report. The jury found that staffing is down 50% over the past 10 years. There are only four code compliance investigators for the entire county.
This short staffing has caused a pileup of unresolved reports. More than 1,500 cases (some dating back to 1980) are still open. That means there are decades worth of properties that have uninvestigated safety issues. Those possible issues include fire dangers, health hazards and uncollected civil penalties.
The grand jury estimates that it would take one or two additional investigators two years just to clear out the division's backlog.
An example of the CCD's short staffing partnered with a bigger workload is with short term rentals. An industry that did not exist 15 years ago is now an additional burden of the division.
Does the county send inspectors around to people’s homes? I’m thinking no...the local government depends on installers to follow the code for residential property. Sometimes they do it right, sometimes they don’t.
I’ve had repairmen tell me that work previous repairmen did wasn’t to code, and it usually wasn’t practical to get it redone until the next time the water heater needed to be replaced (for instance).
I guess it’s a bit different with commercial property, but they too rely on the repairmen to get it right.
Just more evidence that the CA gov’t can’t avoid bungling the process of gov’t. Still, the CA voters keep putting the same people back in office, so either they are uninformed or they just don’t care. Either way, they’re getting what they voted for.
The grand jury estimates that it would take one or two additional investigators two years just to clear out the division’s backlog”
Whut? Two people can clear out 40 years of backlogs in two years? I have a feeling this is just a case of bad writing from the author. If not. I have a hunch the city has put more time training on DEI and all that CRT rot when they could have been doing actual work.
Exactly
Code Compliance = Code Enforcement.
Most issues are about doing additions with out permits and are complaint driven where you’re not allowed to know the identity of who turned you in. Many of these complaints are made by neighbors who just want to cause problems.
In the hundreds of cases I’ve played a part in resolving, code enforcement (CE) takes the word of the person filing the complaint without question as once CE gets their foot in your door, who made the initial complaint and their reasons why become irrelevant. You have had work done that is non compliant.
Most Code Enforcement cases hit their biggest road block Not from the building department but from the planning department regarding land use issues.
Note the reference to “Penalties” in the article. These amount to more than just fees but often to the requirement to hire engineers or architects as directed by county staff for structural, grading and other issues including title 24 energy codes that at times can be retroactively enforced and not just for the portion of work performed. It also can include lost property taxes. Intentionally not paying your taxes puts an owner in bad spot when beginning to understand the leverage that can be held over you in resolving your code enforcement case.
Our North Ca county enacted a new ordinance a few years back where any un permitted work can also cause you to lose your right to grandfathering.
The costs that result can be ridiculous. Owner’s are usually hostile in the beginning but eventually realize how much power their guv has.
What? No statute of limitations on these code violations? I’d be hard pressed to go to court for a thirty-five year old case that I had my trash can at curbside at the wrong time.
#7 I am the one that made the complaint and after 35 years you still are leaving your trash cans at curbside at the wrong time!!
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