Agenda - 12-01-2003-9d - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 Plans Review Building plan review is also another facet of activity that has been heightened to be proactive during the process of designing and building structures. This better process helps County residences and businesses maintain lower insurance rates through the ISO program. Effective October 2003, the Board approved the addition of one Plans Examiner position to the Inspections Division. However, due to the continuously increasing number of field inspections, this persor has been required to also assist with field inspections. This creates a chronic plans review backlog. Progress in the last couple of months, is due solely to existing staff working overtime and the addition of two temporary part -time plans reviewers and assistance from the Code Enforcement Supervisor. However, with these strategies we still maintain a 2.5 -week backlog on Residential permits. These permit applications range from new houses to adding a deck. This 2.5 week delay causes many hardships on the general public, such as loss of scheduled contractors, increased interest on construction loans (which is compounded when due to delays the homeowner loses their contractor) having to wait for contractors to become available again or worse has to reinitiate the bid process again with a new contractor. Citizen frustration levels have continued to increase due to the lengthy wait for permit issuance. Homeowners obtain 68 percent of residential permits. Typically homeowners are not building experts nor are they familiar with the process of construction, They expect that the Inspections staff will be available for consultation and /or advice on their project. The Plans Examiner is available to assist with this type requests. However, 2 or 3 of these requests can occupy a third of the workday, depending on the complexity of the job. The Plans Examiner position also works with Engineers /Architects on commercial projects proposed within the County, such as renovations of schools. This additional Plans Examiner would allow the plans review process to continue on a daily basis, allowing one Plans Examiner to act in other areas such as support to field staff when field inspections increase to unmanageable levels, or to be available for homeowner and design consultation. Projected Outcomes The proposed staffing levels should allow achievement of the following targeted goals: • Complete residential plans review within 3 days of submittal rather than the 2.5 weeks currently required. • Complete commercial plans review within 2 weeks as compared to the six (6) weeks now required • Complete footing and concrete inspections if called in before 9:00 a.m. each day on the same day as compared to the next day currently. • Complete 90 percent of general inspections on the day of the request as compared to the present three or four day average. The above goals should be reached by Mid -March 2004, based on the following assumptions: • The four positions are filled by the end of January.. The new employees complete the required State training in at least two inspection fields (96 hours training) and receive State certification by early February • Temporary part-time employee staffing levels remain consistent through the end of March. • The new Inspectors are used to begin addressing the backlog. To provide additional flexibility to take account of variability in the workload related to building activity, it is proposed that two of the requested new Code Compliance Officer positions be established as permanent time limited for two years.