Del Norte County Grand Jury
2019-2020
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Findings & Recommendations
10 findings
F1:
The Community Development Department and Environmental Health Division staff that were interviewed were professional, knowledgeable, friendly and conveyed an in-depth knowledge of their job responsibilities and duties.
F2:
The Environmental Health Division consists of one Senior Environmental Health Specialist, one Environmental Health Specialist and a part-time clerk. The Environmental Health Specialist position has been vacant since October 2019. The Community Development Department is actively canvassing to fill the vacant position.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1:
Ensure the Environmental Health Division has sufficient and qualified staffing to provide necessary services to the public in a timely manner. Review and compare current Environmental Health Specialist salaries with similar counties to ensure qualified candidates can be hired and retained. Update the Environmental Health Division website to provide detailed
F3:
The Community Development Department and Environmental Health Division operate under the general policy direction of the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors.
F4:
It is the policy and responsibility of the Environmental Health Division to inspect/investigate residential health and safety complaints, such as serious rodent infestations and mold issues. The Environmental Health Division responds to complaints by both homeowners and tenants. Complaint forms are available at the Environmental Health Division office.
F5:
During 2019, the Community Development Department received and investigated ten complaints involving residential health and safety issues. One complaint was investigated by the Environmental Health Specialist and nine of the complaints were investigated by the Code Enforcement Officer in consultation with the Environmental Health Specialist. In one instance, a complainant alleged an employee of the Environmental Health Division stated they were prohibited by the Board of Supervisors from inspecting/investigating health and safety issues involving landlord/tenant disputes.
F6:
A former Environmental Health Division employee operated under the belief that the Board of Supervisors did not want the Environmental Health Division to become involved in landlord-tenant disputes concerning residential health and safety issues. The employee operated under that belief for approximately ten years. The Grand Jury was unable to interview the former employee to obtain further information.
F7:
Current Environmental Health Division employees were aware of their responsibility to inspect/investigate residential health and safety complaints.
F8:
The Grand Jury found no evidence that the current Board of Supervisors directed the Environmental Health Division to not become involved in landlord-tenant disputes concerning residential health and safety issues.
F9:
The Grand Jury was unable to determine if any former member(s) of the Board of Supervisors directed Environmental Health Division employee(s) to not become involved in landlord-tenant disputes concerning residential health and safety issues.
F10:
The Environmental Health Division has a web page on the Del Norte County government website. The Grand Jury found that the website lacks detailed information about the division's mission, responsibilities, resources and forms. The Community Development Department's "Goals and Objectives for 2019/2020" statement listed one of it's goals as, "Continue to add and update Environmental Health information on the County website."
Related Recommendations (1)
R2:
information about their mission, services, responsibilities, resources and forms. Include downloadable forms, as well as links to applicable county and state codes, regulations, ordnances and laws. 2019-2020 Del Norte County Grand Jury SPECIAL DISTRICT INVESTIGATION
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.