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Extraído del Informe Consolidado
Esta investigación fue publicada originalmente como parte de un informe consolidado más amplio que contiene múltiples investigaciones. Consulte el PDF consolidado para ver el documento completo.
Santa Cruz County Grand Jury
• 2023-2024
Code Compliance Division – Out of Compliance It’s not easy, but it shouldn’t be impossible
⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 8 findings
F1
Understaffing over a long period of time in the Code Compliance Department means that Code Compliance Investigators are unable to complete cases in a timely manner, causing a huge backlog of cases some of which are up to 40 years old.
Related Recommendations (3)
R1
The Planning Department should fill vacant code compliance positions by the end of the calendar year 2023. (F1)
R2
The Personnel Department should reclassify the job description and requirements for the Code Compliance Supervisor to allow the de-facto supervisor to become the department supervisor by the end of this calendar year 2023. (F1)
R3
The Planning Department should, , determine what steps and staff are needed to close out the backlog of code compliance cases within a two year time frame. (Consider including the County Auditing Department to assist with this process.) (F1)
F2
The Code Compliance Department and the Planning Department do not routinely revise and update their departmental procedures and policies, which leads to lack of accountability to the public and inconsistent implementation and interpretation of findings in investigations.
Related Recommendations (3)
R4
The policies and procedures manuals for the Planning Department and Code Compliance Department should be completely reviewed, updated as prescribed in the policy and procedures manual, and digitized. Each section should be dated, and all future revisions should include date markings for any changes. This process should be completed (F2)
R7
The Code Compliance Department should institute monthly staff meetings by October 1, 2023. Meetings should include relevant educational materials, data regarding monthly activity, new challenges such as policy changes, and resolution of or issues regarding active complaints about the department. (F2)
R8
The Code Compliance Department should formalize training and staff development requirements of Code Compliance Investigators through CACEO, use staff meetings to encourage cross training and continuing education, document staff development in employee files, and formalize it in the employee evaluation protocol by October 1, 2023. (F2)
F3
The Code Compliance Department of the Planning Department does not have quality assurance systems in place to evaluate their own performance and effectiveness, which contributes to lack of accountability and lack of credibility and public confidence.
Related Recommendations (2)
R5
The Code Compliance Department should create a log system that ensures that all Planning Department and Code Compliance desk interactions, phone calls, emails, text messages,complaints, and any other interactions with the public are entered into a searchable database (F3)
R6
Data regarding public complaints about Code Compliance Investigators actions should be discussed at staff meetings. Data collected by the log system should be reviewed by Code Compliance Department management no less than quarterly. This should be instituted by October 1, 2023. (F3)
F4
At the present time the Planning Department has limited access for the public. It is frustrating to the public to be unable to readily communicate with the staff required to assist in dealings with building, planning, and code compliance matters.
Related Recommendations (2)
R9
The Planning Department should increase the hours that are open to the public and enforce their 24 hour policy of returning phone calls from the public (F4)
R10
The Code Compliance Department should add recommended time frames for the Flow Chart described in the policy and procedure manual (F4)
F5
There is a persistent public perception of inconsistent interpretation of code. The building and other various codes are complex and difficult to understand. When misinformation is communicated and portions of projects must be redone, it leads to time and money loss as well as frustration.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
The Conflict of Interest policy does not include conflicts regarding family, friends, or prior relationships of a personal nature. This omission, and the optics in some situations, lead to misunderstanding and mistrust between the public and the Code Compliance Department as well as increasing the risk of liability to the County.
Related Recommendations (1)
R11
Conflict of Interest policy should be rewritten to include relationships of a personal nature Use the counties of Mendocino and San Bernardino policies as a reference. (F6)
F7
The Planning Department is by its nature supposed to be a customer-focused department, yet it operates in ways that discourage communications, undermining the public’s trust in the department.
Related Recommendations (1)
R12
The Board of Supervisors and Community Development and Infrastructure Department Management should focus on the organizational culture within the planning department and refocus the culture in a way that fosters public trust. (F7)
F8
The Sheriff’s Office of Corrections’ lack of a documented process for handling inadvertent recording of privileged communications (e.g., communications by an inmate to legal counsel), is a concern since a breach of confidentiality could expose the County to costly legal liability. __ AGREE _x_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The Sheriff’s Office reports they have documented an existing practice/procedure in Correctional Memo 23-C-008 Inadvertent Recording of Privileged Communications. 2022-2023 Consolidated Final Report with Responses 555
No recommendations for this finding
Conclusions 1
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CL1 Page 9By enforcing violations of building and environmental codes, the CCD bears an important role in the health and safety of our county. This investigation found that the CCD employees work hard to carry out their mission in a professional manner. Unfortunately, the division suffers from chronic understaffing, inadequate management, and a lack of basic organizational practices and procedures. This report highlights the areas where it is especially lacking—documentation, procedures and policies, employee training and education, and quality assurance. Because the division is resolving violations of planning and building codes, they work within the larger culture of the Planning Department that is noted for its slowness, inaccessibility to the public, and inconsistent implementation, which makes the CCD’s work even more challenging. As a result, the CCD has a huge backlog of unresolved violations, and public confidence in both the CCD and the Planning Department is low. This Grand Jury recommends that the CCD division quickly increase staffing and improve processes to enable it to resolve the backlog of cases that represent potential community safety and environmental hazards, lost revenue, and county liability. In addition, the CCD needs to urgently overhaul its organizational procedures and practices to improve consistency and to increase transparency and accountability. Moreover, the Grand Jury recommends that the Planning Department increase its accessibility to the public and document all interactions with the public.
No Responses Found 3
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
County of Santa Cruz
Agency
Santa Cruz County
County
Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors
Elected County Office