Wed, Dec 16, 2020 at 12:45 Pm The Santa Cruz City Manager left a voicemail message on the above date confirming that

The City of Santa Cruz Fire Department has not adequately inspected all schools, hotels, apartments, and licensed residential care facilities for fire and safety per California Health and Safety Code Sections 13146.2, 13146.3, 13146.4, and 171921(b). AGREE X PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The City of Santa Cruz Fire Department has made inspections of its highest risk occupancies a priority. However due to the overwhelming number of occupancies within or jurisdiction we have had to adjust our time frames for inspection making us non- compliant with California Health and Safety Code Sections 13146.2, 13146.3, 13146.4, and 171921(b). These Health and Safety Codes call for annual inspections which we have not achieved. As detailed in the Grand Jury interview Santa Cruz Fire prioritizes the highest life safety occupancies (residential care) and focuses on completing these annually with other occupancies (apartments) completed on a rolling basis. Of particular concern is the misrepresentation by the Grand Jury report for inspections completed by Santa Cruz Fire. For example in 2018 Santa Cruz Fire completed 70 life safety inspections for the 50 identified hotels in Santa Cruz. The Grand Jury report has 24 inspections listed in 2018 which does match any information it was given. The higher number of inspections (70) than the number of hotels (50) is due to re-inspections and follow up corrective actions that were taken in 2018. Because of these corrective actions a smaller number of hotels were inspected in 2019. A similar error can be seen within our residential care inspections for 2019. There were a total of 9 inspections in 2019 for re-inspections and corrective actions taken. In 2018 all 36 schools were inspected but the Grand Jury reports has 5 inspections being completed. The Santa Cruz City Fire Department agrees that it has not fully complied with Health and Safety Code Sections 13146.2, 13146.3, 13146.4, and 171921(b) for annual inspections. However we disagree that we have not adequately performed inspections to ensure life safety to meet the intent of the Health and Safety codes.

Fire agencies serving the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County have not adequately reported inspection performance and the inherent risk associated with a performance gap to residents and leadership external to the governing body. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

Fire agencies serving the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County would benefit by sharing technology and processes and, at times, personnel in fulfilling fire inspection requirements. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion X DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Departments already share process and technology. Meetings occur monthly as part of the Santa Cruz County Fire Association and the sub-group of the Fire Prevention Officers. Where possible alignment in policy and process is enacted. Santa Cruz City Fire disagrees with the statement that sharing personnel is an answer to meeting inspection requirements. No single agency is able to complete required inspections on an annual basis with their current staffing.

Reporting gaps in fire inspection performance to a governing body annually at a time when that governing body is completing its budgeting process makes making budget adjustments prior to budget adoption unnecessarily challenging and my result in delay. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):