Grand Jury Grand Jury Response from City of Watsonville 3 messages

The City of Watsonville 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): Watsonville Fire Department continues to work towards achieving full compliance of all mandated occupancies as required by the California Health and Safety Code sections 13146.2, 13146.3, 13146.4, and 171921(b). The Watsonville Fire Department has continually increased the amount of completed mandated inspections each year. The Department is committed towards increasing the amount of inspections as we work towards achieving 100% compliance. However, in the Grand Jury report, we did find discrepancies between the number of schools, hotels, apartments, and licensed residential care facilities reported by the Grand Jury and what Watsonville Fire Department has on record. For example, The Grand Jury Report states in its report that Watsonville Fire Department in 2019 failed to inspect seven of its 21 schools. However, there is a discrepancy in the number of schools on record of the Watsonville Fire Department versus those in the report. The Department has 19 schools on record, of which 17 were inspected and are in compliance. Furthermore, two of the seven schools shown out of compliance on the Grand Jury report, Pajaro Middle School and Calabasas Elementary School, are outside the City of Watsonville and one is in Monterey County; therefore, both are outside the jurisdiction of the Watsonville Fire Department. The other two schools, E.A. Hall and T.S.Macquidy Elementary , were not inspected in 2019, but they have been inspected in the past and will be inspected in future years. The Grand Jury Report also states that Watsonville Fire Department has 42 identified apartments and inspected 29 in 2019. Department records for 2019, indicate, that we have 99 apartments in the City of Watsonville and 75 of those were inspected that same year with a total of 24 apartments uninspected. Regardless of the discrepancies between department records and the Grand Jury report, Watsonville Fire Department is committed towards gaining full compliance of all annually mandated inspections specified in the California Health and Safety Code sections 13146.2, 13146.3, 13146.4, and 171921(b). In 2020, despite of the pandemic and challenges with in-person activities the Department is on track to complete all required inspections.

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 X PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The City of Watsonville Fire Department participates in a county wide Fire Prevention Officers Association that regularly meets once a month. The goal of the association is to share technology, address fire prevention issues such as code enforcement, review, develop, and adopt standards as they relate to the County of Santa Cruz. The Watsonville Fire Department is currently facing staffing issues. These issues include staffing of our fire prevention division. The sharing of personnel is not a realistic option for our County fire departments. As with our auto and mutual aid agreements, there is a level of reciprocity that is expected when providing these types of support and assistance to neighboring jurisdictions which have an associated cost to it. Our Fire Department is not in a position to reciprocate any personnel support provided by neighboring agencies for fire and life safety inspections.

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 may result in delay. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):