HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002/04/08 Board of Appeals & Advisors Minutes MINUTES OFA REGULAR MEETING
BOARD OF APPEALS AND ADVISORS
' CITY OF CHULA VISTA, CALIFORNIA
April 8, 2002 Conference Room No. 1 5:15 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman O'Neill (arrived at 5:27 p.m.), Vice-Chairman
Monaghan, Board Members Compton (arrived at 5:45 p.m.),
Ehm, Nagorski, Romo, and West
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
CITY STAFF PRESENT: Assistant Director Remp, Secretary Bottorff, and Sue Gray
CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Vice-Chairman Monaghan called the meeting to order at
5:22 p.m.
ROLL CALL: Members present constituted a quorum.
1, DECLARATION OF EXCUSED/UNEXCUSED ABSENTEEISM: None
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MSUC Ehm/Romo (4-0) (West abstained) to approve the
minutes of August 13, 2001.
3. NEW BUSINESS:
A. Introduction of New Members
Ben West is a chemist for the U.S. Government for the Navy as a civilian. Mr.
West owns and manages afour-unit apartment building. His family's background
is in real estate.
B. Code Adoption Schedulefor 2002
The state is approximately one year behind in adopting the codes that they
mandate us to adopt locally. At this point in time, the schedule is to have an
Board of Appeals and Advisors 2 April 8, 2002
effective date of November 2, 2002. The Board will review the proposed
amendments to the code and provide any comments. This will happen sometime
in late summer.
4. CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS/REPORT:
A. Code Enforcement
It came to the chairman's attention that Code Enforcement was short staffed
when he received a letter in response to an inquiry he had made regarding a
commercial project on Third Ave. with a numerous amount of signs and no
numbers on the units. He received a form letter referring him to mediation. He
would like to see manpower in code enforcement beefed up.
Sue Gray, Code Enforcement Manager, was present to discuss and update the
current status of code enforcement staffing. Currently, we have four code
enforcement officers. One employee is paid out of the Abandoned Vehicle
Abatement Authority; consequently, all he does is the abatement of abandoned
vehicles or inoperative vehicles on private property. We lost two of the other
three, which left us with one who had only been in code enforcement for seven
months. It was necessary to adjust the way code enforcement cases were
handled to accommodate for the short staffing and training of new staff.
A decision was made to prioritize cases as they come in; similar to the way the
police prioritize calls as they come in. Code Enforcement complaints were
divided into three areas. "A" priorities deal with life safety issues. They were
handled immediately much the same way cases have always been handled.
"B" priorities were sent letters to the complainant and the alleged violator. The
alleged violator's letter asks them to take care of the violation, if in fact there is
one, and they are given suggestions on how to do this, if appropriate. A letter is
sent to the complainant asking them to call back in three weeks if there is no
improvement to the situation. If the complainant calls back, it is then scheduled
for inspection within three days.
"C" priorities were sent letters to the aller~,~! ~~iolator. The complainant is sent a
letter letting them know that the alleged violator received a letter asking them to
comply. The difference from °B" and "C" is that the "C" case is immediately
closed after sending the letters.
The prioritization was done due to the fact that response time within three days
had slipped to 47% due to the turnover in existing staff. This was done not only
from a customer service standpoint, but also from a staff point.
We are looking at doing some kind of prioritization even with full staff because
Board of Appeals and Advisors 3 April 8, 2002
one of the issues is that one of those staff persons will be working in our housing _
program doing nothing but responding to complaints in apartments and motels,
and also doing proactive inspections of those apartments and motels. We
currently receive funding for that activity. As soon as staff gets trained, we will be
moving one staff person to the housing inspection program, which will then leave
two people to do code enforcement for the city.
Some of the concerns discussed were: signage issues, no maintenance on
landscape on commercial projects, per capita cost compared to other cities, blue
tarp carports in front yards, referring cases to the City Attorney, colors of
buildings, front yard fences, building on walls separating pools, houses with no
siding, E Street & H Street entrance corridors from I-5, graffiti, no sidewalks in
some areas, and repeat complaints.
Mr. Remp informed the Board that we are in the midst of doing a comprehensive
review of the code enforcement program. Once that is done, the intention is to
go back to the City Manager to show him what is being done with the staffing we
have, what the community would like us to do, and what it would cost to do that.
5. BUILDING OFFICIAL'S COMMENTS/REPORT:
A. California Building Officials Annual Business Meeting Update
Mr. Remp reported that the annual conference was held last month in San Diego,
and two of our Board members attended. Mr. Remp also mentioned that was
elected Second Vice-President for the CALBO board.
Mr. Nagorski and Mr. West both commented that they enjoyed attending and
appreciated the opportunity.
B. International Building Safety Week
International Building Safety Week is April 7-13. A proclamation will be
presented at the Council meeting on Ti_~c~sday. Mr. Remp invited the Board
members to attend the Council meeting.
C. Staffing
Mr. Remp reported on the staff changes since the last meeting. We hired two
code enforcement officers, two plans examiners, a temporary office specialist,
two building inspectors, and a development services technician. Two code
ectorleft for
_ the.de ut buildin official and a buildin ins
enforcement officers, p y g g p
various reasons. We had several promotions due to the vacancies. We still
have several vacancies that we are working on filling.
Board of Appeals and Advisor`s 4 April 8, 2002
6. COMMUNICATIONS (PUBLIC REMARKS/WRITTEN CORRESPONDENCE): None
7. ADJOURNMENT: Chairman O'Neill adjourned the meeting at 6:40 p.m. to the next
regular meeting scheduled for May 13, 2002.
~i
BRAD REMP, C.B. .
ASST. DIR. OF PLANNIN BUILDING /BUILDING OFFICIAL
SECRETARY TO T,HE BOARD OF APPEALS AND ADVISORS
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MINUTES TAKEN BY:
KAREN BOTTORFF
SR. SECRETARY
PLANNING & BUILDING DEPARTMENT
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