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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002/04/08 Board of Appeals & Advisors Minutes (2) MINUTES OF A 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 a four-unit apartment building. His family's background is in real estate. B. Code Adoption Schedule for 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 ha[ldled 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 alleged violator. 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 1-5, 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 Tuesday. 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 enforcement officers, the deputy building official, and a building inspector left for 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 Advisors 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. BRAD REMP, C.B. ASST. DIR. OF PLANNIN BUILDING / BUILDING OFFICIAL SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF APPEALS AND ADVISORS ~(!}~~ E~ MINUTES TAKEN BY: KAREN BOTTORFF SR. SECRETARY PLANNING & BUILDING DEPARTMENT COMPLIANCE WITH AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT The City of Chula Vis1a. in complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), request individuals who require special accommodation to access, attend and/or participate in a City meeting, activity, or service. request such accommodation at least forty-eight (48) hours in advance for meetings and five (5) days for scheduled schedules and activities. Please contact Karen Seiter, Secretary, for specific information at (619) 691-5007 or Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (619) 585-5647. California Relay Service is also available for the hearin9 impaired. Ikb (A:\Board of Appeals 2001.2002\04082002m.doc)