Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

36. Recommendation : The Building Inspector Supervisor should adjust daily inspection assignments to confirm that appropriately qualified Inspectors are performing the more complex inspections. 37. Recommendation: The City should continue to authorize inspection staff to participate in the training necessary to achieve Certification as a Combination Inspector and pay for these training and periodic certification renewals. Chief Plans Examiner During our interviews we were also advised that the current Building Official was eligible for retirement and had taken recent actions to express a desire to do so. Based on feedback from the industry representatives we interviewed during our focus group meetings and through comments provided in the written customer surveys there is a high level of concern about how the Building Division may operate in the future under the guidance of a new Building Official. The current Building Official has over 30 years of experience with the City of Morgan Hill. This institutional knowledge will be very hard to replace. It is, however, incumbent upon the City to make appropriate plans to address this void when the current Building Official exercise his will to retire. The Assistant City Manager has indicated a desire to recommend the Building Division hire a Chief Plans Examiner to both improve the plan review turnaround times and to potentially assume more managerial responsibilities that could prepare that individual for potentially assuming the Building Official position in the future. We support the need to have a Chief Plans Examiner to be available to closely monitor both the quantity and quality of plan review services being provided by in- house staff as well as those projects periodically reviewed by outside plan review consultants. We also support the idea of having a position available to be mentored on the full scope of responsibilities of the Building Official so that the current Building Official can be comfortable about taking his earned vacation leave (which is currently maxed out). In discussing this proposed position, the Assistant City Manager had proposed to require the position to be a Licensed Professional Engineer. We frequently see this type of minimum requirement for larger jurisdictions that have numerous licensed engineers and registered architects on their staff. Generally, these types of organizations also have the ability to pay considerable salaries to attract and retain the services of these professional engineers and architects. Our experience with smaller organizations indicates that few jurisdictions require such a high level of qualifications. Some jurisdictions with such a requirement have discovered that they did not need someone with a professional license to be able to competently perform the responsibilities of a plans examiner. These jurisdictions instead confirmed the technical expertise of the Chief Plans Examiner by confirming the individual was an ICC Certified Plans Examiner in both residential and

Morgan Hill, California

47

Zucker Systems