Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

In addition to considering training as an excellent tool to achieve uniform and consistent staff interpretations of regulations, we also consider training to be an opportunity for staff to expand their awareness of the organization and potentially identify paths to future promotional opportunities. In the case of Engineers in the Public Works Engineering Division, two (2) of the Engineers are currently only assigned to work on CIP projects while the other two (2) Engineers perform a variety of development related reviews as well as CIP projects. Having all of the Engineers trained to perform the full spectrum of assignments, including CIPs, would enhance their value to the organization by expanding the Senior Civil Engineer’s ability to make flexible assignments and give the employees a broader understanding of the full scope of jobs within the Engineering Division. 85. Recommendation: The Senior Civil Engineer should structure the on-going in-house training program to allow for cross training of Engineers to expand the scope of the services they can provide. Public Counter Support The Engineering Division has been the subject of many customer complaints regarding the quality and timeliness of their plan reviews. We believe one of the major contributing factors to these poor results is the number of interruptions the Engineers experience while they are engrossed in reviewing detailed engineering plans and documents. During our review we did note that the Senior Civil Engineer has established a schedule of rotating the responsibility of being the “Engineer of the Day” between himself and the other two Engineers. We endorse the concept of designating an individual to be on call to address technical engineering questions that arise at the public counter or from other staff. However, comments provided during interviews suggests that another staff person, such as an Engineering Aide, could likely have handled a significant number of requests for an Engineer’s assistance. We believe counter staff may be too eager to call for an Engineer, when, by simply asking a few probing questions, they would be able to locate the information the customer is seeking. We support the philosophy that work should be performed whenever possible by staff at the lowest level of the organization. Interrupting Engineers to perform tasks that can be accomplished by suitably trained individuals at a lower level in the organization represents a responsible allocation of resources. 86. Recommendation: The Senior Civil Engineer should establish a list of public counter inquiries that Engineering Aides should be expected to resolve. D. P ROCESSING I SSUES

Morgan Hill, California

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