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Morgan Hill, California
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Zucker Systems
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