60 / 194
Morgan Hill, California
54
Zucker Systems
Currently Building Division staff scans plans and permits only after the project has
received all required inspections and has been completed. Ideally with the
implementation of the TRAKiT system to help locate permit records and the full
utilization of the recently upgraded I Pad tablet computers by field inspectors, the
Building Official should consider having staff begin the scanning process as soon as
the plans have been approved by plan check. This type of operational change will
afford the Inspector in the field the ability to directly retrieve the approved plans on
his field computer. Additionally, the space currently reserved to store plans and
permits for active projects could be repurposed for more beneficial use. While we are
aware that some plan revisions can take place while the project is under construction,
we don’t believe the quantity of these changes, nor the process needed to quickly
update the plans, would seriously jeopardize the program. Once the electronic plan
check and process is in place, it will not be necessary to scan plans except in isolated
cases.
51.
Recommendation:
The Building Official should establish a program to
scan plans immediately upon plan review approval in order to make the
digital copies available to Inspectors in the field during construction.
Scanning will not be necessary once electronic plan process is in place.
Staffing/Activity Levels
We believe that a variety of activities should be measured in order to evaluate
appropriate staffing levels. For the Building Division one of the key indicators is
staff’s ability to consistently meet established performance standards for plan review
turnaround times and inspections. While we are aware the Building Official has
created some basic performance standards for plan review turnaround times, the
existence of those standards is not well known and no method currently exists to
routinely report on compliance with these performance standards. We believe one of
the greatest benefits that will be achieved from the implementation of the new
TRAKiT system will be the ability to track this type of information not only for the
Building Division but also for the other Departments and Division that participate in
the review process.
Regarding staffing for building inspection, we generally find that trained inspectors
can complete between 12 and 15 inspections per day per Inspector. These numbers
can fluctuate based on excessive travel times or the complexity of projects. The
projects in Morgan Hill are confined to a small geographic area and frequently
multiple inspections are requested at the same location. In addition, most commercial
projects are not highly complex. Though not confirmed through reports generated by
their inspection tracking system, staff advised that their daily inspection workload
falls within our recommended range. Information included in the current budget
transmittal indicates that the number of inspections per day per Inspector has
increased from an average of 14.3 in FY 13-14 to 15.4 in FY 15-16. Considering these