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Morgan Hill, California
78
Zucker Systems
81.
Recommendation:
Land Development Engineering should closely monitor
the impact of additional contract resources on achieving the Division’s
mission to assist in determining when or, if, full-time staff should be hired.
With the hiring of additional contract staff comes the additional responsibility to
monitor the quality of the work being performed. As discussed elsewhere in this
section, the Senior Civil Engineer’s ability to provide this level of oversight of
contract staff is very limited given his desire to closely supervise existing staff. The
process of hiring additional contract staff should be accompanied by the creation of a
comprehensive list of performance expectations accompanied with the expectation
that the Senior Civil Engineer will delegate sufficient work to staff to allow him to
perform the critical task of monitoring these new contract staff.
82.
Recommendation:
The Senior Civil Engineer should create a
comprehensive list of performance expectations for future contract staff
and be available to monitor their performance.
Training
Training is usually one of the first areas to be cut when an organization is faced with a
significant increase in workload and the City of Morgan Hill has proven to be no
exception to this rule. One of the positive aspects of providing an on-going in-house
training program is the ability to achieve uniform and consistent interpretations of the
codes and standards enforced by the jurisdiction. Generally, these training efforts also
contribute to the compilation of a written manual of interpretations and procedures
that can be referred to in the future. The Land Development Engineering Division
does not have an on-gong training program.
83.
Recommendation:
The Senior Civil Engineer should create an on-going in-
house training program to familiarize staff on the technical code and
standards interpretations that should be enforced to achieve uniform and
consistent staff interpretations.
84.
Recommendation:
The Senior Civil Engineer should create and maintain a
written interpretation manual based on the training provided to staff.
In addition to in-house training programs, we believe it is beneficial to have staff
periodically attend training offered by outside experts. We have seen examples of
how attendance at such training events have provided not only additional technical
expertise but also helped promote a more flexible approach to enforcing codes and
regulations. As indicated in a recommendation for all functions, we recommend that
the engineering budget set a minimum of 2% of their personnel budget for training
and strive to allocate 5% of staff time to training and skill development.