Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

Morgan Hill, California

Zucker Systems

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.

ROCESSING

SSUES

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.