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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCMR - Hiring Chill Request for CET and ReorganizationCity of San Luis Obispo, City Manager Report Final City Manager Approval Approver Name Date Approved CM (For All Positions) DJJ 6/29/30 ACM (CSG Depts Only) Shelly 6/29/23 Reviewer Routing List Reviewer Name Date Reviewed Finance EJ 6/23/23 Human Resources ND 6/23/23 Department Analyst Erin Keller 06/01/23 Date. FROM: Michael Codron – Community Development Director Tyler Corey – Community Development Acting Director TAC 06/02/23 PREPARED BY: Michael Loew – Deputy Building Official John Mezzapesa – Code Enforcement Supervisor SUBJECT: Hiring Building and Safety Staff RECOMMENDATION 1. Approve the recruitment of two vacant Code Enforcement Technician (I/II) positions within the Building and Safety Division for Neighborhood Services enforcement activities; and 2. Approve a 1-year extension of the current Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer contract funded by the second vacant Code Enforcement Technician II position; and 3. Approve a change in supervision for the contract Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer from the existing Building Inspector Supervisor to the Code Enforcement Supervisor. BACKGROUND Code Enforcement Technician (Recommendation 1) The Building and Safety Division is responsible for enforcing regulations relating to the San Luis Obispo Municipal Code, California Health & Safety Code, and other adopted codes. Included in these regulations are those relating to Neighborhood Preservation and Property Maintenance. As part of a previous Major City Goal, the position of ‘Neighborhood Services Specialist” was created to provide proactive and responsive enforcement efforts of property maintenance standards throughout the city. This position has evolved into what is now designated as Code Enforcement Technician I /II. Request to Hire – Fiscal Health Contingency Plan Page 2 As a result of a staff vacancy and the current hiring chill, the critical position of Code Enforcement Technician (CET) has remained vacant since January of 2023, leaving our current staff of two Code Enforcement Officers to respond to all reported violations. The lack of a Code Enforcement Technician has affected our staff’s ability to respond to reported violations within the expected timeframes set by City Council, especially with implementing the ASKSLO application. DISCUSSION 1. Recruitment for Code Enforcement Tech I/II 1. What position are you requesting to hire? Code Enforcement Technician I/II (CET I/II). If we hire a CET I, it would be an underfill. The vacant position is a II. 2. What are the fiscal impacts if the position is not filled? Code Enforcement Officers respond to the communities’ need for code compliance. Over the last eight years, the Code Enforcement Technician I/II positions have collected a combined annual average of $19,000 in administrative citations. 3. How is this position related to essential services, a major city goal, or health and safety? This position proactively identifies over 400 NSS cases a year. If this position remained vacant, proactive identification and enforcement of neighborhood wellness violations in residential, commercial, and downtown neighborhoods would not be completed. The enforcement of violations such as overgrown vegetation, storage of trash and debris, and inoperable vehicles directly prevents neighborhood blight and potential harborage for rodents and other pests. This position also provides timely responses to all reported abandoned shopping carts throughout the city. Current code enforcement staff have worked to respond to complaints regarding neighborhood wellness and abandoned shopping cart violations. However, they already carry a full workload addressing high-level code enforcement functions that take priority over those items typically addressed by the Code Enforcement Technician I/II positions. 4. Explain why the department cannot meet needs on an interim basis with existing staff / what is not getting done due to this vacancy? With the implementation of Ask SLO for reporting alleged code enforcement violations, investigation requests have increased by 77% when compared to the average number of requests from July-Apr from the last four fiscal years. The combination of this increase in requests and the vacancies of the two Code Enforcement Technicians has reduced the overall percentage of Code Enforcement investigation requests investigated on time by over 20%, from 86.1% to 65.3%. The Code Enforcement Technician position is critical to enforcing lower-level violations, accounting for a high volume of ASK SLO calls for service—for example, neighborhood wellness and abandoned shopping carts. Our higher-level Code Enforcement Officers are Request to Hire – Fiscal Health Contingency Plan Page 3 busy responding to higher-level priority calls. Currently, they are being asked to address all calls, which is not a sustainable practice. Continued vacancy of this position eliminates all proactive enforcement. It has significantly impacted the current Code Enforcement Officers’ workload to the point that they cannot provide the level of service our community expects. 5. Is the recruitment for a regular or supplemental position? a. Regular Positions Only: Does the department believe this position can be hired through an EOP? There is a high probability that this position can be filled through an EOP. There are several positions throughout the city whose skill sets are transferable to this position. 6. Is there a way for this work to be done temporarily by consultants to reduce ongoing costs to the City? No, using consultants to perform a Code Enforcement Technician’s ongoing, regular work is more expensive. 7. What is the desired timeline for recruitment and hiring? It is preferable to recruit for this position as soon as possible. Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer (Recommendations 2 and 3) The temporary contract position of Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer was created in 2021 in response to deficiencies noted in the City’s Stormwater inspection program related to active construction sites. The position is responsible for ensuring private construction projects comply with State and Federal stormwater regulations. While the contract for this position is set to expire in June of 2023, the City is still required to maintain compliance with the current Phase II National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Stormwater (MS4) permit. Eliminating the Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer would result in the lack of documentation and enforcement required for the MS4 permit. The initial placement of this position under the Supervising Building Inspector was due to the available budget for staffing within the division and to provide effective training as it related to inspection procedures on construction sites. Since the contract would be extended, we recommend that the supervisor now be the current Code Enforcement Supervisor. The relocation of this position from under the Supervising Building Inspector to the Code Enforcement Supervisor allows for the necessary training and tools to be implemented for escalated enforcement to be successful. The Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer is critical in ensuring compliance with all state and federal stormwater regulations related to MS4 permitting. Sustained non-compliance with these regulations may result in civil liability of $10,000-$25,000 per day for each violation. This position is currently in place on a temporary contract basis under the direction of the Supervising Building Inspector and Chief Building Official. The position is responsible for ensuring private construction projects comply with State and Federal stormwater regulations Request to Hire – Fiscal Health Contingency Plan Page 4 related to the City’s MS4 permit. The Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer performs regular inspections of all applicable construction sites to verify that projects utilize best management practices and comply with Water Pollution Control Plans or Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans. The position is also responsible for inspecting the installation and maintenance of privately owned Stormwater Management Systems related to Post Construction Requirements for stormwater collection. Over the past 15 months, the current Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer has performed over 1,600 inspections and utilized verbal warnings and stop work orders to prevent escalated enforcement in the field. While this method has been largely successful, it was also necessitated by the lack of tools for escalated enforcement by the officer. The relocation of this position from under the Supervising Building Inspector to the Code Enforcement Supervisor allows for the necessary training and tools to be implemented for escalated enforcement to be successful. The ability to effectively enforce stormwater violations is critical for compliance with the City’s MS4 permit requirements. This position is critical for maintaining compliance with the requirements of the City’s MS4 permit. In 2020, the city received Notices of Violation from the Regional Water Quality Control Board citing violations and deficiencies revolving around maintenance, inspection , and field verification of Stormwater Control Plans, Water Quality Treatment, Peak Management Performance Requirements, and Post Construction Stormwater Requirements. The NOV clearly stated that continued violations would result in the imposition of civil liability for up to $10,000 per day for each violation. The current contract position was created in response to these violations and was assigned to remediate identified deficiencies. As part of the proposed reorganization, the previous C ode Enforcement Technician II/Safe Housing position will be used to help offset the cost associated with extending the contract for the Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer. The position will be assigned to respond to reports of private property drainage concerns and ensure compliance with stormwater regulations as described above. This assignment will help to alleviate a portion of the workload from the current officers as they will assume all substandard rental housing complaints, previously expected to be handled by the CET II/Safe Housing position. Furthermore, while using the tools and authority granted to the code enforcement team through the municipal code, the Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer will enforce substandard construction sites through the citation process. This shift in enforcement strategy should produce a new stream of revenue. If the City Manager approves the extension of the contract for the Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer and decides to fund it by leaving a Code Enforcement Technician position vacant, the City will need to meet and confer with SLOCEA before formally extend ing the employment contract for an additional year. As the existing contract for the Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer is scheduled to expire on June 30, 2023, the department will proceed with a three month contract extension to ensure that the incumbent can continue their work in enforcing compliance with state and federal stormwater regulations pertaining to MS4 permitting, while the department navigates through meet and confer requirements. Request to Hire – Fiscal Health Contingency Plan Page 5 FISCAL IMPACT The Building and Safety Division has had regular vacancies throughout FY 2023 without any requests to transfer salary savings into the operating budget for consultants. Rather, the Regular Salaries budget has been preserved with the strategic management of the division’s Other Contract Services budget. The estimated FY 2024 fully burdened annual rates for the two vacant Code Enforcement Technician II positions are currently budgeted at $88,636 and $85,841, respectively. The fully burdened rate for the contract position of Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer in FY2024 is estimated at $111,347. Code Enforcement Tech. II (40015) $85,841.27 FY2024 (Hire a I or II as soon as possible) Code Enforcement Tech. II (40049) $88,636.29 FY 2024 Vacant to fund SW Code Enf. Officer Contract Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer (40054) $111,347 FY 2024 Operating Cost of $22,710.17 if approved In order to extend the contract for the Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer, the Building and Safety Division will offset most of the cost by utilizing salary savings by leaving vacant a Code Enforcement Technician II position. The Building and Safety Division’s operating budget will absorb the remaining balance of roughly $23,000, and, if appropriate, additional salary savings from vacancies. Community Development understands this is not a sustainable long-term solution, and we are now developing a midyear fiscal proposal to present to management addressing the Building and Safety Code Enforcement staffing needs. ALTERNATIVES 1. Do not approve the recruitment of the Code Enforcement Technician ; While not filling either of the Code Enforcement Technicians positions will allow staff to fully offset the rate of the Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer through salary savings, this is not recommended since there is an increase in demand for code enforcement services with the implementation of the Ask SLO app and the new shopping cart ordinance. 2. Do not reorganize or extend the contract for the current Stormwater Code Enforcement Officer; This position is critical for maintaining compliance with the requirements of the City’s MS4 permit. The current contract position was created in response to violations and was assigned to remediate identified deficiencies. If this position is not extended, we may be responsible for violations that will be charged daily until violations are remedied.