City Hall is understaffed, they say
Builders in Santa Monica want better customer service in City Hall and are willing to pay for it — whatever the cost.
Developers, architects and officials from the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce said the lack of competent and trained building inspectors is killing their businesses.
“I want to pay more taxes and permit fees,” Craig Jones, one of largest developers in Santa Monica, recently told the City Council. “We need to properly staff the building and safety department.”
City Hall’s planning department has been under heavy scrutiny in the past several months — with criticism from the building community that the process is overly bureaucratic. But a new report reveals that the real problem is the department is seriously understaffed — a notion that planning director Suzanne Frick acknowledges.
The chamber recently conducted its own audit of the planning department through two different methods. One was an analysis that measured how Santa Monica compares to other cities — which proved to be woefully inadequate. The other was an in-depth review of the process by confidentially interviewing architects and builders, the primary users of the department.
What they found was that City Hall is severely understaffed and should hire at least 14 more people — from plan checkers to building inspectors. And because cities have legal authority to charge fees for both plan checks and building inspections to ensure proper service, chamber officials conclude there is no reason for the continuing problems developers face on a daily basis.
“Because of this, there is simply no excuse for the slow, shoddy service which has become more the rule than the exception in Santa Monica,” states a chamber report given to the Council last month. “Project applicants would be willing to pay for quality service because the cost of slow, poor-quality service is far greater than the true cost of paying for enough qualified staff.”
Jones, who heads JSM Builders and is the developer of numerous projects throughout the city, said the worker shortage in City Hall unnecessarily causes him excessive and costly delays.
39D,“Inspectors are overworked and at their wit’s end,” Jones said. “It’s prolonging construction projects by more than a third. What should take 18 months takes two years.”
Council members acknowledged Jones’ and others’ frustrations. They will direct staff members to pursue what kind of fee hikes would be necessary to provide the suggested new hires. At least one of them — Councilman Herb Katz, who is an architect — believes that the city is at risk of losing new development and the resulting tax revenue that comes from it.
“People are going away because they can’t operate that way, both large and small businesses,” he said.
Jones also told the Council that if life becomes much more difficult here, he’ll pull his business out of Santa Monica.
“You are driving us out of the city,” he said. “Maybe there are people who want to drive us out, but we pay over $1 million in school tax and over $4 million in water fees.”
In a 20-page report, the chamber made a series of recommendations that City Hall should consider. Among them:
• Hire five to seven more building inspectors, and five to seven plan checkers. Of those interviewed, the overwhelming complaint was slow turnaround — too much lag time to get appointments, too much time to complete inspections and too much time to get follow-up appointments.
“Only with adequate staff can the city realistically expect staff to process applications or inspect buildings promptly and to take the time to meet with applicants, return their phone calls and respond to inquiries in a timely fashion,” the report states.
• Use common sense and be accessible. Interviewees reported that plan checkers frequently failed to return phone calls and are unavailable to meet in person, which exacerbates timing and communication problems, they say.
Builders report that City Hall requests conflicting revisions or they’re too late in the process. The staff also fails to identify significant issues until very late in the process and will re-check each others’ work, which generates additional modifications. They say different staff members will apply different and conflicting interpretations of city requirements to the same project. There also is confusion as to which department made which comments, which leads to duplication and delays, builders claim. They also are frustrated when staff refuses to honor previously approved plans and city law “gives it nearly unfettered authority to require changes to approved plans at any point in the process.”
• State appropriate turnaround policies. The city’s stated goals are to complete its initial plan check review in six weeks, follow-up review within three weeks and a third review within one week. Interviewees reported that although the city sometimes makes the initial six-week deadline, it’s extremely rare to receive subsequent plan check comments or approvals within the time period established, the report states.
637,• Make an early “one stop” meeting available for a fee. Interviewees support the idea of a formal initial meeting at the beginning of the process so applicants can sit down with representatives of various agencies within City Hall to get a preliminary “read” as to what parameters and standards apply to the project. Cities like Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Culver City employ this practice, builders say.
• Establish performance standards. Next-day inspections are indispensable features of quality service, the report concluded. Next-day inspections are readily available in all other cities surveyed (West Hollywood, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Pasadena), according to the chamber.
• Properly train employees. Interviewees noted that inspectors frequently lack the level of expertise needed to properly inspect a project. The chamber asked the city to consider the system used in Los Angeles — where inspectors specialize in specific areas like plumbing or electrical.
• Make building inspections available on all Fridays. City Hall is closed every other Friday as a part of a statewide effort to reduce emissions by commuters. Workers there are expected to work longer hours during the weeks City Hall is closed.
“Because the city can pass the full costs of these services through to applicants, the city’s overall budget situation is no excuse for poor customer service stemming from inadequate staffing,” the report concludes. “The city can and should provide excellent customer service in a budget-neutral fashion.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 9, 2004. Read the original PDF.