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CHAIR: All right. And that committee said that it would be most interesting if you would <br />come and address all of us, so here you are, and we're ready to hear what you have to <br />say. <br />LEONARD: All right. Well, thank you very much. It's great to have the opportunity to <br />be here before you and to share with you some recommendations to the committee. I've <br />been with the county for three years. I am a zoning inspector with the Planning <br />Department. As a zoning inspector, that takes me out into the community for a wide <br />variety of complaints that are generated by community members. And the <br />recommendations that I have proposed are basically a result of my three years of <br />experience of being what I typically tell people is that I'm an adult playground <br />supervisor. So what I would like to do, if it is your wish, is to go through each of the <br />eight suggestions. And then if there are any questions that you have, please go ahead as <br />we go through each one, and ask them. <br />The first one is in regards to having the county consolidate its enforcement process. <br />Currently the Building Department has building inspectors that handle complaints. The <br />Planning Department has individuals that handle complaints with regards to land use. <br />Environmental Management has issues, but currently they have no one that handles their <br />complaints. The Department of Health has people that handles issues with regards to <br />vector control, but currently they have no one that is going out there and addressing <br />those issues because of budgetary restraints. So the recommendation here is to take all <br />our enforcement responsibilities and consolidate it into one office. And there are a lot of <br />benefits to that. Number one, with respect to the community. If I go out and do an <br />inspection and I find that it's an illegal structure, I will then forward that information on <br />to the Building Department and then they will send out an inspector and then address the <br />issues with regards to an illegal structure. If there are issues that are environmental, <br />then we contact the Environmental Department of Environmental Management. If there <br />are health issues, we contact the so you can see for the public out there, they could <br />suddenly be faced with several different representatives from government coming out <br />there and saying here's where you're wrong, this is the problem that you need to correct. <br />They'll end up with different letters from every different department. They'll end up with <br />different schedules. They may end up with different sets of fines. If we consolidate that <br />under one department, then it's one -stop shopping. The County only issues one letter, <br />does one inspection. The person out in the community only has to deal with one <br />representative. So it streamlines the process significantly. Before I came to work for the <br />county, I owned a company called Pali Uh Home Inspection, and I used to do inspections <br />as a business for people that wanted to determine what was the condition of their home. <br />So as an inspector, I understood foundation work, I understood framing, I understood <br />plumbing, I understood electrical. So I was able to look at the whole structure and give <br />you an evaluation on that. And I was certified nationally to be able to do that work. So it <br />is possible to take our inspectors, who are right now compartmentalized I only deal <br />with building, I only deal with land use, I only deal with health and bring them to a <br />point in which they're able to address all these issues. Now with regards to the <br />Department of Health, that's a state organization, but we probably could work under <br />some sort of contractual agreement to be able to do some of the issues with respect to the <br />state, meaning that we could be their eyes the first eyes on sight to be able to look at <br />3 <br />