2010-11-17 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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to a one -day service, and they got 30 days to correct it. So it cleans up that process a little bit. So there's a lot of nice ways of streamlining the way we're doing code enforcement right now. O'HARA: Another question. To do this, have you investigated what changes we would have to make to our County Code in order for something like this to be brought forward? LEONARD: Well, there's a lot of changes to the County Code and to the Charter that we would have to make, yes. And I have not delved into that, because we need the political will behind it before we'll really start moving towards that. And I think that's kind of where we're at right now, is do we really want to improve the process and make changes? O 'HARA: Thank you. CHAIR: For this you're talking about both commercial and residential use? LEONARD: Yes. CHAIR: And soI notice you didn't say anything about liquor, and Liquor Control does their own enforcement inspections. Is that also sort of part of this, or - ? LEONARD: Well you know, that's never crossed my mind liquor enforcement. But once you create an enforcement agency, you may find that it takes on additional responsibilities. Give you another example. Right now we have a situation in the Planning Department where we issue special permits. And on those special permits are conditions for those people to comply with. There is no real tracking system on those conditions. The tracking system is some neighbor who is opposed to the project in the first place watching them and what they're doing, and then suddenly they're doing something that they shouldn't be doing, based on a condition, and they file a complaint. And then we look at the complaint, and that basically goes back to the planners in the Planning Commission division, and then they have to take it up with the Planning Commission. But in the future we may say, when we establish these conditions, then that falls once the special permit is issued, then that responsibility falls over into the enforcement department. And then and if it's automated, then it's just a matter of when I'm out in the field, Igo someplace and I say, do they have illegal parking, do they have the proper landscaping, all the other different kinds of conditions we put on, and if so then fine. Then we come back and note it. If there is a problem, then we can address it right on site. We can say I'm going to give you a ticket because you are violating condition number 6 O'HARA: So at this point we don't maintain a data base of those special permits in a manner that you could look on line and say, oh, there 's five or six sites that I can check while I'm out that way. LEONARD. No, it's all hard -copy paper that's put in the TvIK files. And once the permit is issued, there's no one that really tracks it. Con