MEMORANDUM

To:     Mike Wildgen

          City Manager

From: Debbie Van Saun

          Asst. City Manager

Re:     Zoning Enforcement Manager position

Date:  June 23, 2005

During the June 15, 2005 budget study session, Commissioner Schauner had questions about staff’s recommendation to include the Zoning Enforcement Manager position in the 2006 budget.  As you know, this position, along with an additional building inspector position was included in the Neighborhood Resources Department’s program improvements portion of their submitted 2006 budget recommendations.  This memo provides additional information that will address concerns/questions about this recommendation.

The Zoning Enforcement Manager position was the number one ranked program improvement of the budget proposed by Victor Torres, Director of the Neighborhood Resources Department.  Adding this position in 2006 has the following advantages:

· Due to the restructuring proposed along with this position request, there will be no additional “management” or supervisory personnel added to the department.  The current position of Inspection Supervisor (direct supervisor of the building inspectors) will be converted to a Plans Examiner position in 2006.  The Plans Examiner position plus all the building inspector position will report directly to the current Code Enforcement Manager.

· Adding the position of Zoning Enforcement Manager will allow the Code Enforcement Manager to focus his supervisory duties on a smaller group of staff.  Anticipated results will include opportunity for more complete plan review, more timely plan review, attention to the review and processing of the contractor licensing program (added to the staff responsibilities in 2005), and more time in the field to assist with code enforcement related items/issues.

·  Staff that will be supervised by the new Zoning Enforcement Manager will have a full time supervisory to attend to the supervisory duties of that division of the department.  Examples of increased effectiveness will include code interpretation, appropriate ADA compliance, uniform attention to the enforcement of the sign code, field assessments of inspection/enforcement activities, and a shift from complaint-initiated to enforcement-initiated operations.

The Building Inspector/Permit Technician position that was also submitted by Victor as a 2006 program improvement would not be a field-oriented position.  Rather, it was envisioned that the position would be responsible for working with permit applications, issuing permits, tracking inspections and ensuring inactive permits were properly closed out.  While the position would improve the department’s ability to process permit applications in a timely fashion and track construction projects through to completion, the greater need for the department is in the aforementioned manager position.

Staff recommends the inclusion of the additional position of Zoning Enforcement Manager to the 2006 budget.  Thank you for this opportunity to address this issue.