San Andreas, CA — In a new report entitled “Communication is a Two-Way Street,” the Calaveras Grand Jury examines the county’s code compliance division’s handling of citizen complaint submissions and requests for follow-up information on open cases.
The Grand Jury, a citizens’ watchdog, reports, “inconsistencies in acknowledging the receipt of submitted complaints leaves some citizens doubting whether their complaints are received and taken seriously. Others are frustrated by the difficulty of obtaining an update on an open case from Code Compliance staff.”
Compliance in the county is complaint-driven, meaning the local government relies on the public to identify possible safety and nuisance code violations.
Continuing, “The Civil Grand Jury also found that insufficient staffing is a major factor contributing to the lack of or slow response time, as Code Compliance is considered fully staffed at five employees but currently has only one full-time employee out of two who is dedicated to code enforcement. Meanwhile, the number of complaints Code Compliance receives has been steadily increasing.”
Below are the findings and recommendations identified in the report:
Finding 1: Code Compliance does not have a consistent mechanism in place to acknowledge and confirm the receipt of citizen complaints by all methods of submittal (email, posted mail, and in person), leaving some concerned citizens unsure whether their complaints are even received.
Response 1: Calaveras County Civil Grand Jury recommends Code Compliance adopt a system of acknowledging and confirming to the complainant that their complaint has been received, including a case number if a case is opened, for all methods of complaint submittal, to be implemented by December 31, 2025.
Finding 2: Code Compliance’s citizen complaint form and website create a reasonable expectation that a complainant’s request for follow-up information will be answered in a timely and professional manner. Yet Code Compliance’s Policy and Procedure Manual lacks guidance regarding Code Enforcement Officers’ obligations, if any, to respond to complainants requesting follow-ups on their cases.
Response 2A: Calaveras County Civil Grand Jury recommends Code Compliance, in order to better adhere to their stated core values, institute a clear procedure for responding to complainant requests for follow-up information by December 31, 2025.
Response 2B: Calaveras County Civil Grand Jury recommends Code Compliance follow their stated core values to treat every interaction as an opportunity to educate, and respond in a timely and professional manner to complainant requests for follow-up information regarding complaint cases, beginning no later than December 31, 2025.
Finding 3: With staff vacancy rates frequently at 20% or higher, Code Compliance is operating at staff levels insufficient to handle its high case load, leading to cases taking longer to be resolved, if they are deemed a high enough priority to be addressed at all.
Response 3: Calaveras County Civil Grand Jury recommends Code Compliance hire additional Code Enforcement Officers to bring Code Compliance up to fully staffed levels, that being five employees, by December 31, 2025.
The full report on code compliance can be found here.
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