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To: Butte County Residents/Engineers/and Development Services Customers From: Tim Snellings, Director, Butte County Department of Development Services Date: 2009-01-13 Subject: Plan Check Services in Butte County This is sort of a 'good news/bad news' update. Butte County and the Department of Development Services are experiencing a financial crisis. This is going to have a significant impact on how the department provides services to our customers. In the case of the Plan Check engineer, we have found a way to keep the position employed 32 hours per week. During that time, our engineer is tasked with billing his time to projects/permits. Therefore, unless your project is undergoing Plan Check and not yet approved, you will have to deposit funds (either online or in the office) to speak with him. Our engineer will only be working on projects with billable hours. This is not by any means ideal, but it is the only way that we can keep this position within the department. If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact me. Email: tsnellings@buttecounty.net Direct Phone Number: 530.538.6821 To: Butte County Residents/Engineers/and Development Services Customers From: Tim Snellings, Director, Butte County Department of Development Services Date: 2008-12-23 Subject: Plan Check Services in Butte County In an effort to maintain transparency in local government, I wanted to take a moment to update our customers on the 'process' we have undertaken to respond to the current immense economic downturn. Specifically, in our department, we have seen a dramatic reduction in the Building Division's revenues. In preparing for this fiscal year's budget, we set our departmental revenue estimates more than $1 million below last year’s. We've also been keeping a 'close eye' on our expenditures. Even with these strategies, we've identified the need for further staff reductions/layoffs. I say 'further' because we had already reduced our staffing by 11 positions at the beginning of the fiscal year. One of the positions identified for layoff, due to reduced workload/lack of billable hours, is that of our Plan Check Engineer. As a result of this strategy that I offered to the Butte County Board of Supervisors on December 16, 2008, I have received several comments and criticisms from the local engineering community. They have expressed their appreciation for the hard work and excellent service provided by our Plan Check Engineer. This has been great news for me to hear as I highly value 'customer service'. Several of them expressed how much they appreciate the ability to call and speak directly to our Plan Check Engineer and ask him Code & Engineering questions. Again, this is an excellent service that is provided. However, the problem is that this service is NOT funded. The person in this position is tasked with billing his time for structural and plan check review to Plans that have been submitted. However, billable hours for this type of work have been greatly reduced...so we have a problem. As a result of your input (meeting with the engineers/contractors/BIA and phone calls), I continue to explore a variety of strategies to keep our Plan Check Engineer on staff. These include increasing this position's billable hours which would change the way that we provide these engineering services to our customers, but still allow us to have 'in house' Plan Check Engineering services. However, I'm still trying to 'get the numbers to work'. I should have a final strategy developed by the first week of the New Year...please stay tuned. I truly appreciate all of the input I have received from the professional community on this matter. Please understand that I and my staff have heard your concerns and are continuing to weigh our options in this time of extreme financial crisis. Our goal is to continue to provide the best service possible to our customers and we take your concerns very seriously. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me via email or phone. Email: tsnellings@buttecounty.net Direct Phone Number: 530.538.6821 |