Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, April 05, 2022
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER AN UPDATE AND PROVIDE DIRECTION ON THE BUILDING AND SAFETY SERVICES OPERATIONS PROVIDED BY LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS
Body
I. SUMMARY
This item is placed on the agenda at the request of Councilmember Bocatija Rojas, who requested staff examine the feasibility of providing Building and Safety services by City staff instead of through the County of Los Angeles ("LA County"). LA County has been providing Building and Safety services to the City of Carson since its incorporation in 1968. LA County provides plan check services and inspections, and issues permits to contractors which are required for the construction and occupancy of structures.
Currently LA County has nine full-time staff in City Hall including three Permit Technicians, two Building Plan Check Engineers (architectural and structural), three Building Inspectors (combination inspectors) and one Building Official (office manager). In addition to the staff provided on-site, there is access to and part-time utilization of Electrical Engineers, Mechanical/Plumbing Engineers, Geotechnical Engineers, Soils Engineers, Methane Gas Mitigation Engineers and Drainage and Grading Engineers. The cost to provide these services to the City is approximately $1,800,000 per year. In order to provide the same services by City staff, the City would have to hire at least nine full time staff members. In addition, the City would have to have access to approximately six part time City staff members (or on-call technical specialists) in the technical specialties indicated above. Staff estimates the nine full-time staff and six part-time-equivalent staff members to cost the City approximately $2,130,000 per year. If the transition were approved by the City Council, staff estimates the process of this conversion to take approximately 12 months. Job descriptions and salary ranges would have to be develop...
Click here for full text