The Archuleta County Development Services departments currently have a total of five vacant positions between the Building Department, Planning Department and Code Enforcement Department.
Interim Development Director Owen O’Dell provided the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) with a brief update on the departments during a work session held on Tuesday, Aug.19.
“With the vacancies and backlog, and obviously the contract with AEC-West, I was asked to give an update on Development Services in its entirety,” he said.
The BoCC previously approved a contract with AEC-West Consultants unanimously during its Aug. 5 regular meeting for the purpose of assisting the county with building inspections and plan review services.
During the Aug. 19 work session, O’Dell provided his update broken down by each department, beginning with the Planning Department, noting it has three vacancies. Those vacancies are for the development director, planning manager and planner 1 positions.
O’Dell noted there are four applicants “in the queue” for the planning manager position, but that none of them are qualified.
He also noted that the planner 1 position has been offered to someone and is going through the hiring process with Human Resources.
He went on to explain that “as far as day-to-day process goes for the planning department,” he estimates it is currently three weeks behind on projects.
Citizens are experiencing troubles with use-by-right permits being three to five weeks behind, O’Dell explained.
He mentioned that short-term rental permits are three weeks behind as well, with 108 outstanding permits.
“We’re typically about 20 behind,” he added.
O’Dell noted that addressing, lot consolidation and variance requests are all one to two weeks behind, with subdivision reviews currency three to four weeks behind.
He also mentioned that general inquiries are about one week behind and that “we’re addressing those as we can,” noting he accumulated 22 voicemails in one day.
O’Dell then explained there is one vacancy in the Building Department, with that being the chief building official.
He mentioned there are currently five candidates for the position, one of whom has the appropriate qualifications.
He noted that, as of Aug. 18, a total of 17 plan reviews had been sent to AEC-West and that the county has yet to receive one completed review.
O’Dell mentioned that building permits used to get approved within three weeks of submission, but now, “we’re now turning permits out in four to six weeks.”
He commented that having a second building inspector/official would “definitely” be helpful.
O’Dell also provided information in regard to the county’s insurance rating.
“Additionally, staff identified that the Insurance Service Office rated Archuleta County’s application of building code at nine out of 10, with 10 being the worst score,” he said, explaining, “The building code effectiveness rating schedule assesses the building code’s effect in particular communities, as well as how well the community enforces that code.
“The importance of this grading schedule is this has a direct impact on the cost of insurance and disaster insurance for homeowners in Archuleta County.”
The last vacancy that O’Dell highlighted was the code enforcement officer vacancy, explaining that there is one enforcement officer for the Building Department and one for the Planning Department.
He noted there are five candidates for the open position, all of whom could be trained.
O’Dell mentioned that the county had one enforcement officer begin at the end of June and that “his workload is heavy, and he’s had to tap into a substantial amount of overtime that will soon hit the budgeted limit.”
The Water Quality Department “is our only department that is not behind currently,” O’Dell said, explaining, “They haven’t lost any employees.”
The BoCC did not have any questions in regard to O’Dell’s update at the work session.
clayton@pagosasun.com
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