Over the past two years, Hollister code officials have boosted
enforcement of illegal dwellings
– homes often riddled by crowding and inhumane conditions.
But with a proposal to lay off 36 Hollister employees
– including much of the Building Division and the only code
enforcement officer – they fear that momentum will halt, the perils
of substandard housing will mount.
Over the past two years, Hollister code officials have boosted enforcement of illegal dwellings – homes often riddled by crowding and inhumane conditions.
But with a proposal to lay off 36 Hollister employees – including much of the Building Division and the only code enforcement officer – they fear that momentum will halt, the perils of substandard housing will mount.
“It’s done a lot of good,” said senior building inspector Allen Contival of increased efforts to curb substandard housing. “Code enforcement, as far as I know, is not going to be anymore.”
Building officials say the problem has snowballed here in recent years, with a large contingent of low-paid farm workers living in a community where housing costs have skyrocketed.
The city had been making strides to catch up, to at least create a presence, officials say. Hollister hired its first code enforcement officer, Tim Burns, in March 2002. Months later, the Council passed an ordinance to fine landlords who house tenants in substandard conditions.
And with a sewer moratorium in effect since May 2002, building inspectors – responsible for approving new properties and addressing complaints on existing homes – have focused more on closing down illegal dwellings.
Since late 2001, there have been 411 violations of the building code, according to division records. Of those, 117 cases are still open.
The “reduction in force” (RIF) plan, though, would terminate three of five Building Division inspectors. They include the division’s head – Building Official Ray Proffitt, along with a senior building inspector and a building inspector.
And the code enforcement officer, Burns, would also be cut. He declined to comment for this story.
That would leave two inspectors and a secretary in the division – a prospect they believe would end the crackdown on illegal units.
“There’s no way two people can run this office,” said Building Inspector David Tietz.
Added inspector Kurt Bridwell: “You can’t get sick. You can’t take a day off.”
Like the other employees in the 175-person workforce, they knew of the pending layoffs for several months.
The plan emphasizes cuts to the Community Development Department – which includes the Building and Code Enforcement divisions – because fewer permits have been issued during the moratorium, according to the city manager.
Building inspectors acknowledged the drop-off in duties associated with new permits. The division conducted 30 or more inspections a day before the moratorium. Now they do about 12-15 of them, Proffitt said.
But inspectors have been plenty busy, they claim, with the uglier side of the occupation.
“In other words, we just shifted to investigations and complaints,” Tietz said. “We’re able to handle them a lot more efficiently than before.”
Before that shift in duties, Contival said, “The issue of illegal housing has been, to a large degree, ignored for a long time.”
When potential violations have been brought to the city’s attention, building inspectors have accompanied Burns to those locations.
This past year in particular, some of the worst reported cases of substandard housing in city history were exposed.
In January, officials condemned a house and garage conversion at 27 East St. lodging two families of 18 Mexicans. Among the conditions of the crammed home – plywood covered windows, garbage had been scattered, extension cords lined the floor. Inspectors found a pit-bull skeleton buried under a pile of junk.
Those conditions – and even worse – have festered in Hollister, officials say.
“As we have gotten into it, we are finding there is a very big inventory of illegal housing out there,” Contival said.
In May, the city busted former county Supervisor Harold Cerrato for housing five farmworkers in a broken down house with no sanitation and numerous health hazards. Their compensation for working Cerrato’s orchards, officials believed, was that residence.
The city ordered he tear it down and pay the men $8,000 for relocation costs. Proffitt said it was the worst case of substandard housing in his five years as Hollister’s building official.
That type of enforcement, inspectors believe, will end. And other less drastic preventative efforts will also curtail, they said.
Contival called the likely changes a “life safety issue.” Bridwell agreed and said quality of some neighborhoods would likely decline.
“How do you put a number on how many fires were prevented?” he said.
Furthermore, Proffitt pointed out insurance ratings that determine rates for area residents are based on two factors: Strength of fire protection and depth of the Building Division.
If a town doesn’t maintain a code enforcement officer or building official, he said, “it adversely affects the city’s (Insurance Services Office) rating.”
Proffitt, who was among 30 people to speak at the heated Jan. 12 meeting on the layoff issue, said he’s not necessarily fighting for his position.
“But I think it’s ill conceived,” Proffitt said, “to get rid of the guys that are actually trying to make the City of Hollister a better place to live.”
