Supervisor Anthony Botelho acknowledged Monday that the county
needs
”
improvement
”
in its code enforcement efforts and that questions still remain
surrounding which agencies had jurisdiction to follow up on
complaints at the Eagle Recycling facility where last week’s fire
occurred.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho acknowledged Monday that the county needs “improvement” in its code enforcement efforts and that questions still remain surrounding which agencies had jurisdiction to follow up on complaints at the Eagle Recycling facility where last week’s fire occurred.
Officials with the state, county and city all were aware of complaints that preceded the Aug. 3 fire at Eagle Recycling. What remains unclear is whether the county fire department – San Benito contracts with Calfire for those services – had the authority to enforce county code violations at the plant.
“That’s still in question, in my mind,” said Botelho, who represents the district where the fire happened.
He noted how he met with the Calfire division chief Monday over the code matters. Calfire officials contend they lacked authority to enforce the codes. Botelho acknowledged, though, that the county by precedent has handled the code issues. The supervisor said the county and state plan to work on solidifying protocol for enforcing violations.
“I’ve always thought Calfire or county fire would have the ability to enforce the county fire code,” Botelho said. “A fire marshal would. They (Calfire) are saying they don’t.”
Regarding the Eagle fire in particular, Botelho said there apparently had been “too much of a fire load” there prior to the blaze.
One possible solution from Botelho’s perspective is improvement to the code enforcement division, under the planning department. He said it is an area that “needs a little bit more resources” in the county.
The fire to Eagle last week, he said, is “devastating to that business”.
“We’re trying to be business friendly in this county,” he said. “At the same time, we have to make sure public safety needs are the utmost priority.”
One other supervisor reached before press time, Reb Monaco, pointed out how the plant falls in Botelho’s district and that he understood his District 2 counterpart was investigating the topic. He said he is aware of questions over jurisdiction.
