REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on a Resolution Acknowledging Receipt by City Council of a State-Mandated Compliance Report on Required Annual Fire Inspections of Certain Occupancies
Report
BACKGROUND
Senate Bill (SB) 1205, which became effective in September 2018, enhanced an existing law that required every city or county fire department or district providing fire protection services to annually inspect specific residential occupancies, including hotels, motels, boarding houses, apartment houses, fraternities, sororities, congregate residences, and similar for compliance with building standards, within the jurisdiction (HSC ?13146.2). Existing law also requires annual inspection of every building used as a K-12th grade public or private school within the jurisdiction (HSC ?13146.3). SB 1205 creates a new mandatory process whereby fire departments present a report annually to their governing authority regarding compliance with safety inspection requirements. SB 1205 further requires the governing authority to acknowledge receipt of the report via resolution or other similar formal document. Within the city of Santa Clara, for calendar year 2018, there were 1396 occupancies required to be inspected under the current state regulations.
DISCUSSION
Senate Bill 1205 requires an inspection status report to be given to Council during its annual budget discussions (or at another time determined by Council), and that Council acknowledge receipt of the report in the manner described above.
As part of the adoption of the FY 2017/18 Budget, the City Council approved upgrading two (2) historic half-time positions responsible for these specific inspections to two (2) full-time Fire Prevention Specialist I positions resulting in three (3) full-time positions dedicated to the inspection program. With the additional resources, the Fire Department is pleased to report that these new positions enabled completion of 97.3% of the 37 public and private schools, and 99....
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