Lack of inspectors causes bottleneck

City considers salary boost to lure qualified people

See “People are in high demand, and we know we’ll never compete with the highest levels of pay, but we can come within spitting distance.” — SamLiccardo,

San Jose mayor

SAN JOSE — A shortage of city building inspectors is causing cramps for developers and has officials looking to get more competitive, salary- wise, as fast as possible to ease a bottleneck during a construction boom.

“Competition is fierce in the private sector as they continue to build projects like BART and spaceship campuses throughout the valley,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo, who is asking staff to act quickly to retain employees and encourage new hires. “We recognize the need to better compete to enable us to better serve our customers.”

It’s particularly bad in the area of electrical inspectors, where out of 17 positions, only six are filled. Harry Freitas, San Jose’s director of planning, building and code enforcement, said the city has been triaging customers, having supervisors do inspections. Employees are working evenings and weekends.

The city is also contracting with retired electrical inspectors, but all the efforts haven’t been enough. “Appointments for electrical inspections are beyond five days out,” Liccardo stated in a memo for Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where the proposal was approved unanimously,