Wednesday, Jul. 01, 2009
SLO Grand Jury: County code enforcement dawdles on high-profile cases, such as De Vaul's Sunny Acres
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closeCounty code enforcement officers have dawdled in their enforcement efforts at Dan De Vaul’s ranch and the Roandoak of God commune, according to a newly released report from the civil grand jury.
Describing the code enforcement division’s approach as “dilatory,” the grand jury wrote that enforcement against both places was “delayed beyond a reasonable time frame.”
The county’s “willingness…to act in a timely fashion was questionable,” the grand jury wrote.
“We have a formal response already sent to them,” Code enforcement officer Art Trinidade said a in an e-mail to The Tribune.
“They hand picked three cases out of the thousands we have in order to fit their preconceived agenda. What a waste of time and money.
“Our opinion, bolstered by actual facts, (is) quite the opposite of their conclusions,” Trinidade wrote.
The grand jury recommended “increased review and oversight” of its code enforcement division “to ensure prompt and consistent attention to difficult” cases.
It also recommended including homeless shelters, group homes and residential recovery facilities in county land use regulations.
The 19-member county civil grand jury, composed of citizen volunteers, investigates complaints about county government brought forth by other citizens. Its recommendations are not binding, but the departments it investigates must file a formal response with Superior Court.
The current grand jury ended its term June 30, releasing eight reports simultaneously.
Grand jurors noted that county code enforcement’s “dedicated and professional staff” investigates hundreds of complaints yearly, and concludes most of them “in a fair and timely fashion.”
But some become tangled, high-profile cases, and the grand jury looked at three of those that it declared “unique. . . . .cases that have festered over time.”
The grand jury did not name any of the three, but the circumstances of each report made clear to which sites they were referring, including: * Dan De Vaul’s controversial 72-acre ranch just west of the San Luis Obispo city limits;
*Roandoak of God, a Morro Bay commune at the end of Chorro Creek Road that has existed for more than three decades, changing hands several times;
*The Oceanside Inn in San Simeon, home to dozens of maids, cooks, and other workers who undergird the North Coast tourist industry.
Return to sanluisobispo.com or read Thursday's edition of The Tribune for more on this story.
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