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Orange County funds engineers and technicians to speed health department plan reviews
Summary
The Orange County Legislature approved hires in the Health Department intended to cut engineering plan-review times from roughly 45–60 days toward a 30-day goal by adding engineers, technicians and support staff; officials said growth in projects and complex regulation are driving the request.
Orange County legislators approved a package of health department hires on May 19 intended to shorten plan-review times for public-health engineering work.
Deputy Commissioner of Health Lisa Lehi said the county has asked the health department to deliver plan reviews in 30 days; "right now, we are at about 45 to 60 days," she said. The Legislature voted to create public health engineering and technician positions and to use contingency funds to cover initial salaries.
The hires aim to address a steep rise in submissions, Lehi said: the department logged 341 plan submissions in February 2012, 533 last year and 63 in the first quarter of the current year — "so we're on pace for over 600 projects to be submitted this year," she said. The department said many projects require repeated back-and-forth reviews that extend overall turnaround time.
Principal engineer Steve Gangan described the work mix: engineers perform office plan review and conduct site visits for soil testing and inspections of more than 500 regulated water systems countywide. Gangan said some reviews are short (for example, backflow-prevention devices) while others, such as subdivisions, can require multiple, lengthy review cycles.
Committee members pressed department staff on alternatives to hiring, including using higher-level process-improvement work (Lean Six Sigma) to reduce steps and reallocating duties so technicians handle some non-engineering tasks. Lehi said the proposal already includes a mix of engineers, technicians and a regulatory-assistant position to offload paperwork and freedom-of-information and compliance requests from engineers.
The approved items included: creation of three public health engineer (grade 14) positions, two public health technician (grade 11) positions and one principal clerk (grade 7) plus a funded director-of-regulatory-assistance slot reallocated from a previously funded but unfilled director of environmental health post. Lehi said the proposed 2025 starting salary for a grade-14 public health engineer is roughly $78,009 and that roughly one-third of the initial costs are expected to be covered by state aid.
Lawmakers asked for follow-up detail: clearer breakdowns showing projected cost versus overtime savings, the fee revenue assumptions the department used, and whether reassigning technician duties could reduce the number of engineers requested. Several legislators urged a formal Lean Six Sigma review of the process before or concurrent with hiring, but most said staffing increases were justified by the workload and voted to approve the requests.
The committee's approval carries immediate budget implications: department staff said contingency funds will cover the positions initially and that the hires are intended to reduce reliance on overtime that has sustained the workload in prior years.
