LAKE COUNTY — “I”m smiling again,” said the county”s former Community Development Director Mary Jane Fagalde. She had a noticeable lilt in her voice as she explained why she recently stepped down from the position.
In her place, former assistant director Rick Coel was appointed Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors to take the community development reigns.
Fagalde explained that she had been wearing two hats: until recently, she acted simultaneously as the county”s CDD director and as building official, head of the Building and Safety Division within the county”s Community Development Department.
“It became too much for one person to do. Now I”m able to focus on one thing,” she said.
As the county”s CDD director, Fagalde oversaw the functions of the Planning, Code Compliance and Building and Safety divisions within the department. Fagalde noted that when she stepped up to fill the vacant position four years ago, her current role as building official took a back burner.
“We were looking at what we needed to make the department run as effectively as possible,” Fagalde said of the recent staffing reorganization. She citied upcoming projects, new code requirements coming down from the state and the Board of Supervisors” direction to take back jurisdiction of mobile home parks that are now inspected and licensed by the state as major reasons for the need.
“We feel that because there”s one state inspector for our county plus several other counties, the citizens of Lake County are not being served well,” she explained.
In response to the need, the Board of Supervisors recently decided to hire a full-time Building Official. “When the board approved it, I realized I wanted to do that full-time,” said Fagalde, adding that she has been in construction for 23 years. “I”m once again doing what I m best at and giving the county what they deserve,” she said.
Fagalde now oversees the Building and Safety division within the CDD, administering the division”s building permit revenue funded budget, training staff and providing documentation in relation to adopting the new code regulations, among other things. She also handles some of the more controversial building inspections, she said, mediates disputes between owners and contractors, and will be enforcing the recently adopted storm water runoff ordinance. Fagalde said that what she enjoys the most about her role as building official is “to help people go from plans on paper to a roof over their head — it”s the American dream.”
Fagalde said that her stepping down and Rick Coel”s stepping up is a sort of role reversal, although she said they will continue to work as a team.
Coel is also in a dual role since his appointment, and told the Record-Bee Thursday that he has been feeling the consequent pressure for about a month now.
“Suddenly I became directly responsible for 38 people rather than 15,” said Coel. He was appointed as interim CDD director Oct. 17, four weeks after Fagalde notified the county of her intention to change roles.
Coel said one of his priorities is to find a replacement for himself in the role of assistant planning director. He still officially occupies the spot, which he said needs to change in the near future.
Coel identified the CDD”s priorities as he saw them. Among them is the General Plan update, which governs land use and how and where future development may occur county-wide, and has been in the works in Lake County for the past four years. State regulations require counties to update their General Plan about once every 20 years. A recent focus of that has been the Rivieras Area Plan, which addresses zoning and land use for a portion of Kelseyville. In the Building and Safety Division, the new codes coming down from the state will require working with Fagalde to assure their proper administration.
Coel said he also will be working with Code Enforcement Officer Voris Brumfield in her continued effort to address old nuisance abatement cases within the county, which she has been working on since her appointment in June.
Plans regarding the future of Lake County”s General Plan should be available at the county”s Web site, said Coel, if not today, then in the next few days.
“We want people to attend the public workshops we”re going to hold; we want feedback,” said Coel. He noted that the times and locations of those hearings will be announced.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
