Santa Rosa extends contract for processing permits during Tubbs fire rebuilding

Santa Rosa leaders gave a full-throated vote endorsement for ?consultant-backed efforts to help residents rebuild homes they lost in the October 2017 firestorm.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to extend Santa Rosa’s contract with the Bureau Veritas North America consulting firm through 2020 for an additional $3 million. The contract pays for 16 full-time Bureau Veritas staffers to process paperwork filed by homeowners rebuilding from the October 2017 wildfires through 2020 - with nearly 700 homeowners in Fountaingrove and Coffey Park yet to embark on rebuild efforts, according to city staff.

The move will require the city to dip into its general reserves, but council members expressed confidence in expanding the consulting deal after city employees outlined plans to scale down consultant staffing as more homes were rebuilt and as rebuild activity tapered off.

“You guys have been walking the talk,” Mayor Tom Schwedhelm told city staff after they recommended the contract extension. “This is a lot of money, but I’m very confident in your fiscal management.”

The expansion to the Bureau Veritas contract, first approved in November 2017, increased its total multiyear value to about $13.7 million, according to city documents. Half of the new costs are expected to be covered by revenue generated by permit applications, with the other half being paid for by current general reserves and spending in next year’s budget.

Most of the 699 destroyed homes that were not in the rebuild process as of mid-November are in the Fountaingrove area, according to city data. More than 150 of those inactive sites have been sold to other individuals, investors or home builders, leaving about 75% still in possession of the owner of record as of Oct. 8, 2017, per a city analysis of property records.

The October 2017 firestorm, led in destruction by the Tubbs fire, destroyed more than 3,100 ?homes, businesses and other buildings within the city on nearly 2,700 ?parcels. Permit records show rebuild activity on almost 2,000 of those parcels, with new permits spiking at 219 in May 2018, fluctuating in late 2018 and declining over 2019 to a low of 21 in September.

Meanwhile, inspection activity - dramatically higher than staff estimates - peaked at 4,263 in March before dipping to roughly 3,500 in October as part of 56,000 documented inspections, according to city staff. City documents indicate staff expected about 1,750 inspections over the first two years of the contract, and it was unclear why the actual number of inspections was about 30 ?times the projection.

As Tuesday’s council meeting wrapped up, a Facebook post undercutting the idea that the city’s rebuilding efforts were proceeding smoothly gained traction on a Sonoma County firestorm-?related page Tuesday night.

Dozens of supportive people commented on the post by a rebuilding homeowner, Chris Keys, who said his insurance-funded living expenses had expired. He said multiple city inspectors had refused his request for a temporary occupancy permit to allow his family back into their almost-finished home.

“The city has been more rude, difficult and flat-out negligent than even our nightmare insurance journey,” wrote Keys, who became Redwood Gospel Mission’s director of shelter and recovery ministries after surviving seven years of homelessness.

Added Keys, who bought his first home with his wife in 2015: “My wife and I are thinking about moving our RV onto the property and staying in that until it gets resolved, either that or just move in and deal with the consequences.”

Keys could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Schwedhelm, the mayor, said he’d been in touch with Keys, a friend of his, and that he was hoping to get more information Wednesday.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.