So at 8:59 am, I called Jose.  He answered his phone (the first positive of the day) and told me that he had already planned to be at the site between 10 and 10:30 this morning (a second positive).  Unfortunately, I had to be elsewhere at that time, so I wasn't going to be able to be present to hear what exactly had to be done to complete this move, so I left it up to the contractor to talk to Jose.

I received a phone call from the contractor at about 11:30 this morning with an update on the city water issue.  Evidently, yes they can move the water line over to the new water meter position.  However, the only way that can be done is if I go to the public works counter at the city and fill out a work order!!!!!  Unbelievable. 

Today, I am supposed to ask for a line tap for a new water meter.  Although this phrase has been provided by Jose, I am still not convinced that the trip to the public works counter will end with a work order that requests a line tap for a new water meter.  But I guess I have to try.

Back in the parking lot at the Santa Barbara Planning and Building Department Building on Garden Street, I take a number of deep breaths and steel myself for the inevitable lack of knowledge that I will experience in a few short minutes. 

I approach the counter to find the only one there is the same lady who gave me Jose's card yesterday.  She asks what I need and I tell her that I need to put in a work order for a line tap for a new water meter.  Then, in a fortunate turn of events, she calls for backup.   Micheal Cloonan, another public works employee who works the counter, comes out to help me.  I have had interactions with Micheal before and, although they always end up costing me money, they usually also end up with a successful conclusion.

I tell Micheal what we need, and we start to fill out the forms.  One of the field workers walks in with a large stack of papers that need Micheal's attention and Micheal asks him to wait until we complete my request.  As Micheal and I discuss the issues and possible solutions, the field worker chimes in "Oh, is this 312 Sherman Road?".  Apparently, our build site is infamous!    As I said before, I have been at the public works counter before and have had a few altercations with the field guys at the site and apparently now all the employees of the public works department know about us!  Well good.  Hopefully, they think I am such a cranky witch that they will do anything to get rid of me, including actually doing what I am asking.

With Micheal's help, I do finally get the work order filled out and then Micheal opens the fee booklet.   The fee booklet, you ask?  Oh yes, the fee booklet.

So how much is this going to cost me?  Or first, I should ask, wait, I have to pay for this?  I look Micheal straight in the eye and I ask him why I am having to pay for this now when the water meter move was already designated on the permits.  The answer to that was something like, "well, unfortunately, we can't catch every detail during the permit process".  Excuse me?  I have two major problems with this response (beside the fact that it is just plain unsatisfactory).  First, I was told that moving the water meter would throw all kinds of red flags up during the permitting process because it requires water lines to be moved.  So I, mistakenly, assumed that meant that the public works department would actually have to review the permits and that the water lines would be moved as part of the original permit.  Evidently not on both counts.  Second, I am getting very frustrated with the fact that we had to pay all kinds of money to prepare all the documentation required for the permitting process and were not allowed to say things like "Whoops I forgot to ......(fill in with whatever)" without major financial cost and time delays, but the city officers can just dismiss their mistakes and omissions with a simple phrase like "we can't catch every detail during the permit process".

And then to add insult to injury, not only can they just dismiss their mistakes, but we, the home owner's, have to pay for their mistakes!  Yep, I had to pay to get this work order.  Micheal gave me a bit of a break, but we still have to shell out another $1924.00 to the City of Santa Barbara to request a work order for a line tap for a new water meter that was permitted with my original permit but obviously was missed by the review board and anyone else involved in permitted buildings. 

I just have one more question for today.  Why have a permitting process?  If the city is not going to actually review all the documentation they require with a permit application, why do we have to submit all that documentation? (okay two questions)  We put together a massive amount of documentation which included architectural drawings, structural calculations, soils evaluations, landscape plans, electrical plans, drainage plans, to name a few, to submit to the City of Santa Barbara for their review and approval.  And now we find out that they do not actually review the plans thoroughly.  We went to great expense, and I won't quote the numbers here because I still can't believe we paid that much, to get all this information for the city and then paid even more money to the city to review our plans to make sure that we were to code and had an actual plan that they could hold us too.  I thought this expense was necessary because the city was actually going to review those plans and make sure they were to code.  Evidently not! Incredibly frustrating!

At the end of the day, the work order is in though and hopefully they will just come out and move the water line, but again, I have my doubts.