I have been to the public works counter of the City of Santa Barbara many times during the construction process for a number of different issues.  Each time was a battle, except one, but the visit today demonstrates perfectly the efficiency of the City of Santa Barbara. 

I have not included the details of my interactions with the city during this building process because I could not keep the tone positive while relaying the interactions with the various departments.  Unfortunately, most of my interactions with the city during the construction process have been extremely, extremely, extremely negative.  The city officials will not take any responsibility for errors or omissions on their part, expecting that the home owner will just have to take financial responsibility for anything any of the city officials do or say wrong.  This was my exact experience with public works while trying to finalize the driveway.  That is a story I left out of the blog because the events which occurred with the public works department were unbelievable and included a lot of ranting and raving.  I wanted to try to keep this blog a positive happy building process, but in truth, this building process has been a nightmare and it is only getting worse.  So in the spirit of honesty about my experience building a house in Santa Barbara, I will include my experience today at the public works counter at the office of Building and Planning in the City of Santa Barbara.   (I may at a future time, relay the story of the driveway, if I can stomach it)

I arrived at the City of Santa Barbara offices on Garden Street armed with a phrase which was dictated to me by a City of Santa Barbara Water Department employee.  This phrase was supposed to aid me in slogging through the city muck to sucessfully obtain a work order to get a new water line to our new water meter.   Unfortunately, my experience with the city prior to today has left more than just a bad taste in my mouth.   In fact, my experiences have been so bad that today, as I walked from the parking lot to the front door of the city builiding, my hands began to shake and my heart began to thump in my chest.   Opening the door for me takes all my will power.  The only thing that is making me put one foot in this god forsaken place is sheer stubbornness - we will finish building this house and this department is not going to stop me.  I will die before I let the city of Santa Barbara keep us from getting our house finished.   It may be wrong on my part ( and definitely negative), but based on my past experiences, I expect today's visit to incorporate a battle, major loss of money and to be an absolute waste of time.

I go directly to the Public Works Department and stand at an empty counter.  Apparently all the counter staff are helping other customers.   I do get attention within about 15 minutes but the phrase dictated to me by the City of Santa Barbara Water Department employee gets me exactly NOTHING.  I try to explain what it is we need to do.  I draw a diagram of what is happening at the property.  I tell the woman behind the counter that the Water Department employee told me what to say when I got here and he said you would understand.   Nope still nothing.  She hands me a card for Jose and tells me to call him and he can help me.  So although I know there is a sign on the front door that tells me not to use my cell phone at the counter, I whip out my cell phone and call Jose while I am standing at the counter in front of the staff member.   No answer, just an answering machine.  I leave a message and then call his office.  Also no answer, leave a message. 

So I was right.  I walk out of the city building having accomplished absolutely nothing and getting maybe a small step toward concluding this issue. 

As I speed up the on ramp to the highway, I get a call back from Jose.  I, of course, pull off the highway and pull over to talk to Jose (otherwise I can't hear him as the convertible top is down).  It ends up Jose is out of the office today but he wanted to call me back to discuss our issue.  He tells me to go back to the office and talk to the people at the Public Works counter.  I told him I have already done that and the only thing they did was give me his card so I don't really want to repeat that process again (i.e. the efficiency of the city).  Anger is the only emotion I am feeling right now.  The City of Santa Barbara is so ineffective that their employees can only tell me to chase my own tail. 

Jose agreed, with this new piece of information I provided, that returning to the city office would not be beneficial so he has promised to call me by 9 tomorrow morning.  He also told me to call him if he doesn't call.  Okay, hopefully we are getting somewhere.

I realize to many who are reading this that I may appear to have lost it.  After all, this doesn't seem so bad.  Jose will help me tomorrow.  And hopefully he will.  But I have not shared with you all the other experiences I have had with the city so you have only just a small taste of the frustration I have had.  And again, from past experience, I know that not only will this new interaction with the City of Santa Barbara cost us time on the project, but it will also cost us lots of money!