San Andreas, California - The chief building inspector of Calaveras County may have cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars due to shoddy or inappropriate building practices.

Documents released by the Calaveras County council relate to the firing of Ray Waller, former chief building inspector. The documents allege that Waller negligently exposed people to asbestos by allowing unsafe demolition of a county building.

Other allegations include that Waller signed off on defective buildings, and told plan-checking firms and office subordinates that Calaveras County did not have to comply with certain state building codes.

Those actions, which Walker was allegedly fired for, may cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction overruns and lawsuit settlements.

Ray Waller has denied any wrong-doing, saying that “I don’t think the county can release these documents for the good of the public or the press. I think this was a vengeful, spiteful act by them…” Waller says he may take legal action against the county for releasing the documents, claiming that information in the documents was distorted or fabricated by Community Development Agency Director Stephanie Moreno.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve Wilensky said he is proud that the county did the right thing in making the documents public, and providing the public with an explanation of the incidents that led to Waller being fired.

The documents number some 1,300 pages, with allegations that Waller allowed certain property owners and developers to adopt illegal practices such as unsafe sewage disposal and constructing substandard building foundations. Some incidents date back more than a decade.

The asbestos-related incident Waller was allegedly responsible for occurred in 2003. Waller allegedly failed to comply with asbestos inspection requirements, which required that Waller have the Building and Planning Department’s San Andreas offices surveyed for asbestos before beginning planned remodeling activities.

Waller failed to have the survey carried out. During the remodeling, workers discovered asbestos-containing materials. After the discovery, an employee in the building turned on the air-conditioning system, not realizing that asbestos had been discovered. The air-conditioning system spread asbestos dust throughout the building, including in the city’s Air Pollution Control District offices.

Donna Koplen, co-owner of the contracting firm carrying out the remodeling, said that she and the workers had no ideal the building contained asbestos.

That incident cost the county nearly $500,000 for asbestos removal, $60,000 in fines paid to the Environmental Protection Agency, and more money on legal fees for subsequent lawsuits.

Waller claimed that he was unaware there was a legal requirement for an asbestos survey, and further claimed that even if he had known, it was not his responsibility to check for asbestos.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Asbestos Legislation, California. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.