You can quote me and you can disagree with me but DO NOT misquote me.
Compliance is an obligation of the building owner not the contractor. If the contractor has done something not in compliance it is between the Owner and to Contractor to sort it out but ultimately the Owner's responsibility to provide to the local jurisdiction a compliant design and a building that complies with the construction documents..
When an engineer or an architect prepares construction documents and because of a non-compliance a fix is needed the fix needs to be approved by the original architect or engineer or else by another engineer or architect who takes responsibility for the project. An unsigned fix from a manufacture may be interesting but has no legal standing. If the manufacturer has its fix signed by an engineer this is still of no interest to the building official unless the manufacturer's engineer is taking responsibility for the project. You need signoff by the architect or engineer who prepared the approved construction documents.
The building code requires the building department to perform a review of the application. If you do not have the budget to hire the consultants or qualified staff that is your problem. You still have an obligation to fulfill your duties. Note that engineers and architects cannot use the fact that their fee was not large enough to do a proper job as an excuse. I suggest you increase your permit fees.
Building officials have created a model building code that does not differentiate between big cities and more rural jurisdictions. Please note that California does have a number of rural jurisdictions and while some of them may be challenged my guess is that they still tend to do a better job that much of the rest of the country. I suggest that the rest of the country could do better although I suspect that this will be threating to some.
One way jurisdictions have of performing an adequate review is to contract with an engineering firm to provide a review on a project by project basis.
I agree developing a fix is not the responsibility of the building department but review of the change for code compliance is the responsibility of the building official.
Compliance is an obligation of the building owner not the contractor. If the contractor has done something not in compliance it is between the Owner and to Contractor to sort it out but ultimately the Owner's responsibility to provide to the local jurisdiction a compliant design and a building that complies with the construction documents..
When an engineer or an architect prepares construction documents and because of a non-compliance a fix is needed the fix needs to be approved by the original architect or engineer or else by another engineer or architect who takes responsibility for the project. An unsigned fix from a manufacture may be interesting but has no legal standing. If the manufacturer has its fix signed by an engineer this is still of no interest to the building official unless the manufacturer's engineer is taking responsibility for the project. You need signoff by the architect or engineer who prepared the approved construction documents.
The building code requires the building department to perform a review of the application. If you do not have the budget to hire the consultants or qualified staff that is your problem. You still have an obligation to fulfill your duties. Note that engineers and architects cannot use the fact that their fee was not large enough to do a proper job as an excuse. I suggest you increase your permit fees.
Building officials have created a model building code that does not differentiate between big cities and more rural jurisdictions. Please note that California does have a number of rural jurisdictions and while some of them may be challenged my guess is that they still tend to do a better job that much of the rest of the country. I suggest that the rest of the country could do better although I suspect that this will be threating to some.
One way jurisdictions have of performing an adequate review is to contract with an engineering firm to provide a review on a project by project basis.
I agree developing a fix is not the responsibility of the building department but review of the change for code compliance is the responsibility of the building official.