RES 94074 - Laserfiche WebLink

regulatory law. The report, "Cutting Through the Red Tape--Together," outlines actions necessary to streamline local regalasory processes. To improve our communities, the report also emphasized the importance of developing partnerships between government and the private sector. Working cooperatively, these partnerships can protect the business community and each eity's quality of life. Concurrent to this effort, the state also has been looking at permit reform (see Appendix C). As a next step in facilitating change, the state report recommended formation of a local round table to look at problems and solutions within each jurisdiction. The report further advocated that this local group review and candidly assess current processes, exchange ideas, identify specific areas where improvement is needed, propose solutions, present reforms to elected bodies, and work collaboratively in a spirit of reform. The Red Tape Round Table was formed in Alameda County to focus on these issues and to develop a plan of action using the ~tate's report and recommendations as a guideline; it is comprised of private and public sector representatives. Prior to formation of the Round Table, a public meeting was held to discuss the state's report and to assess how Alameda County and its cities would proceed in improving its permitting processes. VII. PROCESS FOR PROJECT The Round Table group decided it needed to hear from the local permitting igencies as well as from those who do business with these agencies. It developed a questionnaire for the loeal permitting agencies to complete regarding their development processes (see Appendix D). The questionnaire was intended to provide information as uniformly as possible from one jurisdiction to another. In their presentations, permitting agencies were asked to highlight their processes with questions from the Round Table on the questionnaire and the highlights. A questionnaire was also developed for businesses to use as a guide when making their presentations. They were not asked to provide written responses; the questions were designed to bring out information on what works well in the permitting process and what needs improvement. The responses stimulated interest and additional questions from the Round Table (see Appendix E). The 14 cities in Alameda County and the Unincorporated Area of Alameda County were invited to make presentations. Newark and Piedmont did not make presentations; therefore, the information presented in this report 13