PC 051210 - Laserfiche WebLink

Mr. Dolan stated that having the different Divisions under one Department has been very significant in that all the functions now have one common vision and one person to make decisions. He indicated that the new structure has also provided an overall approach to problems, such that natural disagreements due to differing perspectives and outlooks are resolved because of the need to come to an agreement and compromise rather than to prove that one is right. With respect to the hiring of a Permit Center Manager, Mr. Dolan indicated that the interviews had been completed but that at this point, the level of activity does not justify the additional expense. He added, however, that this has not been forgotten and that the intention is to restart the recruitment when the level of activity warrants it. He added that the Permit Center Manager would work under him and would be an advocate, troubleshooter, and problem-solver for all the Divisions. Mr. Dolan then explained that the Department’s current system for tracking permits, the KIVA system, is not a state-of-the-art system and that although the Department got a good use for it, it is now outdated. He indicated that the City has selected the type of system and vendor it plans to utilize, and initially thought it would be functional by April of 2010. He noted that staff has been devoting time to get the implementation in place but that this is somewhat difficult with the remodel in progress. He added that the new tracking system would help in the permitting process and the ability to track projects, respond to date queries of interest to need, and produce reports. Mr. Dolan stated that at present, project-tracking is done manually: staff from the different Departments get together for a technical review, and comments and suggested conditions of approval are then relayed manually to the planner, who is the keeper of information that would produce the conditions. He noted that the new tracking system would allow staff to be more efficient as staff can instantly get an update on projects in the pipeline and would not need to wait for paper to be pushed around. Mr. Dolan stated that processing schedules would involve monitoring and establishing timelines for various projects. He noted that the amount of time it takes to complete a project is a complicated issue in that a submitted application may be incomplete if it lacks documents required by CEQA, which the applicant then needs time to obtain and then re-submit. Commissioner Blank stated that tracking systems tend to identify bottlenecks but indicated that the ultimate output of any system is key performance indicators ( KPIs). He inquired if staff has thought about what type of KPIs might be considered to indicate the efficiency or output of the Department. Mr. Dolan replied that staff has been doing this with existing systems in that turn-around times for each type of application are in place within each Division. He added that the goal is to attain a high percentage and that staff can identify what percentage of permits are meeting that target. PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, May 12, 2010 Page 7 of 11