12/05/2007: "Evans Questions Slow Down On Building Permits"

At the first of two public hearings on county budget for 2008, former County Commissioner John Evans questioned why the budget for CD&P (Community Development and Planning Department) was being increased, while at the same time the department is taking longer and longer to issue permits.

While the Council had no direct answers to Evans questions, Chairman Bob Myhr said that the department is just now getting up to full staffing, and Councilman Howard Rosenfeld pointed out that some of the increase in the budget comes from grants.

But Evans had done his homework, and he had prepared a research report on the matter for submission to the Council. The report contrasted the CD&P department to neighboring counties permitting departments, and prior to Evans testimony at the budget hearing, he told The Island Guardian that the statistics in the report did not indicate a high level of efficiencies and customer service when it came to processing permits in San Juan County.

Evans said he had interviewed building officials in four surrounding counties, and had found that “Island County planning and building department seems to be the best managed. They have 34 employees, a budget of 2.8 million dollars ... they issued 560 single family residential permits in 2006 and 580 projected for 2007. Their department operates as a self-supporting enterprise fund. They have counter permits, fast track. .. 2 weeks on simple permits ... and a thru put time of 4 weeks on most single-family residential permits”. And San Juan County? “Not so good”, Evans said.

In his testimony before the Council, Evans said a production comparison shows that SJC only issues 9 single family permits per employee, while Island County issues 17 permits - almost twice that of SJ County. But it is not just how few permits SJC issues, it is also how long it takes, he said. Evans reported that Island County can process a permit in “about 4 weeks. San Juan County currently takes over 16 weeks”

Evans noted that “as a comparison, Island County is staffed at one employee for 1,500 county residents. San Juan County is staffed at one employee per 737 county residents ... a level of staff just about twice that of Island County.”

For Evans this indicated “the organization, management and production problem in the Building and Planning Department in San Juan County needs to get solved. It is bad for employee moral.” Evans added that “for the Council it should be an embarrassment.”

Other that Myhr’s statement that they need more staff, and Ranker’s charge that funding had been reduced under past administrations, the rest of the Council did not comment or respond to the Evans report, but the hearing was continued to next week, so the matter could be addressed at that time.