The New Permit and Resource Management Department, a new division of Sonoma County government

Sonoma County, a diverse county of over one million acres is famed for its agriculture industry and recreation boasting a booming economy and a unique lifestyle for its citizens described by the famed Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the earth. Sonoma County is the place

to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies. Sonoma County's 340,000 residents are a harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in

the nineties with your host Rich McGlinchey. Hi everybody, welcome to another edition of Sonoma County in the nineties. We're going to learn all about a new division of county government. A new section. Uh, lots of things there. I think you're gonna find it very interesting. Something

that's been very desperately needed over the years. I'm gonna hold off the name of it right now and one of my guests tell you that. But we'll be talking to Ed Scott and the screen and permits division manager and dana to rico whom you may have

seen with us at the county fair? I think how you been friend. Very good. She is the customer service supervisor for this new department. Okay, and getting right into it. Ed, what is the full name of the new permits department. Well Rich. The full name is

the permit and resource management department and resources management department. Let me digress just a moment. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not sure whether we're covering this in the questions and answers I have here. But for many years if you wanted to get a permit to county Sonoma,

you may well have had to go to five different offices. You went to the building inspection office, you went to the planning office, you went to public works, often you went to the public health department sometimes even I guess to the water agency maybe even more

than that and these folks can tell us about but it was really a project. Now this new permit and resource management department is going to be one of the most innovative and one of the most effective services to county governments ever offered. I can tell you

that right now. And what were the steps in the reorganization and then when did it all start? Well, it started in uh 1992 and it started with a citizens advisory committee uh because they were were frustrated with the system and how it was working. And so

they then came up with some recommendations to the board of supervisors. Also had a department head uh subcommittee because they're part of it was to reduce the number of departments in the county and they made recommendations as well uh to the board of supervisors and that's

how it started. And it progressed until 1994. There was a final report to the board of supervisors on what it is today? Those are the basic steps I guess you'd say in the natural reorganization of it. Alright. What departments or parts of departments were combined into

the new permit and resort management division. And that is a mouthful isn't it? Is it has it been shortened yet or anything? I heard people saying that permit center, Does that sound good? Um Pr M. D. Some people are calling. That's okay. Yeah. Alright. What department

of parks department became part of this zoning? Which was the old planning, it's now called zoning division. Um We have building department which is now under um field operations. We have the customer service section which did not exist previously. Um And the staff in that area

came from all the different departments we have. Well and septic which was part of environmental health. We have um drainage review which was part of the water agency and from public works we have sanitation which is your sewer connections and um the road encroachment which is

public works, part of public works. That's great. It's six different specific services. You mentioned there now in one building. Yes we also house a couple of other groups which is the transportation which is over there and part of G. I. S. Well that's a real that

is that's a major realization and what is the organization structure now. And how does it differ from before the organization? Well we have five different divisions. We have an administrative division, we have a customer service. Uh Excuse me, permitting division, Construction, inspection division, code enforcement, and

the environmental comprehensive planning. So in that setup where before we had uh planners were all in the planning department now and engineers were in the uh the public works department. Now we have engineers and planners both in uh in the same in the permitting division. And

uh it's broken up into customer service plan, check, engineering and project review. And it was set up that way to to as functionally so that permits the different types of permits could run through easier. Once you have a major change like this reorganization, when you're putting

six previous functions that were elsewhere into one, it just got to be a tremendous amount of headaches and a difficult period of time to iron all this out and make it run smoothly. Right. It sure is. And we had right now we have many committees that

tried to uh to get it all organized before we moved in. But even so there's a lot of adjustments. Well, I I've been in had the pleasure of being in the place about half a dozen times since the open house that day after you've just gotten

started. And and honestly from a layman and from a taxpaying citizen standpoint, things are starting to move very smoothly over there. And it's now becoming apparent, Do people come in there with an open mind that this has been the answers they've been looking for for a

long time for permits Dana. How many people are involved in the New Department? The building contains 98 employees. That's, that's in some of those are involved, I presume from all the previous agencies that you combine. Is that right now? Either one of you want to pop

in and say something to the question and ask the other one. Just jump in and add it. What I guess you'd say is the philosophy. We kind of talked around this. But what is the philosophy of the new department? Well, the, the philosophy is the, is

really customer service and uh, I think we're trying to pattern it after Nordstrom's uh, where they really give customer service. Uh, but yet we are a government agency regulatory agency, but we are trying to be more customer friendly help the people. Uh, the applicants get through

the process easier. Uh give them consistent answers and uh, and only where they only have to deal basically with one or two people through the process rather than you folks really sitting on kind of a gold mine of pr over there because this has been such

a problem for folks who have come to the county over the years seeking permission to do this or permits to do that. They found that as I said earlier as we've all both all said, They were going to so many different places. And in many cases

customer service was not what it should have been not going to point any fingers or anything like that. But we did have folks that perhaps really not meant to be in that particular area because we had lots of problems and I know from serving as the

county's public information officer for 25 years or almost 25 years that we did hear people, you know complaining about that periodically and what you folks are doing so far and what you will be doing in the future is a blessing for the rest of the county

government employees because taking more pride in being county employees than they were when they were getting all that static dana will reorganization actually serve the public better. It should, shouldn't it? I believe it will serve the public better because now you're going to one location and

it's one stop and it works out well because you're not going to many different areas and if you're in there and have a question or a problem, you can immediately go uh to that specialty and find out what solution or problem and, and it can save

some headaches down the road. Whereas before you were driving across town and we're also going to bring in the park fees and, and we want to bring in the school mitigation fees which are still paid in another location and we're hoping to be able to do

that sometime in the near future. And in those days patience was wearing thin. But on the other hand, a lot of folks that came in were in all honesty and I watched these two were asking the impossible and the poor employee was only capable of serving

in so many ways and somebody wanted the moon. So it wasn't certainly always the the employee's fault. But this is a step forward towards solving what has been a real thorn in the side of local government. We're going to pause right here for a special service

announcement after which we'll return. And Ed Scott, Dana Derek and I will talk more about permit and resource management department and what it has done so far, what is doing now and what it will do in the future. First this message, A lot of guys are

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annual checkup and live man why die of Fright prostate cancer. Real men get it checked. The American cancer society. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma County in the 90s. We are attempting to learn all we can about the for shortened version, the new permit center

but it really is a permit and resource management department. We're talking with Ed Scott. We're talking with Dana to rico and Denham. Um, how does the permitting section operate? The permitting section operates by coming into the department and you would come to the receptionist and there

you will either she will determine if you need information or if you're going to be purchasing or applying for a permit that day. We have three different types of permits. The A permit, the beeper and the C. Permit. The A permit is a fast over the

counter permit. It can be an alteration, an electrical permit, something of a minor nature that can be issued that day. That is handed out immediately and you're sent over to the cash register and out the door. You go and quite happy. The B permit is a

permit where you would have a plan check with it. There would have to be some additional review site review, um drainage review. Uh An example would be a grading permit, a new house, a garage, something of that nature. Then the sea permit is a long term

permit. It is something that would go more to the planning project review. Uh Such as the development of a subdivision. Um And there would be other agencies involved outside our permit and resource management department. Um So you would come in make the application, we are now

organizing the addressing and ap numbers in the county. Uh And you would then have that done and then you if at that time you needed to see uh an individual that was a specialty such as a well in septic person, a planner, A building inspector, um

an individual that does our plan checking, you would go to that area of the building, the cubicle in the front area and they would be able to assist you. So um if you needed information only, we have a self help, self help area and I was

gonna ask you about that. Can folks come in and get any information on their own without bothering the staff, so to speak? Um Yes, they can. And that would be the self help area. And there we have permit histories on properties. We have the archives for

all of the old well in septic, the building permits, we also have um other information, such as permits that have been applied for. Many contractors and business people want to come in and see that data. So there's a lot of information right there where you don't

need to particularly speak to anybody, You just go directly to the self help area and we do have someone on duty all the time to assist you. That's great. I mean that really is a lot of folks come in, you know, and they really would like

to kind of peruse the place or cruise around and find out certain things for themselves. And if you have someone directing nothing allowing them to do that. That's a heck of a good public information or public relations factor to ed you have a new computer system.

What's the name of that? The computer system is called the sierra permit system And it's a it's a tracking system for our uh our permits so that we can tell at any time. Uh who has the, once it's in the system, Who has the uh the

permit whose reviewing it uh what stage it's at in the in the process. Uh We don't have all of that information in the routing information into it yet but it is being utilized to uh to issue the permits. And because we don't have all the information

and yet we still have a paper some paperwork to do along with it. But it's being used by many agencies and uh there uh it's a very good system. Well it's a computer system and um we initialize uh the application first year addressing is done and

that is put into the computer. So we know that the address and the ap number is proper and correct. And this has come about from emergency response. We need to correct addressing in the county. Um And then after it's initialized, uh all of the fee charts

and requirements are on the different screens in the computer system and we do the input and issue the permit. Uh Well, you know, you people have accomplished a lot and you've changed a lot of things here. But how did you accommodate the numerous different file systems

that must have existed before before that. I mean before moving to the new permits center. Yes. we had all these different departments with different filing systems. Plus we have several computer systems with the historical data in them. So what we did was came to the conclusion

that we would do all of the files by address and all of the files are now in one location and it's all done by address. So your project review which is your planning files or by address? The building files by address. So they're all in one

location in the file room and those are also available in the self help area. If you care to review them on active permits on a specific property. Later on, I want to ask another question about this. Ed was the building designed with flexibility in mind. And

if it was what features does it have? It certainly was designed with flexibility as you know, we we utilized a building that was was there for many years and completely redesigned the interior. And we designed it with uh stationary uh counter and facilities in the front

part of the building or the public area. And then in the in the area where the staff works. Uh It's uh module construction. And those modules can be changed. The another feature was that the the electronics or the wiring for the electronics and the telephones was

uh liberally put into the building so that we can accommodate new features, new electronics features at any time, was there anything about the new hearing room that might make it say more user friendly? Well, the the new philosophy and the kids to uh, to keep everybody

on the same level. So in the old hearing room, the uh the staff and the uh the board was up on a higher level and and the applicants were down lower. Now we put them all on the same level and also made all the furniture in

the hearing room movable so it can be rearranged and accommodate various sized groups and that's good. Yeah. It does make it more user friendly, doesn't it? You want to comment on it? I think it's more user friendly way that it's set up. Yeah. You know, this

seems like a small remark or small matter. But anything you can do to make a facility more user friendly creates a greater respect for your department. I think in the eyes of the public and I come into for all the things that you're doing about that

we're gonna have to pause right here again for another break. Ladies and gentlemen, another important message coming up after which Ed scott and I will return. We'll talk more about the permit resources and management center. And I think you're going to find some of these other

factors very interesting. First This message listen to the heartbeat of the earth. All life depends on that beat the earth has always provided for us today. As in the past, we must keep this heart strong. Give back to the earth. Call 1 800 the soil for

your free action packet Harmony. A partnership with a healthy land. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma County in the 90s. We're talking about the new permit center. I call it. It's actually permit resource management center. We're gonna, we're gonna find a short thing for that.

We've been learning a great deal about the fact why it came about where it's located. Incidentally is located in the county center in what was formerly the personnel and Superintendent of schools building. When completely remodeled, It's a magnificent facility. Well laid out user friendly as they

said a moment ago. And I think when you visited for the first time, if you haven't already going to be very impressed with it. Um, Dana. How many people visit the center each day? And how does that compare with previous visitor accounts? Um, every day I've

been keeping track since day one opening day. And that's been two months. And we have from, I think 97 was our lowest count to 211 was the highest count. An average day would be about 160 people. It's running right around 260 a day. The previous count

in the old building was 120. uh, planning was maybe 100. Um, Uh, the surveyor is also receiving about 50 people a day. So a lot of these people used to visit each department on the same day as they were frantically rushing across town. So now it's

worked out to about 160 come, but they're there because they're um fulfilling two or three needs at one stop, which was our goal and destination. That pin is down just a little bit more. Specifically if the general public is seeking information which is available in your

new facility, how did they go about getting the information they actually need? Okay. Um they would come in, they would go directly to our receptionist, they would tell her exactly what it is that they need from our department and she would then make the determination as

to which individuals and direct them to those sections or individuals that they would need to see. So it's a, it's a very simple process. Now they come right in and and there they are, they ask and you shall receive our intent is to streamline. That was

the major focus and goal and we are working on it and is ever changing. We are by no means finished. We hope to improve as we go along and this has really been a major transition for staff and um we have a wonderful staff that's very

dedicated and very professional and technically informed. So there's been a lot of changes and we're working and it's a monumental change taking all those various functions from all these various areas and centralizing them is a magnificent idea for the public state. And it's also, I'm quite

sure a satisfactory thing to the powers that be in county government And or the request for inspections handle the same as before you moved and or we have to change that in the future. Well right now they are handled the same as before and that we

have what we call a connect system and the applicants are given information about that system as they get their permit and they can call in uh up till 10:00 in the evening and request an inspection and that inspection will take place the next day. Uh And

that's our existing system. The new system will be what we call the solectron and it works in conjunction with the sierra permit system with the solectron. They also will be able to call in and uh we may change the time somewhat where they might be able

to call in up till till midnight or sometime the next morning and still get a uh inspection the next day. It also has some features in it that connect doesn't have and that's a mailbox system where the uh say the applicant can call in and and

ask questions about the inspection and the inspector from that area can access that mailbox and then answer them so that there doesn't have to be a direct connection between the applicant and the inspector. Really great because I lived with the old system for all the years.

I was a public information officer and just what you folks have said today about the changes and I can just see, you know how popular eventually this you may have some problems getting all going smoothly. But eventually this is going to be a blessing for people.

We're down to just a couple of minutes and I got a couple of other things I want to ask um quickly dana, what about A B and C permits? Um I covered the A B and C permits briefly in a previous question that you asked and

a is over the counter A B permit is uh something that comes in, we'll review it. We have a goal to get these permits out within three weeks and the c permit or the long range permits development. Um I'd like to also say something else about

the center which you haven't asked that question and that is that um it really is a hybrid. It's something new. It's the only department in the state of California, I believe that is operating like this and what the goal is, is to take um to take

industry and business direction and focus orientation and government regulation and to have a hybrid department where we are more interested in having business done. There's it's really a development center, there's a lot of, you know, movers and shakers there. Do you anticipate any other improvements to

the system that haven't been implemented as yet. Well, we're looking at uh, ideas such as people being able to fax in uh permit applications so that they don't have to come in and actually come into the facility having some remote stations in uh, like the self

help area in libraries or areas where they can access permit history and other data uh, from a remote location. So I'm also investigating perhaps an appointment system. We are out of time. It has gone. It has 12 thing I do want to mention. The phone number

is 5 to 71900. The fax number is 5 to 71103. Well that's all the time. We have. I'm Rich McGlinchey, the program Sonoma County in the nineties. Be back with you next week with another member of the county government family or related agency. Until then. Good

night. Good luck and good help If you haven't visited the permit center. Go bye bye for now.