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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 same Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the earth. Sonoma County is the place

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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

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the nineties with your host Rich McGlinchey, How you doing everybody welcome to this edition of Sonoma County in the 90s on location on location at the Sonoma County Airport restaurant. Now it is Cellini grill and caffeine ill and we're going to be talking to one of

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the proprietors of the new restaurant. First of all, it's a pleasure to greet you here in Sonoma County. Very nice people here. I want you to tell us, first of all Cellini grill and cafe Neil, what does that mean? Basically it has a meaning you told

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me. Yes, it does. Cellini is the greek word for the Northern lights, caffeine ill is a social cafe from uh back home in Greece where uh where people gather to socialize and have exotic coffees and exotic pastries and uh just people watch, you know, the restaurant

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here at the airport is a beautiful facility and these people are making it even more beautiful. It's going to be Cellini grill and cafe new and you're going to have sort of a steakhouse with the mediterranean accent. Is that what you're telling me? That's correct. Richard,

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what we're gonna do is a, we're gonna try to introduce a slightly new type of cuisine. American southwestern inspired by mediterranean cuisine. You have to have a restaurant in napa presently Spiros restaurant and tavern in the old carriage house right downtown napa jefferson and Clay Street.

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Let me get the names here. Now. Sparrows, Josephus and your wife, Constantine is involved and that's correct. Your and your partner's, our internet, internet and john Mark Mark like that from the island of Catalonia in the Ionian Sea. Okay listen, we want to work in the

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Sonoma County, I hope the restaurant is a great success, I'm sure. Thank you very much. We're very happy to be here and we're really looking forward to work with the, with the local people here were very excited about it and I think they're very excited to

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have here. We'll be back in just a moment. We'll be talking to Scott Stegemann of the business and regulatory roundtable. An interesting new group in santa rosa in the past couple of years. But first this message. Mhm. Right. Imagine if nature packaged its products as wastefully

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as man. Fortunately nature doesn't because packaging already accounts for nearly a third of the garbage in our landfills. So buy products with less packaging for more ideas on what you can do. Call us. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties on location

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at the beautiful Sonoma County Airport restaurant called Cellini Grill and cafe Neil. There are hosts today and we want to be sure to mention my guest on this program is Scott. Stegemann. Scott's nice to have you here. We've talked about this for quite a while, We've

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never got you on here yet. Scott is the coordinator of the Sonoma County Business And regulatory agency round table. Its inception was 1992 and I'd like you to tell us a little bit more about how the regulatory or the business and regulatory agency roundtable started out.

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It started in 1992 when both the city of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County wanted to bring together as many of the state and local agencies as they could with key business leaders to try and find out, what what it lay in the power of local government

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to do to make the regulatory system work smoother faster and more cost effective for the business community. Well, the regulatory agencies for the county and the city both have been criticized a lot over the past few years. I know I was, I was with these people

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down there for a long time, criticized quite a lot because they indicated that they were duplicating from it and that sort of thing. So this really was a timely formation for this group, wasn't it? It was very timely. A lot of people in the business community

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had been arguing for these sorts of reforms for many years, but I think the agency's finally came around to embracing the idea partly because there was a change in attitude and partly because because budgetary cutbacks have forced agencies to streamline themselves and in the process of

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doing that, they're finding ways that save them money in time and also benefit the business community. Talk maybe later. A little bit about the county's effort to excuse me, combine those two for a smoother delivery of service to the public. What type of specific projects are

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you pursuing at the moment? We're putting together what we're calling regulatory teams which are groups of business people in key business sectors to focus in on different issues or areas of regulations such as land use conflicts, water quality protection, manage of hazardous materials. And within each

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of those groups, there are a handful of key agency representatives and key leading business people and their charger mission is to look at how the system works and find ways within the agency's flexibility or jurisdiction to make things simpler quicker. Well, first of all, how many

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people are and how many people are involved in your committee? The with the different teams combined, we have approximately between 60 and 75 people working in different workgroups at this point. That's great. That's good. That allows you to cover the whole scope. That's the intention is

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the business community supportive of this deal. and are they participating actively? They're very active and participating? I think they're supportive. I think there a little cynical people have made them promises in the past about how things would change for the better. And typically they haven't panned

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out. I think in the last couple of years they're seeing that there is a real commitment to helping them. I think the troubled economy has had a lot to do with it in the sense that agencies are realizing that the decisions they make can really affect

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in a significant way the local business climate and so you're starting to see improvement on issues of land use development has this material and the underground storage tank problems are not solved yet. But I think the business community is seeing that things are finally moving in

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the right direction. One of your projects I know is setting up so called regulatory teams. Now, what sort of things would these regulatory teams be doing? Well, An example, the land use team at this point is looking at three main projects. One would be working with

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local planning departments to develop customer service training and customer service evaluation systems. A lot of times, the agencies don't have any mechanism for getting feedback from the people who they're serving in terms of the development community of the pub and so developing some systems so they

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would get a feedback mechanism. They could adjust how they do things how they train their counter people or field inspectors. Another project is going to be looking at how projects are handled in spheres of influence, which are the areas where there's overlapping jurisdiction between the county

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and incorporated cities. And a lot of times developers and property owners find themselves between a rock and a hard place because there are two different agencies that claiming jurisdiction over their land and it creates a lot of problems. And so there's interest on the part of

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the county and the cities in coming up with a simplified way. So everybody knows what you can do, what you can't do and who's in permanent control over your land. I know that you're carrying out surveys right now in the business community. What sort of resorts,

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resorts, what sort of results are you getting during these surveys? Some of it is what we'd expected. It's the classic, the classic responses from a lot of the business community is that the best thing government agencies could do is streamline lower fees and costs simplify regulations.

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But there's some things that also suggest the business community doesn't simply want to go back to the dark ages of the Wild West. There was a strong sense in the business community that one of the best business assets we have in Sonoma County is the quality

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of life businesses that relocate here list. That is a major reason for coming in. And so the businesses want to see water quality protected, They want to see our quality protected. And so the idea that's coming out of the survey is protect the water, protect the

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air, but work with the business community. So getting there is quicker and more efficient. You know, one of the things that comes to mind scott the agencies have raised their fees primarily to make up for income they lost in other ways. How does the business community

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view that? I think there's a lot of concern about the fee increases. I think people understand why. I think one of the ideas that's starting to come out is the idea that fees and the permitting systems in general should reward people who are in full compliance

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who have a very good record. One of the ideas is that if you have, after a certain period of time you keep getting clean inspection reports that you can go to a simplified and cheaper inspection system so that those people who are toeing the line and

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doing their best are rewarded for it and recognized by how they're treated by the agencies, then we've got a lot of questions here, but I'm not sure we have that. I jotted down one to ask about this. The county is now combining its planning department and

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its building inspection department And the public health, public works and water agency into a single permit center, Ken Miller visited it with us a while back and talked a bit about that it's supposed to be in effect in July of 95. Uh, will that be a

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big asset to business? That will be a tremendous step forward in terms of county government and county agencies. It doesn't deal with the problems that come up between the county and other municipalities or other agencies. For instance, county projects will be coordinated much better within the

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county, but cal fish and game for instance, is not part of the permitting center nor our city governments that are involved in issues, but it is a dramatic step forward and I think it will reduce conflicts and confusion and speed up processing considerably. It should definitely,

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and it should be a big benefit to both sides. I think so. I think for one thing, I worked with them for a long time, they know they want to serve people better, but bound up with all these duplications and I think this new project is

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going to eliminate a great deal of that in the business community will welcome that. I'm sure. I think so. And there's another thing that came out of the surveys, which is that the business community supports the idea of the county and local government enforcing and punishing

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people who are blatant or persistent violators of rules. Most of the businesses truly are doing their best. They can't always afford to do everything they should and they don't always understand exactly what they're supposed to be doing, but they know the bad apples are giving everyone

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a bad reputation. And so I think one of the other benefits of having a one stop permit center and a one stop agency is that it will be easier to catch the bad apples as well and and call those out of the system to conclude that

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maybe one thought if I may the more efficient that single permit center is the more business will benefit because there's cost to the business in running about all these various agencies. They've had to contact in the past, going to one place and getting it all done

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is going to be a big benefit I feel, don't you? It'll be true. I think the idea of having all those people in one location with real talking people you can deal with rather than have to pick up the phone and talk to someone's voicemail and

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you play phone tag for days or weeks on end. It's unbearably frustrating. And it is also very costly for applicants Phone tag as you call it is that played all over the business community as well as too much. I hear it from everyone. Technology doesn't always

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help us. That's a classic headache. I know I call recently. I'm trying to get ahold of one guest to the program called 16 times and all I ever got was the the what you call it the phone they call it a voicemail. All right. Now, one

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of the basic changes that the business community wants in the regulatory system. I think the three basic things they want our consistency more than anything else. There's some mechanical things like simplifying form, simplifying inspection procedures. But the thread that runs through it all is if the

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agencies would just decide what they want, agree amongst themselves, be able to put it into clear, simple english and then adhere to that. The greatest frustration is not anyone regulation. But when regulations are interpreted differently from agency to agency or month to month, because then the

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whole process becomes unpredictable and you have no way of knowing reliably what you can and can't do or what the outcome will be. Whatever happened to simplicity and communication, I don't know. But it seems to be a lost way too far in the regulatory arena. Alright,

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scott. We're gonna pause right here for a public service announcement will come back with more questions to ask you about the business and regulatory agency. A round table which you coordinate. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be back. But first, this important message, it would be nice if

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latex condoms were automatic but since they're not using them should be simply because a latex condom used consistently and correctly will prevent the spread of HIV, how you doing everybody. We're back here at the beautiful Sonoma County Airport restaurant. It's now called Cellini Grill and cafe

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Neil. Very, very beautiful place. And we're talking with scott Stegeman who is the coordinator of the business and regulatory agency round table, a very interesting group that formed in 1992 and are doing all they possibly can to bring business and local government regulatory agencies into harmony

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where they can go to one place and get their permits without a lot of long weights and unnecessary labor and irritation on the part of both both sides of it. I'm sure scott nice to have you here to talk about this. I think this is a

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subject that's really overdue for discussion. One of the things here that I think becomes very important. We've mentioned a little bit of this, but why are government agents, governments and agencies being so supportive right now? I think the biggest reason is that as the California economy

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and the California budget is contracted. There's been a domino effect where local agencies and local governments are having to do some pretty serious budget cutting and looking at how they do business. And one of the decisions has been that in a lot of cases, agencies have

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expanded their authority or expanded their interest more than they needed to. And so one of the things that is happening is that agencies are beginning to work amongst themselves and with the business community to find out how they can simplify things and in particular consolidate issues

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rather than having 33 different agencies Inspector given business rela the hazardous waste issues for example, come to agreements among the agencies so that only one agency and one inspector does that. It's simple. It makes life much simpler for the business community and ultimately it can save

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money for the agencies as well. And so I think that I think there's a financial incentive and I also think there's an attitude change. I think the days of agencies viewing applicants, developers as business people as the enemy has largely passed. There was a period where

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that was the case and I think that has passed partly because people have changed, partly because we realized that if the economy is going to pick up, that we need to respect the role that individual businesses can play in that and try and help them. Absolutely,

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absolutely. And the fact that you were viewed as the enemy and business side of it, I should say is all, it was all too prevalent for a long period of time. What sort of changes and measures are you getting from the regulatory agencies? I think one

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of the biggest attitudinal changes is that a lot of agencies are looking at their basic mission to first and foremost, educate and help business rather than instantly assuming their role is enforcement compliance, bringing down the hammer that always has to be there. And we spoke earlier

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about the bad apples if you will, the people who simply don't care. We're going to dump um asphalt blocks into a creek or dump things into on the land or despoil the environment in various ways, but there's an awful lot of people who would like to

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do the right thing, who want to be conscientious businesses, but who don't understand really what's expected of them, particularly when they get regulations and guidelines out of sacramento or Washington that are sometimes incomprehensible. And so they look at this and it's very intimidating. And so local

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agencies I think are beginning to realize that one of the best things they can do is deal with those people who want to comply in a friendly and open open minded way and assist them. One of the things that came out of the survey is that

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both the business communities and the agencies agree that probably full businesses that are in full compliance are about between 25 and 35% of the business community. The bad apples or the hard cases are probably only 5% of the businesses out there and all the rest of

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them are businesses that aren't in compliance right now, but would genuinely like to be, are not comfortable but simply don't know what to do about it. They're intimidated. They're, they're afraid to pick up the phone and call an agency for fear that that will precipitate an

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inspection and enforcement action when what they really want is someone to give them a friendly ear and tell them here's what you need to do, how can we help you come around and fix things, you know, one thing aside from what we're talking about here, but

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will be, I'm sure important to the business community recently, they passed the americans with disabilities act. And in many cases, business view this is really an ogre because oh, I've got to make all kinds of changes. We had some people on from the disability act recently

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and they pointed out that really not that difficult to make most of the changes. Well, they gave one particular small example, they said, you know, when a wheelchair person comes up to a drinking fountain, they can't get up and but he said, you don't have to

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bring that down or tear that all apart. You simply put up a little thing full of cups and they can take the cup out of there and they can reach up and do that. I mean, see they say that business really did get alarmed about that.

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It was unfortunate because they want to work with business. It's a thing that's been very much in the news of late and businesses concerned about it, but I believe that they will find that there are simple ways to do that. And I think that's part of

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the pattern is that if the agencies are people who enforce regulations like that, work with the agency or work with the business community and help them come into compliance. Um, a lot of the regulations and ordinances and requirements aren't nearly so onerous are you supporting bills

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and, or I guess legislation the same in sacramento or Washington at this time, not particularly, we considered getting involved in the sacramento and Washington arena and decided that the best thing we could do, the best use of our resources in time would be to work with

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the local and state agencies that are already in Sonoma County. And the idea is that if you're going to work with, say, cal fish and game to deal with issues of wetlands or vernal pools, if you go to sacramento, you're talking to people who don't know

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the Sonoma County environment. They don't understand the business community here. So rather than do that, we're putting the bulk of our energy into working with regional offices or local offices. Because those are people who actually usually live in Sonoma County, they work here and so they

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understand the unique problems and circumstances here. They know a lot of the businesses and the other agencies and so it's easier for them to understand the problem and to think about how to accommodate it. What, in your opinion is a future for regulatory reform and maybe

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a second part of that question, can people make a difference? I think people can make a tremendous difference. There are a lot of examples in Sonoma County of individuals who make a big splash with a very small effort. Um, some are less, some are more successful

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than others, but I think a lot of people simply assume that the individual can't make any difference. And I think that's reflected everywhere when you look at turnout in elections, when you look at turnout at public hearings, it's not just the business people, it's the public

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in general has become too cynical and I think individual business people, individuals can make a lot of difference to help reform the system, particularly now that the agencies are themselves very receptive to that. They're eager for suggestions at this point and to work with people to

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do it. I think the most interesting part of the future of regulatory reform is going to be access to information in particular. There has been interest in developing online computerized direct links access into agencies. And the notion of that is if you're a business person, you

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don't have to drive halfway across the county to go to an agency to pick up a form, You have a computer, you have a modem, you can call up the agency, you can contact a staff person by email, you can, you can deal with the agency

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electronic life. It will be quicker, it will be a lot cheaper. It will be more efficient for the agencies. And I think that's the way of the future. Alright, are you getting good idea, shall we say from from other areas of States? Maybe before we do

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that. How about the phone number of people can reach you and you're gonna have a lot of questions as a result of the phone number for the regulatory roundtable is 5 to 47170, which is the office of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board and the business

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regulatory roundtable shares that office with them. 5247. Okay. Now are you getting good ideas from other states and other areas? Yes. In fact, one that's actually being talked about in terms of the food industry in the restaurant industry is an idea that's been tried in New

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Jersey and it's called the Silver Platter Award. And the Silver Platter Award is basically an annual or a periodic recognize mission of restaurants and grocery stores and food purveyors that are in full compliance with all environmental and food safety regulations. And the notion of this is

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rather than simply being, having agencies viewed as the bad guy and a restaurant or a business that's in full compliance has no advantage. I mean, all it accomplishes. He's not, he's not shut down, but he doesn't get any particular public advantage. The idea of the silver

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platter award in New Jersey and the Sonoma Green Project here in Sonoma County, which deals with hazardous materials in small businesses is if a business has gone to the effort put the money into coming into full compliance with regulations, they should be able to use that

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in public marketing and targeting basically the green clientele, there is a tremendous interest in the community now in shopping at Green businesses and supporting people who are trying to do their best and giving those sorts of awards And that sort of recognition that they can use

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in marketing is a positive thing that can come out of regulatory compliance. We have about a moment. How can people participate or get more information by just by calling your office. That's the simplest way we have various work groups that are meeting. Some are the teams.

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We have a steering committee and but the simplest most immediate ways to contact the Economic Development Board at 5 to 4717 oh. And we are continuing to look for people who are interested in volunteering or working on different projects. I want to repeat that number clearly

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once again 5 to 4717 oh asked for scott Stegemann. He's there most of the time. Ladies and gentlemen that just about does it for this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties. On location at the beautiful airport restaurant Cellini grill and Cafe Neo in a very

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unique place. They're kind of a steakhouse for the mediterranean flavor. You haven't been out here. You want to be sure to come out soon. My name is Rich McGlinchey. The program. Sonoma County in the nineties. I'll be back with you next week with a member of

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the government family or someone that's doing an interesting job in Sonoma County until that time so long, Good night, good luck, good health, good, everything. Mhm