Review Preliminary Draft of Long Term Community Development Staffing Plan

The purpose of this case is to review a preliminary draft of a Staffing Plan for the City's Community Development Department. The City Council is not asked to provide direction to approve this document at this time. The intent of this topic report is provide an opportunity to convey this information to the City Council and allow the City Council to ask clarifying questions or raise concern with general policy direction.

This direction is found as part of Strategic Tactic No. 24 to evaluate staffing deployment and process effectiveness in the Community Development Department. Strategic Tactic No. 20 to meet or exceed community expectations in regard to response times for code complaints also applies to this discussion. Finally, Staff's interpretation of Work Session Minutes as part of the 2016 Budget Approval requested to review a Staffing Plan for Community Development prior to review of the 2017 Budget.

Metrics: The City uses the following metrics to determine adequate response times in the Community Development Department.

1. Return inquiry same day (even if to say inquiry received and research has begun)
2. Resolve basic inquiries within 48 hours
3. Land Use Applications = 60 Days
4. Plan Review (residential) = 10 Business Days
5. Plan Review (commercial/industrial) = 30 Business Days
6. Inspection Window = 48 Hours
7. Code Enforcement Resolution (commercial/industrial/building) = 30  Business Days

Preliminary Survey Results

A survey was created beginning in April 2016 in order to measure our success compared to the assumptions above. Staff believes the preliminary survey results are statistically significant enough to draw correlations to broader trends. Staff would estimate that results are +/- 10 points with 90% confidence. Within this range, the trends would remain the same, making this accurate enough to use for preliminary budget discussions, as the gap between Satisfied/Very Satisfied to Dissatisfied/Very Dissatisfied is much greater than 10 points.

The broad trends include:

1. The team is doing well and responding to general inquiries in a reasonable time frame.
2. Customers are asking for general plan review time frame to be reduced to five (5) business days, acknowledging more complex project will take longer. Additionally, customers are asking that more simplistic permits be turned around in 2-3 business days.
3. The team is doing well in providing sufficient amount of inspection appointments.
4. Customers are asking for more online options for business processes for a variety of reasons (ability to do business outside of City business hours, reduce travel time, etc.).

Based on forecasted revenues for the remainder of 2016 and 2017, Staff makes the following recommendations in preparation for the 2017 General Fund Budget. Primarily, this should have a negligible effect on the tax rate, as these activities are generally funded by Building Permit Revenue.

1. Revise revenue forecasts as outlined in the attached worksheet.
2. Reclassify Permit Technician Assistant to Permit Technician due to current workload and recent certification.
3. Increase inspection hours for Building Inspection Technician for back-up and career advancement purposes.
4. Increase resources for code enforcement (post-development/permit) in either contracted services or City Staff
5. Implement ePermits (including eScheduling and ePlanReview)

Staff would recommend changes to this staffing plan by adding additional City Staff for future budgets (post 2017) only if the following metrics were experienced.

1. +50 New Households (200 HH total) per year
2. +50,000 SF of new commercial/industrial or two (2) buildings (75,000 square feet or four (4) buildings total) per year
3. Residential Plan Review exceeded 10 Business Days by more than 25% of the time within a 12 month look back period
4. Commercial/Industrial Plan Review exceeded 30 Business Days by more than 25% of the time within a 12 month look back period
5. Inspection Window exceeded 48 Hours by more than 25% of the time within a twelve month look back period
6. More than 20% of phone calls per day are not returned by 4:30 by more than 25% of the time within a twelve month look back period
7. Any one (1) Staff Member averages more than one (1) evening commitment per week within a twelve (12) month look back period.

30 Minutes

Expenses related to alternatives contained within this case are part of the General Fund Budget and will be discussed as part of the 2017 Budget process. The primary revenue source is permit fee revenue for activities related to administration of building codes. There is the potential for minor impacts to the 2017 levy with these recommendations.

Community Development Director

Provide general feedback for future budget discussions.