02-13-2017 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, January 23, 2017 7:00 o'clock p.m. 7. SENIOR PLANNER RECRUITMENT (continued) Barnhart stated currently building permits take six weeks and that he hopes to get it down to ten days. Barnhart stated if they take away the extra people, even if the process is improved, they will not get it down to ten days. Seals stated other cities are able to do it with less people. Seals noted Wayzata, if you doubled their work load, would have two planners. Barnhart stated they also do not have the work load that Orono has. Barnhart noted their building official does all code enforcement and that they have other people that help with different aspects of the planning department. Barnhart stated Wayzata employs a building official and an outside building inspector and Orono uses a consultant. Barnhart indicated he does understand the cost concerns with filling the position but that he wants to make it clear that it will be very difficult to maintain the level of services that is already considered to be poor. City Administrator Loftus stated what might end up happening is that the Community Development Director will have to use his time up on land applications and that the City will be paying someone 30 percent more than a planner. Loftus stated Jeremy's time is best spent on code changes, figuring out a new process and implementing it, which takes time and Staff encouragement. Loftus stated if he is spending his time processing land use applications the last six months of the year, those code changes and process changes will not get done and that there is some risk in trying it without hiring another planner. Seals stated she is wondering where else in the City offices there are other opportunities to streamline the process, which is a discussion for another time. Seals stated the Community Development Director is an expensive resource and that she wants him to be focused on how to change codes and make the process easier. Seals indicated she works for a corporation and that they are constantly looking at how they can become more efficient and where the resources should be used. Seals stated since it involves citizens' money, she is trying to be responsible and look at the bigger picture. Crosby stated another point to think about is if the process does get easier, the number of applications received might increase and another planner might need to be hired at that point. Crosby stated refining the process to make it easier will be helpful overall. Walsh stated they need to work on response time to the residents and that he would like to get a better perspective on it. Seals stated there perhaps should be a needs assessment of what must to be done as well as what each employee is doing. Walsh stated he would like to discuss this further and review how the process can be made simpler and more efficient. Seals commented she does support Staff but that she is hesitant to put another person in there when they have a person in there currently and they are not getting the responses they would like. Page 11 of 15