2022 Report of the Cost of Government Commission

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would still be on the permtttee to start the work without the rest of the permit being approved. EXAMPLE: Section 25-11-35 of the City of Austin Land Development Code - TEMPORARY BUILDING PERMIT: "The building official may issue a temporary building permit to authorize construction of a portion of a building, structure, or building service equipment before the plans and specifications for the entire project have been submitted or approved if the applicant files information and detailed statements describing the activity to be performed and the building official determines that the activity complies with this title. The permtttee under a temporary building permit proceeds with construction at the permittee's risk. A temporary building permit does not guarantee that a permit for the entire building or structure will be approved. A permtttee does not acquire vested rights under a permit issued under this section." 2. Evaluation: The current permitting process stops reviews until each deficiency, however minor or administrative, is corrected and resubmitted which causes longer delays. Applicants have said that the initial reviewer does not always continue reviews on same application, with corrected returns sometimes assigned to a different reviewer. Also, the new reviewer often does not accept the returned corrections, even though their revisions satisfy the initial reviewer's requirements. Conclusion: This situation might be resolved if the same reviewer stays with a given application. Exceptions would be vacation, illness, vacancies. If not already in place, reviews by all relevant departments should occur concurrently. A weekly meeting with the County leadership, including the Mayor, should be developed to brief the shortfalls of the department until it has reached an appropriate turnaround time. Provide a function on EPIC to notify the applicant of errors as soon as the approval department makes comments. Track drafting companies that consistently submit poorly prepared plans and enforce restrictions disallowing future submissions if noncompliance continues. Evaluation: The current permitting fee structure appears to be rigid and could be revisited to consider the size of the project and special considerations for the project value range for plumbing and electric. Conclusion: Developing a fee structure similar to the process for plumbing and electric where a project value range that correlates with the costs of a permit might be applicable to other cases. Permitting delays are often due to staffing issues. Additional funding should go to payroll to hire more people and reduce turnaround times. 7 2022 Cost of Govemment Commission —County of Hawai'i - Final Report