2006-08-17 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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are checked. If everything is okay, Planning signs off and the application goes to the Building Division, which examines the structure of the home. From there it goes to the Department of Health, which will check on whether there is to be sewer hook -up or if a cesspool or septic system is allowed. So there are different people with different functions looking at the same application. The Department of Health picks up the application from either the Building Division or the Planning Department once or twice a week, works on it, and brings it back. People who are in a hurry will walk an application through. He apologized that he does not know all the physical mechanics involved in the process. The Chair commented that the website available to the public with tax map key information is not very useful, as it is hard to read the information. Mr. Yuen agreed and said his Department has a $5 CD available to the public, which has all the tax maps, zoning, and basic land use information on it. He would like to have all this information available on -line some day. The Chair asked if an objective of the Department is to do the permit processing on -line. Mr. Yuen said applications could be submitted on -line or with a diskette, but if the case goes to the Planning Commission, there would still need to be a hearing with bodies present. The Chair asked Mr. Yuen to explain his earlier recommendation on cross - training inspectors. Mr. Yuen said if the COGC was looking at consolidating functions, it would be worth exploring. The bulk of the work, however, is in the Building Division, making a building inspector the likeliest candidate to cross - train. What a building inspector does is far more complicated than what a Planning employee does. Mr. Yuen clarified that he is not recommending that this cross - training or consolidation happen, but that it be explored. Also, if an employee were cross - trained, he /she would need to know when a case is a special situation that needs to be kicked back over to Planning to deal with. However, in more than 90% of the applications, there are only four to five things to look at. Mr. Joseph asked whether there was ever an incident where an application was returned to the Planning Department because something was not done properly. Mr. Yuen said he was not aware of this happening, but he would hope that if the Building Division person saw that Planning did something wrong, it would get sent back to Planning. He hoped that County employees would flag things that are wrong, even if it were not their direct responsibility to do so. Mr. Sakaguchi said that if nothing gets kicked back to Planning, then perhaps its review is so routine that it is not substantive. Mr. Yuen said that as the laws are currently, somebody has to check the setbacks, the height, and the use. There are cases where the Planning Department finds errors and rejects applications. There are also some gray areas where they have an enforcement function, such as with a building permit application for a house plan which is obviously set up to become a duplex. It is the Planning Department that would check this, not the Building Division. Review of applications is not pro forma or a meaningless activity. However, much of the work could be done by one person rather than two. After no further questions, Mr. Yuen thanked the Commission at left at 11:15 a.m. (A recess was called, from 11:15 a.m. to 11:22 a.m., at which time the Chair called the meeting back to order.) 7