1999-07-21 Charter Commission Minutes

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Page 2 of 11 much more efficiently done in the Building Department. When people come in for a permit, you have a one-stop permitting operation. Right now, it is governed by Charter that it has to be out of Planning Department and quite frankly, it has nothing to do with planning because once the Council has made the ordinance with regard to subdivisions, everything flows down. It’s a strictly mechanical function and the talent, quite frankly, to follow through on this is better served in the Building Department and in Engineering under Public Works. Now it’s either Public Works-Engineering or it’s Building. I’m not quite sure where it would fit exactly but it would definitely be Public Works. Any questions on that? I’ll go to my next one. HIGASHI: Do you know exactly what Section in the Charter? OLESEN: Yes, I think it was on the last amendment that was made to the Charter and is the recent one, it’s an (undiscernible) sheet. IRVINE: Was this like in 1998? OLESEN: Yes. IRVINE: That’s Section 5-4 - OLESEN: It was an (undiscernible) sheet that went into the Charter that specifically designated that these functions would be in the Planning Department. IRVINE: It says that under 5-4.2, that the Planning Director will administer the subdivision and zoning ordinances and regulations adopted thereunder. OLESEN: Correct. IRVINE: Under (e) in an insert in 1998 - OLESEN: Right, it’s an insert, right. IRVINE: Yes. OLESEN: Okay, the second one is, again this is a question of function, how it actually fits. Again, it’s addressing the Planning Department. The Planning Department is in charge of, on paper now, it’s in charge of establishing the priorities of CIP funding. In reality, this does not take place. In reality, it is effectively a function of the Finance Department and a function of priorities established directly out of the Mayor’s Office and/or directly out of the Council. But to have it in the Planning Department, effectively it’s a deceptive place to put it because you’re thinking that Planning now is establishing what the priorities of a CIP spending is and that is not correct. They do not establish this. It’s actually done in a different area. So I would recommend that probably the best place it would fit would be, my guess would be, Finance because everything on CIP is governed by the availability of funding. HIGASHI: Again, can you assist us in - OLESEN: Okay, there Roland, I don’t. It is in the Charter. HIGASHI: It is in the Charter? file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 7-21-99.html7/1/2011