All right, good afternoon. I'm Kevin Wilk, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek. Welcome to the Tuesday, September 15,
2026 Special Meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council. Under California law, public comment
and special meetings are limited to subjects on the agenda only. Therefore, public comments will be
received during the item. The study session item is update on development services, team process,
improvement projects, and outcomes. And I invite administrative analysts Kathy Arana and senior
Planner Ben Schuster forward to provide the presentation. Good afternoon, Mayor
Wilk and members of the Council. Thank you all for being here today. We
appreciate the opportunity to share an update on our process improvement
efforts. I'm Kathy Arana and I'm joined by my colleague Ben Schuster and we're
here on behalf of the entire Development Services Team and we will be guiding you
sorry today through the key insights and outcomes of this improvement work. Over
the past several months, the team has been focused on identifying key
opportunities, driving targeted improvements, and building a more
efficient process. Today we're excited to highlight the progress we've made, as
well as the progress we're starting to see already. Sorry, as well as the impact
we're starting to see already. Throughout the presentation, we'll be joined by
select members from the Development Services team who will be sharing more
about some key insights that are underway. So I'll be giving a brief
introduction of our presenters today we have Casava Washington from the Economic
Development Division and from our Engineering Division we have Ryan Cook
from our Building Division we have Jessica Azzivito and Samantha Sampson
and from our Planning Division we have Alison Rustic, Jessica Gonzalez and
Gerardo Victoria. With that we're excited to share with you today a story about
about our lean green development team.
To start, let's take a moment to recognize
and thank everyone who participated
in our process improvement efforts.
This work is not easy, improvement takes time,
and a willingness to really look at how we operate.
Everyone on the team has committed a great deal of time
to these efforts, and we know this work is not yet finished.
What is especially meaningful about this effort
is that it brought together staff
from three different city departments,
the city manager's office, the public works department,
and Community Development Department,
as well as multiple divisions,
building, economic development,
engineering, planning, and traffic engineering.
While each group has its primary areas of responsibility,
we were able to come together
as one development services team,
also known as a DST, to improve our permitting process.
The core improvement team consists of 33 city staff,
including our three executive team sponsors,
along with our consultants, partners in public innovation,
also known as PPI, and a number of customers
who opted to participate in the process.
In addition to this core group, many other members of the DST
were also involved with the process improvement efforts.
Many of them are here in the audience today.
And so what will we discover today?
As we move through today's presentation,
we want you to come away with a clear understanding
of why we needed to change,
what we learned, and where we're going next.
We'll start with what prompted us
to take a closer look at the way we do things.
From there, we'll share what we heard directly
from our customers because their experiences helped shape
where we focused our efforts.
You'll then see how we built a new culture around Lean
and turned customer feedback into action
with the process improvement work.
So by the end of today, we hope you'll not only understand
what changed, but also understand why it changed,
how we got there and the difference it's making
for our customers already.
And now we're gonna hear from Ben
about why change is needed.
Thanks Kathy.
Let's start to unpack why change is needed.
So we as a city, we process many different types
and sizes of development applications every year.
And historically, we've faced some challenges
in consistently processing those applications
due to unclear procedures, poor communication,
limited visibility into the approval process,
as well as some other challenges.
And these issues have been exacerbated due to a reliance
on informal training, a lack of undocumented processes,
and extensive staff turnover since the COVID-19 pandemic.
And because our goal as a development services team
is to deliver consistent and exceptional customer service
throughout the entire permitting process,
we needed to reevaluate our business practices
and redesign them to meet our current customer needs.
So I think it's important to note
that the work we're talking about today
is a long time in the making.
And the city started permit process improvement efforts
about 10 years ago with the Blueprint for Success
version one and version two.
And those efforts really laid the foundation
for today's lean work.
And while those initiatives lost momentum
because of the COVID-19 pandemic,
that same pandemic also created an opportunity for us
to rapidly develop digital service offerings
in response to some immediate customer needs.
And then coming out of the pandemic in 2023,
the city picked back up its process improvement initiatives
with the desire to be nimble and responsive
in a post COVID world.
And so that effort culminated in our permit counter refresh
in the fall of 2025, excuse me,
as well as the start of the lean work
that we're sharing today.
So to better understand what those customer needs are
in this post COVID world, we needed to talk to them.
And so we did that through a,
what we called a voice of the customer session
that was facilitated by our consultants, PPI.
And you can see on your screen here,
some of the feedback that we got from our customers
from that session.
And it was a mix of positive and not so positive.
But all of it, I think, was really powerful for us
as a development services team to hear.
And I think you can kind of see on your screen
the key theme that we heard coming out of that session
was a lot of fear and frustration
around our current process.
And so I think the work that we're undertaking right now
is really about how can we move away from a process
that our customers fear into one that's
going to allow us as a city to meet its potential
as the epicenter of the East Bay.
So how did we actually bring about change?
I think it's really important to note
that there's something fundamentally different
about this improvement work.
And that's been the primary emphasis
on creating long-term culture change,
rather than just generating a one-time list of improvement
efforts.
And so to bring about this culture change,
we did a couple of things.
So first we went through a series of workshops and trainings to learn a common language around
lean business concepts, and we're going to talk about that in a few minutes.
And we learned kind of lean principles such as root cause analysis or process mapping.
We then started gathering as an entire DST every Tuesday morning, and we still do this,
for 15 minutes.
And we just do a check-in on all active development projects citywide.
And this has helped create kind of a baseline of understanding and situational awareness
for the whole team when it comes to developments.
And then those lean concepts that we learned, we kind of started practicing them right away
through a series of quick wins.
These are kind of small bite-sized improvement efforts.
And then every week we celebrate those.
And I think all of that work has led us most importantly to thinking about ourselves as
not just the planning division or the public works department, but instead we are thinking
about ourselves as a development services team.
And that's really awesome to be part of that.
Okay.
So we've said lean now a couple times, like to take an opportunity to briefly explain
what lean is.
So in a nutshell, lean is just a way of thinking, and it values continuous process improvement
that seeks to identify the root cause of an issue and then address that.
So since today we're talking about the city's permitting process, we might think of that
in the following way.
So first defining the problem, the city's permitting process today does not align with
current customer needs or expectations.
then quantify the problem so that might be things like how long is it taking for customers
to get their permits or how often is a customer confused about what the next step in the process
is.
We then try and understand what is the root cause of their frustration, is it lack of
insight into the process, is it lack of handoff between steps in the process, is it something
else?
And then finally, we address whatever those frustrations are by providing clarity, transparency,
and expediency throughout the entire process.
And then we evaluate the impact of any changes we make,
and then we continuously assess
as a regular course of business.
So now Kathy is gonna come back up
and introduce some of the changes that we're making.
Thank you, Ben, for providing that background
and giving us an overview of Lean.
So what are we changing?
Our improvement work focused on three main areas,
increasing clarity, enhancing communication,
and improving efficiency throughout the permitting
process.
So work centered around these three thematic areas
with the goal of achieving the following outcomes,
clarifying permit requirements, assisting our customers early
and often, building consistency across the DST,
making relevant information easy to find and documenting
our processes.
So we're going to hear from various representatives
from the process improvement team
to talk about some of the key improvements
that are underway within each of these three areas.
And so for clarity, what are we changing
to improve and enhance clarity?
Alison will come up and share with us
some of the customer resources
the customer education team is developing.
Thank you, Kathy.
I'm Alison Rustic, Associate Planner.
Early on, we considered the customer's experience
and we realized one way that we could help them
to better understand our complex processes
would be to document them.
We made a goal to create clear, informative, and visual tools
that would help customers feel more informed and better
prepared to make their projects a reality.
One educational tool that we developed
is the customer journey map, which
visualizes the entire DST process.
We know that no two projects are exactly the same,
but the customer journey map is intended
to serve as a high level guide throughout the life
of a typical project from start to finish.
Although 12 steps may seem like a lot,
this graphic illustrates the complexity
of the development process
to help customers see the bigger picture
of how to get from an initial concept
through permitting, construction,
inspections, and project completion.
It can be referenced at any stage of the process
to help customers understand where they are,
what milestones lie ahead,
and how to keep their project moving forward.
The four tracks on the lower half of the sheet,
as you can see, indicate how different parts of the process
can overlap with each other and which divisions take
the lead at different times.
To build upon the customer journey map,
we also have four additional reference sheets
that are customized to each division.
The handouts are designed intentionally
to coordinate with the customer journey map.
Each one is structured with the same components but contains information unique to each division's
process.
Here's an example of the planning track information sheet.
At the top of the worksheet, you can see there's a timeline that highlights the steps within
that division.
Below is a summary of the typical steps to obtaining an approval.
And then there are quick facts to the left which indicate purpose, lead department, outcomes,
etc.
We also have unique tips that make the process flow smoothly for the customer and we have
potential next steps as well as contact information and resources at the bottom.
Another way we're seeking to improve clarity is through redesigning the comment letter.
Learning, engineering, and building permits all include an application review cycle during
which the applicant will receive written feedback on their proposed project from a variety of
DST partners and external agencies.
Our new template attempts to improve the reader's experience by making information more easily
accessible.
Here you can see an example of a current building comment letter.
In the customer experience interviews as well as in our day-to-day experiences as staff,
customers consistently cite that comment letters are a pain point in the development process.
Feedback is highlighted that comment letters can be difficult to navigate.
Next steps for applicants are unclear and the reviewer's comments can even be redundant
or conflict with each other.
To address these concerns, we're building a template that incorporates a clean, modern
design that clarifies the staff contact information and which comments need actions to move forward.
It prioritizes the customer's overall experience of reading the letter.
This slide shows an example of a redesigned planning application status letter.
It summarizes the project or application that's been submitted as well as the status of incomplete
or complete and the comments that have been provided by staff.
to the cover letter are the review comments. This pilot design will organize comments by
area of interest listed on the left part of the slide rather than the traditional format
of listing them by division. A benefit to this organization is that comments from different
divisions on a similar topic may be clustered together. Additionally, each comment is displayed
in a card or a block to distinguish them from each other.
A closer look at the design of the comment block shows the intentionality.
Each one has color-coded tags along the top that indicate the comment ID number, the division,
the round of review, and the action status.
A comment topic heading identifies the main idea of the comment, and below that, the comment
itself, there's a description of why the comment is important and the suggested advice for
how to move forward.
There is also space to link reference materials as well as a direct contact to the person
that provided that comment.
The goal of this design is to make it easy to locate a comment, reduce questions, and
speed up the response time on the applicant side to ultimately make the process review
smoother and more efficient. Next Ryan will present another initiative
addressing clarity. Good evening council. Ryan Cook, senior civil engineer. So for
this one we're going to discuss a little bit in terms of how we're going to look
at to clarify communication associated with one example being our building plan
review turnaround times. This is on your screen an example of our existing policy
bulletin that was created in 2009 that outlines what the turnaround time is for if you submit
for a building permit.
This obviously is a lot of text through here which makes it difficult to follow and a large
table with a whole bunch of numbers.
Which really outlines, has a lot of information about different departments and who's, how
long they're going to take to review.
We've highlighted just the blue column there which is really the main information that
an applicant is seeking, which is what's that maximum amount of time that the
city is going to review. But without highlighting that and everything it's
very difficult to follow. So what we're looking to do is this is an updated
brochure that we'll have out for that, which really improves the design and
clarity for the expectations. We have one for both residential and
commercial. The first column on the left is for the first submittal when you
submit and what that expected turnaround time is, we've simplified it into weeks just to
give an easier concept and also then any subsequent reviews will be on the column on the right.
And so this is something that we're looking to implement across multiple types of bulletins
that we have and information that we proceed following a similar type of bulletin, yeah.
So next up is Kasava to talk about external agencies.
Thank you, Ryan.
I'm Kasava Washington, Economic Development Specialist.
So one of the challenges we identified with our development projects is that external
agencies often control pieces of the permitting process.
Whether that's fire, electric, sewer, any of our utility agencies, regulatory agencies.
So for us, this started as a quick win
to create an internal comprehensive database that
had all of our external agency contacts.
So staff knew who to call when they needed answers.
And as we worked through this, we
realized if it was difficult for staff,
it may also be challenging for the customer.
So we created the external agency map.
And this pairs beautifully with our development services customer journey map and just enhancing
clarity through the permitting process.
The external agency map clearly identifies the external agency to contact, the role they
play through the permitting process, as well as where customers can go to find additional
information.
So this simple tool clarified the process for the customer and also makes it easier
for staff to navigate through the process.
So with that, we're going to highlight a few projects that are underway to enhance communication.
Next up is Jessica and Jess.
Hi.
Good afternoon.
I'm Jessica Azzavito, Permit Center Supervisor for CDD.
And I'm Jessica Gonzalez, senior planner, and we will be presenting new services to
expand engagement opportunities to better meet customer needs.
And so in an effort to improve our customer communication, our team has created the framework
for updated enhanced services, which we are calling the development consultation services.
The new services will help us to provide opportunities for our customers to engage with us throughout
all stages of their project.
And so how did we develop these services?
We met with developers throughout the city of Wanna Creek and we asked them what challenges
they experience, what they need from us, and what would make the development process more
streamlined and predictable for them.
And so what we heard is that every project is different and unique.
Early project reviews such as our existing preliminary review team application or PRT
provides helpful feedback and guidance.
And that customers appreciate being able to easily meet with city staff at all stages
of their project to assist with the permitting process.
And so with that feedback in mind, we created the development consultation services to provide
early project review, clearer guidance, and flexible access to city expertise.
And so here's an example of our current preliminary review team application, or PRT, which we
are preserving as a service, but we're expanding to include an optional customer meeting.
And so we recognize that the PRT is not a one-size-fits-all.
we've also increased our options by adding two additional services and so
now I'll hand it off to Jess and she'll get into those. Thank you. Thank you
Jessica. Here is an overview of our development consultation services. We
have option A concept consultation, option B preliminary review, and option
see ongoing consultation sessions. By offering these three consultation
levels we can better support projects based on their individual needs while
balancing customer service with appropriate cost recovery. Let's dive
into the details. Option A, our concept consultation is a 30-minute no-cost
meeting recommended for customers exploring an idea. Staff from multiple
City departments meet with the customer to verbally go over zoning requirements,
potential permits, and next steps. Option B preliminary review. This is similar to
our existing PRT process recommended for customers with conceptual plans seeking
details seeking detailed written feedback. Multiple City departments meet
to review the proposal and provide written comments. We've added an option
to go over the comments with the customers this service is a one-time flat fee.
An option C ongoing consultation session provides flexible meetings at the
customer's request to address project needs. Recommended for customers needing
continued support and coordination with city staff throughout unique situations
or challenges during permit review. This service will be deposit based and build
hourly. Here's a sneak peek at our new draft booking page for service option A
concept consultation. A customer would go onto the website add a few details
select an available concept consultation date and they would meet
with city staff from planning engineering and building department. It
It would be that simple.
Our team is excited and proud to bring
these customer-focused services
to the city of Walnut Creek in the new year.
We didn't just start with a program,
we started with a conversation.
We listened, we learned, and we tailored.
And now we're ready to deliver.
That's our approach to development
consultation services and ultimately
to better customer service.
Next, we'll hear from Samantha Sampson
to talk about additional efforts we're undertaking
to enhance communication.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Samantha Sampson, permanent technician one.
Another effort to enhance communication
is to assess public-facing materials on our city website.
So far, we have identified and removed over 60 documents
that were no longer needed
and over 100 documents to be updated.
Documents were removed if the information
was no longer relevant or if the information
already available elsewhere on our website.
Updated forms will be rewritten with a customer-focused approach similar to some of the educational
material we just saw.
In addition, we are working to restructure the design, layout, and content of the DST
website.
As an example, this is our existing Permits webpage which highlights some common issues
found throughout our website.
Pages have a mix of information, they don't guide the customers to helpful content, and
are not service-oriented. To overcome these challenges, we're working on a new
structure for our DST webpage content. Some key changes include a new
DST hub page to highlight the most requested services and most applied for
permits shown on the left, and on the right is an example of an individual
service page which provides clear guidance that leads customers through
that particular project or service journey. Another exciting effort that's
underway are changes to our permit application portal,
Acela.
Here are some snippets from our current permit application
portal.
It suffers from an outdated design, is difficult to navigate,
and does not provide clear information
on the exact permit type a customer may need.
We are addressing these challenges in two phases.
First, we are redesigning the look
and the feel of the portal to optimize the customer
experience, shown on the left.
And second, we are configuring a permit wizard
which guides customers through the application process
by asking a series of questions intended to lead the customers
to the correct application and start it for them,
shown on the right.
And now we will hear from Gerardo to talk about some efforts
to improve efficiency.
Hi, I'm Gerardo Victoria, Associate Planner,
Community Development.
So what are we doing to improve efficiency?
One major effort we'd like to highlight
is documenting standard operating procedures.
By mapping our processes, we were able to identify areas where SOPs were missing or
needed to be updated.
Each team prioritized the process and updated an SOP that created a consistent path for
both city staff and customers.
So far we've completed the following SOPs you see on the screen there.
As an example, planning design review for planners to process design review applications.
review of building permits or for planners to review building permit applications.
Commercial Express applications are for plan check engineers to expedite qualifying commercial
building permits.
And Engineering Review of Building Permits are for engineers to review building permit
applications.
The goal is to ensure that everyone is following the same process with a clear and consistent
steps from start to finish.
Many efforts are underway to track and report on various metrics that relate to our permitting
process to enhance efficiency.
Here's an example of a dashboard that tracks metrics for building permits.
We are currently working on identifying metrics to capture and build dashboards for planning
and engineering permits.
This allows us to track our ongoing successes and identify new areas of improvement.
Now back to Ben.
Thank you, Gerardo.
So that's a lot, as you can probably tell.
I'm wondering why everyone's looking so tired the last couple weeks.
But what we covered today is really just a part of everything that's underway.
As you can see on your screen, we have over 50 major initiatives that are currently underway
to improve various parts of our process.
And those quick wins I mentioned earlier, as a team we've completed over 60 of those
to date.
And while those are small by nature, they've collectively had a large positive outcome
on our process.
So we've covered the work, but what does this all mean for our customer?
So it means a couple things, and we're going to share a couple highlights here.
So first, if we look at some building permit data, on your screen this is for commercial
building permit data, and we looked at 2024 to 2025, that's in the orange, and the green
is 2026 to date.
And on the left-hand side is average customer response time during the permit review phase.
And you can see that even though there's still a lot of work that is still ongoing that we've
already seen a pretty dramatic decrease in customer response time.
That's about two weeks.
And then on the right-hand side, that city processing time's a more modest decrease so
far, but we do anticipate that as we roll out all of the permit improvement efforts
that we would see a continued decrease in processing times.
And so those decreases in processing times are kind
of complemented by what we're hearing anecdotally.
So on your screen here is a snippet from a survey that we send
out to every single customer that comes
to our permit counter.
And so for 2026, you can see that 90%
of survey respondents strongly agreed with the sentiment
that they were satisfied with the outcome of their visit to the counter.
And so now Kathy is going to come up and share some more positive feedback we've been hearing
and then bring us home.
So if we recall the feedback we received at the beginning of this work, customers feared
the process noting that it was holding the city back from reaching its full potential.
And now we've started to hear the following from signature development.
Overall, we've been very pleased with our experience
working with Walnut Creek to date.
And from Rola Gabin, partnerships like this
are what make Walnut Creek such a special place,
we truly value the relationship.
Your commitment to honoring our timeline
has been instrumental in ensuring that we are on track
for our groundbreaking from Lindsay Wildlife Experience.
And from Jeff Dudum, the collaborative approach
I am now seeing across the city
makes me even more optimistic about Walnut Creek's future.
So customers are now expressing excitement and optimism
about the process.
And in your pockets, you'll find complete letters
from our customers.
So as we reflect on our journey today,
what have we learned?
We learned that change was needed
due to shifts in customers' needs.
We heard our customers were frustrated
and afraid of the process.
We embraced a new culture
that leans into change and collaboration.
We made improvements to enhance clarity,
communication, and efficiency.
Our customers are now experiencing a better and more
efficient process.
And our customers are pleased and excited about their future
here in Walnut Creek.
So what's next?
All of this improvement work will continue
as we aim to roll out our revamped permit process
early in the new year.
The changes we're undertaking are
reflective of the cultural shift that has spread
across development services.
and as a team we're dedicated to finding creative solutions,
celebrating change, and embracing our customers' needs,
which allows us to build better together.
And with that, we're available for any questions.
Great, thank you, comprehensive presentation
and lots of detail.
So let's open up questions.
Who would like to start here?
Great, thanks Mayor Portem.
Thanks very much for the presentation
for all your collective hard work over many months.
This is really exciting to see kind of
the fruits of this labor.
I kind of have a scatter shot of questions
that your presentation kind of evoked
and based on maybe some recent past history
with clients in other jurisdictions.
From my own personal experience,
where in the process can a homeowner find out,
do I need a permit for this?
that easy for the average homeowner to find on our website or are we taking
steps to make it easy for them? Thank you for that question. Currently it is
available on our website and also the customers are able to call our front
counter or come in. We are making improvements to our city website to make
that easier to find and just like an easier flow to navigate their way around
Our city website. I think that that would be helpful
I'll save that for comments. I guess I'll stick with questions now
on the comment letter process was there any
Discussion or consideration given or was it identified as an issue?
Some of these questions are not or comments are not necessarily
Objective in nature or could be lead to issues down the road and discussions before an occupancy permit
I'll give you an example from a recent project which the comment was essentially repair damage
caused to the roads by the project.
No one really had done any PCI evaluations of the roads before construction and after
construction so are we trying to avoid kind of that situation or how would you kind of
rectify avoiding comments like that?
That's a great question. I think, you know, there are some comments by their nature that
are very hard to be 100 percent objective. And I think that's a good example of one.
I think really the intent and the focus on the comment letter was to provide more clarity
early on as to what the expectations are to provide more of a communication pipeline
to whoever is making that comment so that discussion can be had because I do think it
varies on a project by project basis to your point.
And so it was more around that than trying to achieve full objective comments for everything
because I just I don't think that's possible unfortunately right in the permitting process.
complicated that that makes sense and I think that's honest and I think it can
be you know I don't know to what extent it's been a pinch point in the city but
I think it has been it can be a pinch point obviously in getting projects over
the finish line to occupancy another one would be the utility contact I think
Ryan had a comment yeah I can give a little bit more input as it relates to
the example that you provided in terms of some of those more generic type and not specific
comments.
Throughout the example that you saw was for our planning application status.
Those are definitely going to be much more objective in nature.
Those more subjective and or other ones are oftentimes more conditions of approval that
could put in there that contractor or developer shall repair any damaged roadway that's caused
or something like that.
And then when they get into permitting, it's usually, we make sure that there's specific
notes and stuff and we'll be very clear in terms of what that looks like on plan sheets.
And then we usually also have various like general information, guidance stuff that talks
about some of those more general ones and then they get addressed as we go into construction
through pre-construction meetings and stuff and what those expectations are and how they
get addressed so that way it's more clear to both the developer and contractor as they're
building and so what what that expectation is before final that's
helpful so kind of two different parts in the process and you try to provide as
much clarity as possible in the comments on the permit that is correct yeah okay
on the external agency contacts that seems extremely valuable and so it's
outward-facing to for the applicant if they're running into an issue with AT&T
or PG&E, they know who the utility is.
It's often, you know, like trying to call Microsoft.
Yeah, so.
Getting somebody to answer the phone.
Thank you.
The database itself that is just for internal,
that's an internal resource,
the external map will be available for the public.
And we do have some contact info there,
but it's not specific to, you know, the person,
but more general.
If that would be needed, I think we'd be able
to provide that, but just our database itself is internal.
Any further, Ryan?
Oh.
Sorry.
Who should I call?
PG&E.
Yeah, utilities are a little bit more
up my alley on a lot of this stuff, what we deal with.
The utility agencies are always a challenge,
considering we don't have any sort of authority over them.
And the fact that some of them, particularly, say PG&E,
there's a bit of a revolving door in terms of personnel
that works there.
So we work diligently to try and keep our internal contacts updated, especially for
emergencies and other things.
The information that we provide out to applicants and stuff is going to be much more general
to either a general line or email or just a website in some cases because there is no
one specific contact at those for them.
But we continually work with it and we try to help them and guide them.
We reach out on behalf of the applicants sometimes to some of our contacts internally if they're
coming up and struggling, getting stuff done, because we can kind of usually know
who to get a hold of and get some better answers, but not necessarily that we have
them contact some of those more specific people. That's helpful. Yeah. Two more I
think. On the preliminary application or the preliminary review team, what's the
cost in general turnaround time for that process? It's time and material basis I
I imagine, but on average.
Yeah, so the three new concepts,
the option A is going to be of zero cost, one time thing.
The option B, which is the kind of mirrors
the most closely to our existing PRT process,
that is, I believe, a $1,000 flat fee
for commercial and multifamily projects,
and then that is still free for single-family development.
And then the option C,
which is the ongoing consultation services,
that's an initial deposit of, I believe, $3,500,
and then that's billed at the hourly rate
of the different staff involved.
And is it about a 30-day time frame?
The meeting is held,
and then you get a written letter back from the city
with everyone's comments?
For option B.
Yeah.
I believe our current turnaround time for those
is about a week, one to two weeks?
Yeah, about a week after, yep.
Okay, and then just finally on the performance indicators,
I know that that's still being developed
and you gave the one example of the city processing time
and it's ticked down a little bit.
So I assume that's going to be one of the ones
we'll be watching.
What are some of the other general ones
that you're thinking about?
That is definitely one that we'll be watching.
What were the other ones that were planned,
that we're wanting to capture?
Yeah, so a couple different things.
One is what we shared today was processing time
specific to building permits.
And so as was mentioned in the presentation,
we're looking to build out similar processing time metrics
for other types of permits,
so planning entitlements as well as engineering,
so site development permits.
And then there's other things related to some of the work.
So that would be a good example.
So something we might think about with the customer
journey maps, for example.
How do we know that those are actually landing
with our customers?
And so something we kind of learned from our consultants,
PPI, is to think creatively about metrics.
And so something might be like, are we
seeing a reduction in the number of phone calls
to our general permit line that are looking
Kind of general guidance do the permit process because we would anticipate that based on hey, we've provided all these
educational materials around the process, right
So it's that would be a example
Excellent. Thank you very much
Remember darling. Thank you and great job guys. I know this is really hard stuff
It seems so like why can't you just make it easy, but it's never that simple
starting with the meeting options that people are having do we have a
Concept of how many people are going for a option A B or C. Do we know what the distribution is?
With option A we've heard that we've had we've heard customers express that they would want something like that
We don't yet have metrics on how many will avail of that option and we'll look at that closely too as we roll out
the new program. And then with the option A it strikes me is that's a great
place to capture where your education materials might be lacking a detail. Have
you guys thought about how you could include a quick debrief after the
meeting? You know there are some questions that customers come up with
over and over and if you could find a way to capture those and fix up. So we
This is a really good question to kind of remind everyone of, you know, lean, right?
Lean, one of the most important parts of this work, I think, is the culture change and then
with the lean framework of being a continuous process of improvement.
And so to your point, right, I mean, that is literally just baked into this idea of
what lean is.
And so I would say yes.
You know, as we've kind of changed the culture of our development services team, that this
this would be one of the natural outcomes
of what would happen, right?
Hey, this questioning keeps coming up over and over again
as people are exploring just a business concept.
And so that's a great opportunity for us
to provide some targeted materials for you.
Clarity.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
OK.
And then one of the other things,
and my experience with permit stream lighting
is related to large water projects, which
is probably a very different animal than adding garages.
But one of the things that frequently held projects up
were disputes between the applicant would say,
yes, it is adequate, the staff would say, no, it's not.
And the applicant would say, yes, it is.
The staff would say, no, it's not.
And they would fight about that for a while.
And we ultimately ended up coming up
with a dispute resolution process.
These are obviously big projects.
Have you thought about,
Do you have those kind of conflicts on projects
on a regular basis?
Yes it is, no it's not type things.
I think with the redesign comment letter that we have
that we'll roll out in the new year,
we're wanting to capture those.
And so if there's something that seems objective,
we'll state our source,
whether it's a unique order or some ordinance,
so that we have something to point them to to back up
that decision or that justification behind
direction they're being given and if it's something in the gray area and open
for you know a decision to be made later on that communication line will be open
so that we can come to that together. Okay so there's a way for them if they're
not happy with the answer they're getting to to understand why that answer
is there. To provide yes. And then I really like the external agency map I love the
little grease trap underneath the restaurant. One of the things with
external agencies might be useful is, for example, we all know PG&E interconnections
are difficult to get and a big source of delay. Do we have we come up with like
tips on how to deal with the agencies or nice things to know.
Right?
You bring up a very valid point there.
Yeah, so this is one of the things
that we consistently are trying to communicate very early.
And we make a very strong point even as early
is what is now our development consultations.
One of the first comments we always have is,
reach out to Central San, reach out to PG&E,
start those conversations right now,
and we let them know,
especially based upon the project type that they have,
what we expect to see in terms of what they need,
are they gonna need new transformers,
or is it the new grease trap, and stuff like that,
to give them a sense of what those costs are
and what those time frames are,
especially in some of the long lead times,
If we expect PG&E to take two years, well, very quickly,
FYI, you make sure that you're accounting for this and stuff.
And so we really try to communicate early and often
with that.
Great.
And we repeat it.
We repeat it throughout the entire process.
You know it's going to take you.
Yeah.
You know.
Yeah, absolutely.
Just to build on that, the new customer journey maps
actually call out, please contact the utility companies
because of this exact reason. So we are, to Brian's point, making sure in
multiple different avenues that customers are aware of this requirement.
That sounds good. No, I like what you guys are doing. It's really great.
I appreciate the enthusiasm, too. So thank you.
All right. Councilmember Silva, you're ready.
So first and foremost, thank you very much for this work. It's exciting. You can tell
you're excited about it and I think the customers are giving you good feedback
at that they're excited about it as well. One, as a communications person by
training, one of the challenges is to ensure clarity and you focused on that.
Consistency, lack of redundancy, and basically conflicting comments. I like
what you're doing which is rather than doing it sorting it by who made the
the comment, starting it by what the comment subject matter is.
But generally, somebody needs to check before the report goes back to the customer that
everything is clear, consistent, lack of redundancy.
How are you doing that, or maybe you're not, I hope not.
So with these redesigned comment letters, there is an owner, and it falls in the planning
Division and so they will review all the comments before it does go out to the back out to the customers
Though at the different stages it will hit the divot the different divisions
The last person that it hits before it goes to the customer will be in the planning division and does that
Let her say if you don't understand something call it leaves definitely does quickly. Yes. Okay, and thank you any areas. Yes
councilmember to Vinnie
Thank you for the presentation. It was excellent
My question, and what fascinates me, is that 15-minute meeting that you have every Tuesday.
Are you going through all of the projects that are active, and sort of like everyone's
checking in on those projects, or just cover a few, and the reason I ask is sometimes the
process stalls, and the applicant, I'm thinking of some feedback I got recently, the applicant
thought it was waiting for the city, but the city was waiting for the applicant, and months
went by and meanwhile the business is, hey, what's going on with this, and so no one really
knew where it was.
Do you have a mechanism to see when something has stalled so you can check in with them
and make sure they're staying on track?
Yeah, that's a really good question.
So I think there's a couple pieces to your question.
So first is it is not all projects.
We very purposely struck a balance between the amount of time we're spending with the
the entire development services team and the types of projects.
So there's a internal list of criteria for which projects we talk about,
but generally these are larger commercial projects.
So think of like restaurants in the downtown or a new auto dealer, for example.
These are the types of projects.
And then we have, we've developed a system over time of different ways to flag things.
So we have, for example, pins that literally go on this board.
And we have a chili pepper to indicate this is a hot topic.
We've gotten a lot of custom or rather public inquiry.
And then we also have a little clock pin
that indicates, hey, this is something to your point
that we haven't heard from the applicant in a while,
so someone needs to follow up.
And then one of the, I think, benefits of all of us meeting every week is a lot of times
there are no update, right?
We know that projects aren't moving necessarily week by week, but it allows for a built-in
kind of flag of, oh, hey, this, there's been no update on this project now.
It's been, you know, three or four meetings, and that's, and then in that moment there's
the flag of, hey, can, you know, the project manager or whoever reach out and check in
on the applicant or can economic development reach out as kind of a customer care touchpoint
and see what's going on?
No, that's great.
And I can appreciate that you probably only have time to cover the really big projects.
But if there was some mechanism for the little ones, like if they stall too long, just making
sure that they also get sort of incorporated into the going through things, which it sounds
like you are doing.
The other thought I had was that, you know, this is a big culture shift.
And I can see that everyone's enthusiastic,
and it's exciting to see what mechanisms are in place.
So a few years go by, maybe we're drifting off course
a little bit, we're managing the little things,
but maybe there needs to be another reset
from a big picture standpoint.
Is there every few years process where you go in and look
at the big picture again, somewhat
akin to what you've just done, but in a lesser degree.
So we do currently have these weekly meetings.
And these serve as a good check-in, touchpoint
on how things are going.
And if we do feel that things will need some sort of revival,
we do plan a workshop or an added training,
or just an added time or event or space
to create for the team to reconnect and refocus and realign.
These are the projects that we're working on.
This is something that we need to make
we bring to the end zone and to you just to keep trying to achieve our goals and
then also with what we're learning with lean is that it is a
continuous improvement cycle right so we're trying to stay with that and that
is our intent. So thank you for your response that that kind of leads into a
question that I had is what is our response timeline when we do get a
question from a customer. I typically get emails when people say I've been
waiting for I was promised I'd hear back in a week and now it's been three weeks
and I haven't heard anything and I hate having to go to Erica but I do and but
so I just want to is there some kind of an internal process that we commit
ourselves to get back to a customer at a certain time? If I could answer that
because so many of those questions are directed to me we have a lot of
infrastructure behind the scenes with our oscilla program so that there are
reminders and so forth and sometimes perceptions or timelines that are given by contractors
to customers so forth differ from whenever things were actually submitted and so forth.
So we essentially have a time clock and then we have reminders and so forth but we're also
not infallible and so one of those things is to actually reach out to customers and
Let them know, hey, we're a little bit behind,
and this is where you are in the process,
and then we'll get back to you.
It's also important to note that an important part
of this continuous improvement is continually hearing
from the voice of the customer.
So back to your earlier point about how do we keep improving?
We've incorporated processes in here
to actively hear from the customer.
And if we start hearing things like that,
that flags for us that there's something that we need to look into further.
Well, that's great. I mean, Eric, and for your response to me anyway, and I'm sure
the rest of the council is phenomenal, I mean, you get back, I mean, I'm expecting to hear
back in a day, and I often hear back within an hour. And I do love the fact that you will
fact-check the customers as well. I remember one particularly said that we heard it was
going to be a week and it's been a month, and it turned out the contractor hadn't even
submitted it yet. So they're obviously not telling the truth to the customer as
well and that's interesting. So I appreciate that. One quick more question.
I don't know how the fees work typically when there's consultation but the fact
that we have several people that were customers that are well-known business
business owners and whether it's landlords or owning restaurants and of
course we have a few in the room right now. The fact that they're supportive of
this tells me that we are truly on the right path here which is great. How are we
comparative to other cities when in charging consultant fees whether it's
the thousand dollars flat fee or whether it's $3,500 retainer? With the
recent fee study that occurred and then with our adopted master master fee
schedule we did our consultants assisted us in comparing against other neighboring
cities of the similar size. And these numbers did compare. It was competitive with their
rates. And then also our rates, we are held to, you know, our cost recovery, so we cannot
go over, you know, 100 percent. And we did keep it at we tried to maintain a conservative,
you know, level. We didn't do full 100 on a lot of these rates just to make sure that
we keep our customers happy and satisfied.
Well, so I'm going to finish up with a softball question, at least I hope a softball question.
So do you feel the whole process is going to go over well with our customers and developers
in Walnut Creek?
Yes.
Are there nods from the audience here?
All right, very good.
Do we have any public comment that's on the line?
And nobody in the room might take it.
Great.
I'll uh, first of all, we'll close the questions.
Sorry, go ahead.
I just wanted to add a few comments before you wrap up the talk, but I wanted to wait
and see if there's any public comment.
Um, so it looks like no public comment.
Oh, we do have a public comment.
Well, Jeff, you can just come right down the middle.
I can start while you're looking.
Mr. Dudem.
Hello, my name is Jeff Dudem.
Um, I want to thank all the people in the room, especially the ones that work with the
city for just being awesome in those meetings and taking our approaches some
of them weren't kind some of us have been frustrated over the years with the
way things have been and I kind of look at the documents page of the 60-plus
that was until about four years ago what it was like to to just do a simple
project in the city of Walnut Creek so if everyone's looking at that page that
stressful, it's confusing, it's it's not what you want to do especially for the
average person who doesn't have the education to sort through that. Four
years ago the City of Walnut Creek there was a shift and Erika I think that you
have added a lot to that and I know this is a top-down making things happen but
by bringing Erika in not only changed you know for you to make that phone
call, but for us as customers to be able to get in there and understand and ask
why and get an answer that made sense to us. And I think that that is where I
would start off because I thought originally because I got my first
skateboard ticket here and my second cruising ticket here it was just me that
was making it difficult from the you know the 94 to 2020 kind of how it was a
Tough ride to get anything done here. And again, it wasn't the skateboard of the cruising ticket. It's just it was difficult and
What what we went through in that meeting was total culture shift
I just worked on a project just recently and
all the words and all of us have different jobs different fields that we work in and when we come into meetings like this and
We get a wonderful presentation and you sit there and you hear this
this, how does it actually really factor in?
And working with?
Keep going.
We'll say you're speaking for the customers.
OK.
Right.
So keep going.
I'm curious how we're going with this line of questions.
Working with Simmer and Steve, and I know
Simmer's not here right now, but bringing in Henry and Fangbin,
Ryan, Andrew, and Mili into this meeting.
And doing the A approach was something
talked about in that meeting, and it was an actual live demo, I think, of what we
all talked about. And we were working on a project that wasn't easy, and there were
a lot of questions that were probably never brought to this group before. And
everyone was was incredibly helpful. And by the end of our first meeting, before I
even left there, Fang Bin was giving me copies of things to like take and digest.
Ryan was incredible, Henry was incredible, Stephen. I mean it was it was
like nothing has ever happened in the city of Walnut Creek before. So what you
heard in words in beautiful demos on the you know slides was actually it's
already run. And then the second meeting was okay we're there you you know with
following all the rules and the regulations and everything that that you
would normally do, they gave you a decision at that point to go. And if you
as a customer said okay I want to take this risk and go forward, I had a much
better feeling than the guessing game which was from before. So thank you to
everyone that helped with the project in the last month. Since 1994 I've
worked on 18 projects in downtown Walnut Creek. It's been fun, but as I
will tell you now, these wonderful opportunities that we are being
provided are just going to be in Pleasant Hill and Concord's and don't
give it to them in hands shortly. So what we have to do, like Craig said, is we
got to keep on top of it. We got to keep with technology, we got to keep
talking to the customer. So we're not just sitting down for five years and
going oh now we're behind the times again. I think that's really important to
think through at this point. But I would say that the real-life example worked.
So what you heard today on slides is actually going to be make a difference
for people. The one thing that we need to do is we need to get to the landlords of
the city of Walnut Creek and let them know about this process because there's
few of them, one of them's not in the room obviously, I'm not talking, Brian
would definitely send them down for option A, but there are some of the
landlords who maybe not know will just have them sign a lease and no matter at
that point if they sign that lease you know then it doesn't matter how good the
City of Walnut Creek performs it's not going to be fast enough when they're
paying rent. So I think that that's a big piece of it. So that's all I have, thank
Thank you very much.
No, I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you for coming down and speaking, Jeff.
It's like Brian's aching to speak, too.
Good afternoon, Brian Harahara.
I wasn't going to speak, but I can't let it just be Jeff.
And I'll stay into the two minutes, so.
I just want to say that thank everyone for this process, staff.
I do want to acknowledge that Eric has made a huge difference.
I've been around a long time in this city.
I won't say how long, but I went through the blueprint
for success.
Was it a decade ago, probably?
And there were some good changes,
but we said that it's really, there was improvements,
but it was a cultural issue.
And to be honest, in that process,
I remember saying, because there was a lot of discussion
of metrics, they went to Palo Alto and they said,
it's all about metrics, permits.
And I said, what is, how long does it
take for a permit, for a building permit, and kind of deer in the headlights. And we
never saw a number. And I expressed this in our meetings with staff. And I said, I went
through this, everyone says, oh, it takes 60, 90, 120 days, but there's no real number.
And so in our process in which you saw on the screen, it was the first time I've ever
seen a number. It's like then we know where we are and how we can improve. So I think
that was holding themselves as a staff and as a group,
as a services, accountable.
So I think that was huge.
Another recent event, and I don't want to embarrass you,
Jessica, but it really was kind of a refreshing event
that we are splitting, demising the Vineyard Vine space.
And we're going through a master sign program amendment.
And it was going along the process.
Bottom line is there were some delays
and there was some staff transition, I'll just say that.
And bottom line is that I was panicked
because, I'm gonna go over two minutes, I won't go long.
That I was panicked because the worst thing
from a landlord standpoint is when they're ready
to get their sign and they say, and we say,
Well, we don't have it approved yet as a landlord and then it gets into it's it's a nightmare
And then they say we can't open without a sign
So I was losing sleep and I got an email back from Jessica saying hey, you know
We had issues on our sides. We apologize
we're just gonna instead of going to
signed subcommittee we're gonna go straight to design view Commission and
We're you know comfortable with that and then for me
Before that, I was going, God, we got to sign us a committee.
Then it could be a month and a half down the road.
Bottom line is it went great.
We got approved.
I slept much better.
But just the spirit of customer service,
they took responsibility and said, hey,
we had issues on our end.
And I said, hey, there's no harm, no foul.
It's OK.
But I think the attitude told me that there
is that cultural shift going on at staff level, which
in my 20 plus years, 25 plus years, I haven't seen.
So I'm very excited.
Thank you everyone in this room
for all the effort and leadership.
And I think it's gonna be great for Womack Creek.
Thank you.
Thanks Brian.
Anybody else from the public?
Okay, city manager Dan.
Yeah, I just want to share a couple of summary level
of thoughts about the impetus for this.
And some of you may recall that actually
when I started here, one of the primary goals you gave me
was to see further improvement in development services.
So nine years later, here we are,
it's taking a little longer than planned,
but there have been, that is actually a true statement.
Obviously we had a big disruption with COVID,
but one of the impetus for this more recently
is knowing how much things changed in COVID,
knowing there were considerable vacancy rates,
knowing that other cities were changing.
we wanted our development service permitting processes
to move from being a hindrance to a competitive advantage.
Now we want to get to the point where not only
is Walnut Creek known for its intrinsically high value
in terms of being a destination for the many reasons
that it is for not only housing and jobs,
but for entertainment, for it to live, work and play,
but that going through this process is the model,
preferably in all of California,
that it is a great place to do business
and get through that process.
That's really the goal that we are working towards,
and what this started with was considerable focus
and training on customer service,
with the goal that we are a customer-centric organization,
not only for development services, but city-wide,
and as I'm sure every staff in here hopefully could repeat,
because they've heard me say it numerous times,
we all have jobs here at the city for one reason
and one reason only,
and that is to provide service to the community.
We're not here to flip a profit.
We're not here to return shareholder value.
Certainly, we want to be very resourceful
with taxpayer dollars and very prudent with those,
but at the same time, we are here to provide service.
So it's really started, as you heard,
with the culture shift and focusing on the customer,
a big piece of that is understanding the customer mindset
and hearing from the customer regularly.
So making great progress on that front, as you've seen,
we're also obviously then working to be more efficient
And streamline our processes, reduce any redundancies
to really look across all of the different divisions
and departments through a unified lens
so that we are as unified and streamlined as possible
with really, that put it really simply,
we wanna allow projects to go through
and better, faster, cheaper.
That's really what everybody wants at the end of the day
and that's what we are working towards.
And along those lines, one of the things that we've heard
and it ties into both process and the customer service piece,
we've heard consistently for many years,
even going back to the early blueprint days,
which predate me by a year or two,
is that developers want certainty and they want flexibility.
They want to know roughly how long something
is going to take, what that process,
what the next steps are, so that there's that certainty,
and within the regulations that we have,
that we can be flexible.
How do we get to yes?
There are many cities or many regulatory agencies
that have a why it can't happen mindset and know first.
We want to have a mindset of how do we get to yes,
assuming that the project falls within the parameters set
by the council and that we can work with.
So that's where we're evolving.
That's where we're at.
We started this, I don't know if this was mentioned or not,
focusing on restaurants.
And the reason being is we wanted
to focus on kind of mid-sized businesses that's
applicable to many other types of businesses.
We also intend to subsequently apply the lean process to housing
as our next focus after we finish this phase.
and then obviously expand from there.
And then ideally we have numerous people trained
at the city on lean processes.
We can begin deploying this to other parts
of the city beyond development services
to really engage that mindset of continuous improvement
that lean offers.
And then lastly, I just did want to acknowledge
the entire team, as noted, this is a team effort
that focuses community development,
our engineering departments, our public works team,
economic development and all of our outside agencies,
so it's been a great effort and really nice
to see this progress over the last many months
and all the progress and all of the excitement
and interest in this project has been really rewarding
to be a part of, so thank you to everybody involved.
Thanks, Dan.
So much like your comments, 10 years ago
when I was first running for city council
and it was probably summer around 2016,
I was meeting with some different business owners
and I said, what's your big issue?
And they talked about timeliness, responsiveness,
making sure that, you know, why do we just get the feedback
saying, no, that won't work, come back again,
rather than figuring out a way to make this all make sense?
And how can we be the city that helps you get there?
We've heard all sorts of iterations
of loud along the way, everything from a concierge
to just more responsiveness in general.
And I think that's the reason why we have economic development
and downtown vitality is one of our priorities as well.
And so my frequent conversations
with the business community,
developers that are in the residential community,
have all focused on that.
And 10 years ago, we talked about how other cities
like Concord with the verand and San Ramon with city center,
they're stepping up and Walnut Creek still has this attitude.
This is not what I said, but this is what I heard back.
Walnut Creek has the attitude of we're the only game in town.
And so you have to play by our rules now.
Well, yes, of course they have to play by the rules,
but I think the fact that we are more of a customer service
friendly city and development team
is really going to pay dividends.
And now we've seen what's happened in these other cities
and they have stepped up,
but I think we've really stepped up now as well.
I really appreciate the effort that the staff
has put into this, that leadership has put in this
and the business community has been involved
because it's not just telling us something
and then disappearing, but it's actually being involved
and helping the sausage get made.
So thank you to the business community at large
and the staff and any other comments on this as well.
But yeah, very appreciative here.
Yeah, I just wanted to say in 2016, I started our company
and I went through the website for the city
and it was really hard to figure out what to do.
And we did a big remodel in 2018.
And it was the same experience.
I think, well, wait a second.
I do permit.
I know how to do this.
And I love the education materials.
They work much better than what was there back then.
And I really appreciate it.
It's a much better customer service experience.
And I really appreciate the enthusiasm and the energy
you guys have brought.
Again, thank you.
And it's been a long road.
But what's refreshing here is that I'm not
hearing the following comment that I heard probably
15 years ago.
I was standing in the planning department
looking out the window at a restaurant,
and they had no sign.
And I said, I don't understand why they don't have the sign.
You can't do business if you don't
have a sign that says you're in business.
And the answer I got was, well, they haven't come and asked us
what to do.
To which I said, maybe that they don't have a sign
is an indication that they know how to run a restaurant,
but they don't know how to fill the sign.
Perhaps you should make a phone call.
That's not what I expect to hear today,
because you recognize that the customer may not always
be right, but they could always, they may always be confused.
Thanks.
Actually, good point, because a lot of the restaurants
actually are owned by people that this,
they may be first generation Americans,
And so they just don't know the processes, so great point.
Yeah, I think I'm probably gonna start hitting
on some of the same things,
but the collaboration between departments,
I mean, seeing that as truly impressive,
all viewing yourself as like one team the way that you do.
I love the meetings, the preliminary,
the concept meeting, then having the preliminary review team
and then also having the ongoing consultations,
the idea that there's a space to be able to access
staff and the whole team, not just one department.
The fact that when you're dealing with an issue now,
you deal with it by issue instead of by department,
just sitting on the same points,
but it's the collaboration that's taking place.
And to what Jeff mentioned earlier,
removing the unnecessary old or redundant documents.
I mean, I can just share my experience in the hospital.
It's like it's so easy to form a committee
and add a process, add a step,
add something you have to click on,
add a new sound that goes off.
But I always wonder like, well, who's gonna go through
and for everything we add, like remove something, you know,
otherwise it's sort of just like death by checklists
and things like that.
So that was great to see as well.
But really appreciate what you're doing.
I think this is super important for the city,
for the community, for the businesses.
So thank you.
Yeah, Ben, when you said this has been an awesome experience,
I could tell that was kind of a genuine emotion from you.
And it was infectious to hear that.
It was really kind of heartening to hear that, too,
that it's been transformative.
Jeff's left, but when he said the thing about how
we need to reach out to the landlords, Walnut Creek
downtown, what I'll often do when I go to a grand opening,
I'm like, well, how was the city process?
And generally, I'll get comments like, well,
took a long time. But that's at the tail end, right? How do we get them into option,
let them know about option A and get them at the front end so that that part
can be streamlined. I guess I was also struck by sort of what what Brian had
relayed and what Erica said when, you know, when you said we're not infallible
and that they're and Jessica acknowledged that there were problems on
on our end, it's not often, there gets to be egos involved and it's not often someone
can just say I made a mistake.
And when we do that, I'm really heartened to hear that we did that and we owned it and
I think the more we can put that into practice, when it truly is on us, now if it's on the
applicant, we just remind them gently like well no you haven't, resubmit it, the contractor
hasn't actually submitted the plan.
So the cultural shift seems real and I'm excited about that and then just finally I
would add a plug for the do I need a permit because I think if we can make it as easy
as possible.
I'll give the example do I need a permit to fill in a swimming pool and the contractor
is going to say you don't need a permit for that and the typical homeowner will say I
don't need a permit for that the contractor told me that they're not likely going to call
the city. And I think to the maybe they'll go on the website to double
check it and then if we if we can just have an easy one-pager what do I need a
permit for? Pool is probably not a good idea because not a good example but
other ones do I need a permit at an HVAC unit or something like that. And with
that it's been a really exciting process. I'm looking forward to seeing this come
to fruition at a councilmember Davini's point. We've had these different
iterations over the year version 2.0 and version 3.0,
but I view this as kind of an endless loop.
Maybe it won't be called the lean process,
but it'll be this continued pattern of evolvement
and cultural shift.
I don't know that we'll need another,
hopefully we won't need another type of program.
I'm pleased to make the motion to accept the report from the development services team
I'll amend the motion to say and to congratulate the team for on behalf of this entire community of the work that you've been doing
So moved
Aye. All right and with that we'll adjourn the City Council special meeting and we'll reconvene at six o'clock for our regular meeting.