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Morgan Hill, California
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Zucker Systems
Finance staff explained that some of the confusion relating to duplicative TI reviews
occurred because one Planning staff member was reviewing TI’s, while another staff
member was reviewing business licenses. To eliminate this confusion, Planning
implemented review changes to ensure that TI and business license reviews were
assigned to one Planning staff member. In addition, planning, building and finance
staff also determined that more coordination was needed in the document submittal
process because most TI’s are submitted and reviewed before the submittal of the
required business license application. To ensure business licenses are captured for
TI’s that may, by oversight, not submit their business application at a later date, the
Building Division now requests all TI applicants to submit their business license
application at the same time. Now, the planning staff assigned to review TI’s, receives
a review referral for the corresponding business license, during the TI review building
permit review.
We agree with the changes that the Planning Division instituted to eliminate
confusion and work effort duplication, as well as the Finance Department’s rationale
for not assuming Planning Division review responsibility.
Business Licensing activities are prime candidates for electronic permitting systems,
since they are straightforward and typically generate significant activity volumes,
which can usurp available staffing resources.
We understand that the business licensing process will be included in the TRAKiT
initiative and if so, TRAKiT significantly streamline the business licensing review
and approval process.
158.
Recommendation:
The TRAKiT module for Business Licensing process
should include online electronic submittal, online payment and receipting,
electronic review, electronic sign off and licensing issuance and provide auto
populating templates and a reminder feature. It should also be programmed
to measure processing timeframes and collect discrete activity data for each
process so that reporting is accurate and streamlined.
Planner Certificate of Occupancy Inspections
Project Planners are tasked with completing an inspection of new and/expanded
development projects and signing off on required landscaping and architecture before
the Building Official will issue a certificate of occupancy (CO).
In some communities, the Building Inspection staff are trained to perform planner-
related inspections and are delegated this responsibility, since they are already onsite
conducting other building-related inspections. In addition, to being more efficient and