Interaction Group
Santa Barbara County Process Improvement Steering Groups

Oct. 1, 2003 Minutes

Andersen’s Pea Soup, Buellton

 

General information:

 

Group Chairman Dave Cross called the meeting to order at 4:33 p.m. Fourteen people attended, including nine from county staff or county consultants.

 

Consultant Tom Frutchey reported on a successful presentation from all four subgroups at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting. Representatives from each group explained our progress so far, goals and plans. Group leaders had a chance to interact with each other. The next update before the board is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 2. Dave Cross discussed having something concrete to present at the next meeting with the supervisors.

 

Planning and Development Department Director Val Alexeeff discussed with the supervisors a request to solicit proposals to rewrite and consolidate the county zoning code and land use documents. Eight firms have applied so far. The application deadline is Oct. 27. The contract will be awarded Dec. 2. Steering Group III will participate in awarding the contract...

 

Meeting Minutes:

 

The minutes from the Sept. 17 meeting were corrected and approved.

 

Review of action items from Sept. 17

 

Frutchey said the Ordinance Subgroup is aware of our recommendation to make sure the revised ordinances use images, diagrams and similar graphics and are written in common language so they will be easily understood by people who only have occasional contact with Planning and Development.

 

Minutes from the subgroups will be on the county website, under Planning and Development Process Improvement, by next week.

 

We agreed that subcommittee reports should be e-mailed to the group notetaker by 2 p.m. on the Monday before the next meeting to be included with the minutes distributed then.

 

Subcommittee reports

 

User identification (Kimberly McCarthy, Steve Goggia, Susette Naylor, Dan Nemechek and Zoraida Abresch)

 

It is still discussing a definition for ministerial permits. The goal is to describe applications in which there is no need for discretion or interpretation and can be issued permits quickly. The group would like the definition posted online and put into use as soon as agreement is reached in order to demonstrate progress and intent.

 

Kimberly McCarthy reported that the subcommittee has refocused from “who is using the counter” to “how they use it” in order to find the best way to communicate effectively with them. All available communication media should be used. Current handouts are inadequate. The website needs to be updated with such features as an FAQ.

 

Department job descriptions need to be re-evaluated and skills identified that are appropriate to public outreach and communication along with planning experience. For example, the ability to communicate with the public might be more important or as important for some jobs as an in-depth knowledge of planning issues. The counter staff, although functioning well, could use more training. Planners need to be flexible in providing information tailored to the audience. The subcommittee also noted that the current counter layout might be counterproductive to both staff and the public using it; recent improvements have helped, but not solved, all problems.

 

Cross wanted to keep trying to define the users and how each would be helped by different approaches. Harrell Fletcher said we need to account for differences between frequent and occasional users. Susan Warnstrom wanted to create a procedure to grant some sort of immunity to anyone with violations on their property who are now trying to go through the system. Susette Naylor suggested a GIS-type system so typing an address into the county computer network would reveal all relevant development information on that property.

 

 

Public awareness (Alice Howe, Tom Smith and Jerry Bunin)

 

Because of conflicting schedules, the subcommittee has been unable to physically meet, but subcommittee member Alice Howe researched having regularly scheduled training sessions at the counter to help new or occasional users understand what they must do. She also said that the county has three bilingual employees available for those training sessions and that the government access channel could be used to promote the class. The subcommittee is still researching using the public access channel equipment to record and broadcast the class.  The video could display a phone number for people with additional questions.

 

Cross suggested the need to give users a full overall picture, all available permits and everything involved in obtaining them.

 

There was discussion about creating an accessible video library for all users.

 

Website Development (Susan Warnstrom, Salud Carbajal and Bernie Stableford)

 

The subcommittee has identified a “free” person who can perform work on and maintain the website. The subcommittee wants to begin identifying information to put online while continuing to examine other websites for ideas. Frutchey said the San Diego County website’s buttons help users navigate through the application process with more experienced users able to go farther if they want.

 

Continuous Improvement (Tom Frutchey and Kimberly McCarthy)

 

The subcommittee wants to create a clear, quick, simple and accessible path for suggesting and implementing improvements. It could involve identifying a single person, several people or group to be the main contact for the staff and public, receiving and responding to suggested improvements and shepherding them through the process. The leader might be a senior staff member with authorization to make decisions, credibility, a proven track record, and a strong working knowledge of the process -- a single-point decision maker. However, fiscal and staffing level decisions might need more than one person to resolve. The system should also account for some people preferring to make anonymous suggestions or to be contacted later to discuss their idea. There also should be follow-up as to why a suggestion was or was not implemented. The process should also address such issues as cost, hours, manpower and community benefit.

 

There was discussion on existing staff members who might lead the process and about creating a pilot program – six months or so -- to see how labor intensive it turns out to be.

 

Kimberly McCarthy agreed to begin working on a draft suggestion improvement form.

 

General discussion

 

Everyone agreed that the goals and course of action were moving in the right direction.

 

Consideration of the group mission statement was put off until next meeting

 

Frutchey will distribute other group definitions of ministerial.

 

The next meeting is the Oct. 15 at 5:30.

 

Notetaker Jerry Bunin (and Kelly Brodison)

 

 

The User Identification Subcommittee update is as follows:

 

1. The preliminary User Identification Subcommittee recommendations are ready for review and will be distributed for discussion at the October 15, 2003 Steering Committee meeting.

 

2. The preliminary list of identified users (stakeholders) involved at the counter will be distributed for discussion at the October 15, 2003 Steering Committee meeting.

 

Dan Nemechek, Planner

Building and Safety Division