At its Wednesday morning work session, members of the Clark County Council pushed back on parts of a consultant’s report that partially blamed the councilors for dysfunction at the county’s Permit Center.
Bill Cook, a consultant with Citygate Associates, presented the report that found that there’s a basic lack of trust between the Permit Center and its customers, as well as other stakeholders. The report documented complaints from customers who said the permitting process is unpredictable, inconsistent and can take years to complete, adding to the costs of a project.
The report partially attributed the problem to county councilors intervening on behalf of constituents, which in turn causes delays for other permits. Speaking to the council, Cook said that there were a number of factors complicating the situation, including the county’s ongoing search for a permanent county manager.
“It seems like the accountability is on the county manager and the council,” Council Chair Marc Boldt said in response. “I don’t see any accountability on anyone else.”
The report includes strategic recommendations for the county to implement over the next six months that Citygate will then check up on. It also recommends that the county begin a “listening tour” with customers and stakeholders.
Boldt said that there are customers who have been waiting for months for a permit and won’t want to wait six more months while the county implements the report’s recommendations. He also said customers have little desire to talk until they see some “concrete action.”
“They’re fed up,” Boldt said. “So something has to happen if we are going to continue this dialogue.”
Cook said that dialogue will still be helpful until the county has hired a permanent county manager the council has confidence in. He also said that the report wasn’t suggesting that nothing be done for six months but was instead suggesting a “beginning place.”
Clark County voters approved the Home Rule Charter in 2014. It created a council-manager form of government where a county manager implements policies from the council. Cook said that, from his perspective, without a permanent manager the county was still implementing its Home Rule Charter, and it’s a complicating factor for resolving issues at the Permit Center.
But Councilor Eileen Quiring said that the county’s shift to the council-manager form of government can’t explain all the Permit Center’s problems. She said councilors are accountable to their constituents and that the report’s rationale for the trust issues at the Permit Center sounded like an excuse.
She said that when she’s contacted the Permit Center on behalf of a constituent, she just asks what’s going on. She said the typical response is that the customer is wrong.
“There will always be a time when constituents want to come to the council,” said Councilor Jeanne Stewart. “That’s never going to go away.”
She said that complaints could reveal a more systemic problem with the permitting process.
Councilor Julie Olson said that she would like to see a reporting process to monitor tangible results on fixing problems at the Permit Center. Councilor John Blom said that there are good recommendations in the report but that the county needs good data to track their effectiveness. Speaking after the meeting, Blom said he’d heard complaints about the Permit Center years before the charter was passed.
Cook pointed out that the report recommended that the county hire a new analyst to report on progress of changes at the center. He also said that providing better training to staff is important to improving the Permit Center, which he said will be an ongoing process.
“We can have a great trained person down there who has no customer service (skills),” Boldt said. “So that doesn’t help us. That’s why we’re getting calls.”
Cook said that the levels of frustration at the county are high, which he said will help change occur.
“There’s a desire for change, and we are hoping that will remain a positive,” he said.
Director of Community Development Marty Snell said that he would put together a work plan to implement the report’s recommendations that he will present to Interim County Manager Jim Rumpeltes next month.
Absent from the meeting was Permit Center Manager Mike Curtis. Snell said Curtis was at a conference.
At the end of the meeting, the council took the rare step of allowing a member of the public, Anne Anderson, to speak. Anderson, a structural engineer, won a jury trial against the county last year after she experienced defamation and discrimination while dealing with the Permit Center. Anderson launched into a diatribe blaming the problems at the Permit Center on its leadership before being cut off by Boldt.
“I think if we are going to have a fresh start, we must have new leaders,” she said.
