Santa Rosa shutting Planning Department for rest of week

Santa Rosa is closing its planning department to the public for two days this week so city staff can huddle up and brainstorm some ideas for improving its land use processes.

The Community Development Department is shutting down its permit counter on Wednesday and Thursday to allow planners and others to search for solutions to the department’s documented shortcomings.

“This is an investment,” said David Guhin, the department’s interim director. “We are expecting out of this process to identify key improvements we can make in the entitlement and plan check processes.” Management Partners, the consulting company hired by the city earlier this year, will facilitate the all-day meetings Wednesday through Friday, Guhin said. The office is normally closed to the public on Fridays.

City Manager Sean McGlynn hired the firm to help the city get to the bottom of long-standing criticism that the department is a bureaucratic briar patch.

After interviewing a number of people and businesses familiar with the city’s permit processes, the consultants in July produced a 24-page report with 33 suggestions for how to improve consistency, transparency and customer service at the department.

Since that report, the city has undertaken a number of initiatives, including increasing counter staffing, bringing the engineering department under the management of community development, and emphasizing pre-application meetings to make the permit process more predicable for businesses, Guhin said.

The consultants plan to use the GE Work Out technique, Guhin said. The method, developed by General Electric in the 1980s, aims to make organizations more efficient, responsive and accountable.

Senior management staff will not be present. This will allow rank-and-file staff to speak freely, Guhin said. Staff from multiple departments will be involved, including fire, water, wastewater and legal, he said.

On Friday afternoon, the groups will report their ideas to senior staff, after which a long-range action plan will be drawn up.

“This isn’t a one-shot-and-done. We’re going to take a massive step forward here, but there will be a lot of work ahead,” Guhin said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.