City Planning Dept. to reduce hours next year
December 10th, 2008 by tristan baurickThe city of Bainbridge Island’s Department of Planning and Community Development plans to reduce customer service hours next year.
Aimed at giving planning staff more time to work on development permit applications, the reductions will cut eight hours per week of counter service, the city announced on Wednesday.
Counter service is currently provided Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Beginning in January, the counter will close at noon on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
City Hall will remain open during these hours, but planning staff will be available only for appointments with permit applicants.
According to Planning Director Kathy Cook, the reduced service hours will give staff more uninterrupted time to process permit applications.
Staff will also use the off-counter hours to develop improved customer service processes, Cook said.
Other planned projects staff will devote more time to include updating the department’s application forms, reducing the backlog of pending permits, making online permitting available for minor construction activities and providing new resources for customers interested in green building.
For more information on the department’s reduced hours, contact Planning Director Kathy Cook at (206) 780-3756 or Deputy Director Chris Wierzbicki at (206) 780-3715.
Tags: City Hall, cuts, planning department
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December 10th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
This is flim-flam pure and simple. If COBI staff was right-sized according to the $147K COBI Benchmark Study (staffing 18% to rich), COBI and taxpayers could save $2-3 million and could stay open and serve the population. However, the furlough plan is designed to inconvenience and punish the public while preserving the current COBI staffing.
CUT COBI STAFF NOW.