Title
Development Services Center (DSC) (B)
This is a request for the City Commission to hear a presentation on implementing a Development Services Center. **ESTIMATED STAFF PRESENTATION 8 MINUTES**
Explanation
A key role of the City is to provide development review services. Over time there have been a number of concerns with these services including but not limited to consistency, timing, coordination, and accountability.
In order to address the concerns, a new approach to deliver these services must be deployed to ensure both, a world class built environment and the City's economic health. In the simplest explanation of providing these services, the city manufactures Entitlements and Building Permits. Like any manufacturing process, there are various tasks/disciplines/parts required to produce the end product. For instance, to manufacture a tractor disc, one needs the materials to be ordered, the machines to cut materials, the welders to assemble, the painters to paint and the sales team to sell. Everybody on this team knows that they are producing a specific product. Similarly, with the manufacturing of an entitlement various city departments/disciplines are necessary.
The existing process with the City to date has been arrived at and not necessarily thought out in terms of providing a specific deliverable, i.e. entitlements/building permits. Therein lays the opportunity to shift the thinking of service delivery and align the various disciplines/departments into a "company" that manufactures the aforementioned deliverables -See Attachment 1 (Legistar 140771A). This opportunity comes in the form of a fully integrated service delivery model, commonly referred to as a Development Services Center, where cradle to grave development services are produced. Fully integrated Development Services Centers across the country have their uniqueness due to various factors such as state enabling legislation and local legislation, yet the most successful of these entities have DSC commonalities that are critical for success. These commonalities include:
1. Co-Location;
2. Performance Tracking/Technology;
3. Organizational Structure;
4. Advisory Panel.
In order to create and sustain a DSC, there are costs primarily with the co-location and technology components. There are one-time costs, such as systems furniture, relocation, rent, hardware and software, training, etc., and on-going costs, such as staffing, software licensing, technology maintenance, etc. Staff has compiled some preliminary estimates associated for both, one-time costs and on-going costs - Table 1 below is a summary and Attachment 2 (Legistar 140771B) provides much greater detail.
The preliminary estimates are not specific but rather intended to provide a range of potential costs to ensure that the Commission wants staff to proceed with this effort recognizing the estimated costs. Please note that there are multiple fund sources that would pay for the DSC such as the GG general fund, GRU, the Building Fund and potentially others. The pro-rata cost sharing allocated to each potential funding source would be presented with a draft final budget.
Table 1 - Summary Costs |
One-Time Costs |
Ongoing Costs (Rent Not Included) |
$2.3 - $2.7 Million |
$450,000/year |
|
|
Fiscal Note
a) None; b) Up to 100k; or c) (i) $2.3 million to $2.7 million - One Time Costs, (ii) 400k-450k - Annual Costs
Recommendation
City Commission: 1) Hear a presentation from staff to consider moving forward with a proposed DSC; and 2) Take action deemed appropriate.
Staff to City Commission: The City Commission approve the proposed DSC concept and accept Staff's recommendations as follows: a) Authorize the City Manager to use General Fund Fund balance for professional services necessary to aid in the creation of a final draft budget (not to exceed $100,000); b) Direct the City Manager to prepare and bring forward a Final Draft Budget for Commission approval to implement the DSC; and c) Authorize the City Manager, following budget approval, to prepare a Strategic Initiative to monument the creation of the DSC.