Deschutes County approves one assistant planner FTE for Community Development

Deschutes County commissioners on Aug. 6 voted to add one full‑time equivalent assistant planner position to the Community Development Department to shore up permitting and counter services as staff prepare for a key retirement.

Community Development Director Peter Gutowski told the board the department is preparing for an employee retirement in about 17 months and that an assistant planner would provide “bandwidth” for basic responsibilities such as staffing the counter, coordinating pre‑application meetings, answering customer questions and routing basic land‑use applications. Planning Manager Will Groves told commissioners the county has been operating lean since layoffs during prior budget cycles and that junior planners provide low‑cost backup and a training pipeline for institutional knowledge.

The department said the position would be absorbed within the current budget without a large impact and that fee revenues cover the increase. Staff said current‑planning demand has been steady, some employees are or will be on FMLA, and adding a junior planner would reduce the need to pull long‑range planners off their projects when short‑term permitting surges occur.

Commissioners praised the department’s conservative budgeting and the timing of the request. Commissioner Chang and others said adding overlap in staffing ahead of a planned retirement would help preserve “institutional knowledge,” particularly for address assignment work that county planners said is essential to permit processing. Several commissioners and staff also noted that bringing back junior planning capacity would reduce delays for builders and applicants and allow the county to complete long‑range projects such as wildfire resiliency and lighting regulation updates by reducing the need to reassign long‑range staff to current permits.

Commissioner [name not specified in transcript] moved approval and another commissioner seconded. The board voted unanimously in favor. The motion added one FTE assistant planner to the Community Development Department. The county record shows staff will recruit for the position and return with the usual hiring authorization details and timelines.

The action was presented as a staffing and succession‑planning decision rather than a policy change; commissioners and staff emphasized it is intended to maintain service levels and reduce permitting delays rather than to expand programs.

Staff and commissioners did not identify an exact hire date; Gutowski said the retirement is expected in roughly 17 months, so the new hire would provide overlap for training. Salary, classification and recruitment timelines were not specified during the public record for this item and will be handled through standard human resources procedures.

The board moved on after the vote to the next agenda item.