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Planning Department outlines FY2008 budget and work program, asks for targeted funding for preservation and IT
Summary
Department staff presented a FY2008 budget proposing $23.7 million in revenues and expenditures, adding roughly 6.2 FTEs, new grants for Mission Street public realm and a $1.4M first-year request for an integrated permit tracking system; commissioners asked for more detail on contingency, records and deliverables.
Planning Department staff presented the department's proposed FY2008 work program and budget, saying revisions since the earlier packet raised projected revenues and expenditures to approximately $23.7 million. Staff highlighted several changes: an additional $740,000 in state grant funding for the Mission Street public realm plan, $300,000 from the Historic Preservation Fund Committee (conditioned on $700,000 in local matching allocations), an adjusted permit-tracking capital request (first-year cost $1.4 million with 15% contingency and a projected three-year overall cost of about $9.7 million shared with DBI), and a package of personnel changes that would add roughly 6.23 FTE overall.
Alicia Jean Baptiste and Elaine Forbes described priorities that include completing the Eastern Neighborhoods EIR and implementation, publishing the Streetscape Master Plan and Transbay Terminal planning, strengthening code enforcement and information technology, and completing a citywide preservation survey. Staff said they would return with more detailed budget backup on February 22.
Commissioners pressed for clearer performance outputs and contingency planning for the IT project, and for more information on records-management problems that public commenters had raised. The Commission secretary acknowledged records have been misplaced under off-site storage arrangements and said barcoding and IT scanning efforts are in progress but not fully budgeted. Staff said the permit-tracking project has a built-in 15% contingency and a three-year rollout schedule; commissioners requested a more conservative contingency and clearer reporting on expected deliverables and timing.
Public commenters reiterated concerns about missing records, uneven GIS capability across the department, and the need for adequate staffing to manage the records center and online access; staff acknowledged the problems and described barcoding, planned scanning and a future move to improved facilities.
The commission did not take a final vote on the budget at the hearing; staff said they would return with written budget detail and any recommended changes in a subsequent meeting.
