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Graduate students present digital-permitting review; council accepts recommendations
Summary
San Diego State graduate students presented a capstone report analyzing El Cajon's digital permitting portal (PAKO/InterGov), recommending clearer status notifications, visual flowcharts, organized permit forms and brief customer surveys; the council unanimously accepted the report and directed staff to pursue feasible improvements.
San Diego State University graduate students Richard DiPaola and Nick Luber presented findings from a capstone review of El Cajon's digital permitting process, reporting that the city processed about 3,600 development activities in 2023 with an estimated $116 million in local economic value. The students said three factors most influenced customer satisfaction: timeliness of permit approvals, the PAKO portal (InterGov) user experience, and staff responsiveness.
They said survey and interview results (175 survey responses, 40 coded open-ended responses) showed median satisfaction scores were generally satisfactory across categories except for permit timeliness, which emerged as the clearest area for improvement. They recommended priority changes including a milestone-style status indicator (likened to a Domino's tracker), a posted flowchart that links to permit-type checklists, clearer organization of forms by permit type, and a short five-question customer feedback survey to monitor trends.
City staff and council questioned technical feasibility. DiPaola said the team attempted to contact InterGov about integration but did not get a response; staff later noted several recommended changes can be implemented without back-end vendor changes (improved homepage links, automated email improvements, updated help guides). Staff said they are already piloting some of the recommendations for simple, over-the-counter permits such as water heater and re-roof permits.
After a brief question-and-answer period, a council member moved to accept the report. The council voted unanimously to receive the SDSU findings and encouraged staff to prioritize low-cost, high-impact items such as clearer status notifications and simplified guidance for first-time users.
The council also directed staff to convene a development-and-permitting roundtable (first scheduled June 20, 9 a.m., hosted at Toyota of El Cajon) to engage the development community on implementation details.
