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Building official says permitting turnaround times improved dramatically; department plans further reforms
Summary
Building official Duke McGee told the council the department cleaned legacy data, reduced residential plan-review times to about three days and commercial reviews to about 14–15 days, and reclaimed roughly 6,480 staff hours; he proposed continued software integration, training, and accreditation steps.
Paris — Building official Duke McGee told the Paris City Council the building department has made major operational improvements after addressing legacy data and training shortfalls tied to a system migration.
McGee (speaker 13) said the transition from myGov4 to myGov5 moved corrupted or inconsistent records into the new system and that the department launched a legacy-permit cleanup to restore data integrity and accountability. He listed corrective steps: vendor-certified training, standardizing roles and SOPs, a field-approval program, software integration, and a planned accreditation through International Accreditation Services.
On performance metrics, McGee said residential plan reviews that were averaging 14 days are now being completed in about 3 days, a change he described as roughly "78% faster." He said commercial reviews moved from about 28 days to 14–15 days and that application incompletes fell from about 60% to roughly 15%. He also said the department reclaimed about 6,480 man-hours in the past year and that inspections for 2025 were on track with prior-year volumes (staff reported roughly 1,289 permits in 2024 and about 1,403 in 2025 and approximately 4,320 inspections so far in 2025).
Council members thanked staff and noted the improvements position Paris to absorb coming growth.
What happens next: McGee said the department will continue software integration, expand outreach, and pursue accreditation; no formal council action was required at the meeting.
