Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Development Services requests in-house building official, highlights Blitz AI testing and operational gains
Summary
Development Services presented its FY budget and asked council to fund an in-house building official, small increases to training and software budgets, and described progress on comprehensive plan adoption and AI permit-review software testing.
At the workshop the Development Services director presented the department’s budget, staff roster and a list of accomplishments and requests for the coming year.
Staff described recent hires — a graduate engineer hired in December and a GIS technician in March — and an expanded contract with SafeBuilt to supplement engineering-review capacity. Joe reported the department’s role implementing the newly adopted comprehensive plan and major thoroughfare plan, and noted improvements to GIS dashboards, checklists and the permit-review process.
Staff detailed a technology rollout of Blitz, an AI-based permit-review software the city licensed late last year. Early internal testing showed notable time savings from a small sample of reports: “15 hours saved per report,” the director said, and the team continues weekly sessions with the vendor to tune both residential and commercial modules.
The department’s principal budget request was to add a full-time building official, a role staff said would enhance continuity and customer service compared with entirely contractor-provided building-official functions. Joe told council the in-house official would review completeness and help reduce repeated plan resubmittals rather than replace contractor inspections, and that cost offsets from fewer repeated reviews may materialize but not necessarily in the first two years.
Council members asked whether the new hire would significantly reduce contract inspection costs; staff said the early years would likely show modest savings but more operational continuity and improved project management. Several councilmembers asked staff to include the building-official rationale in the efficiency-audit wrap-up presentation.
Next steps: Council heard the request and engaged staff in a question-and-answer session; council later approved related budget items in the consent/regular agenda as part of an updated overall budget amendment in the meeting.
