07/11/1988 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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e Mr. Holmer recommended against a City serial levy to fund library services, saying that it would border on legislative hypocrisy to fund a general City service, such as the library, through a serial levy. He said some of the programs recently re-added to the FY89 budget might be more appropriate for this type of funding. Mr. Holmer moved to use FY89 contingency funds for six months to fund the library services affected by the recent failure of the Lane County serial levy. Ms. Bascom seconded and the motion passed 8:0. V. BUILDING PERMIT SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS Terri Vanderpool, Permit Services Division Manager, said the council directed staff to develop measures to reduce building permit turnaround time. Specific turnaround goals have been established: two weeks for residential plans and three weeks for commercial plans, 90 percent of the time. In order to meet these goals, increased staff (1.5 FTE) will be needed in the areas of site analysis and fire safety review. The cost of meeting the turnaround goals is projected to be $50,500. Ms. Vanderpool said a revenue stream has been identified for this. Recently, the City's building valuation tables were updated, increasing the cost per square foot that is used to determine project values and, therefore, increasing the City's revenue from building permit fees by about $125,000 per year. Ms. Vanderpool said staff recommends that $50,500 of this additional revenue be used to improve building permit e turnaround time. Ms. Ehrman asked why fire safety inspections of buildings are usually done by about three people. She asked if one person could conduct the inspections more cost-effectively. City Manager Mike Gleason said that in order to save money, the City now has firefighters conduct fire safety inspections of buildings. These firefighters are on-call and must be ready to respond to emergencies; therefore, the members of a firefighting unit must remain together. In response to a question, Mr. Gleason said that if the council passes the proposed motion, a supplemental budget process would be initiated. Mr. Holmer asked when staff would begin to implement the turnaround goals. Mr. Gleason said the new staff positions would have to be filled, so there would be a delay of two or three months after the funding is approved. In response to several questions, Larry Reed, Building Division staff, said the building permit fee calculation is based on two factors. The first is a certain percentage of the assessed value of a construction project. The City Council has authorized staff to apply the highest rate allowed under State law. This rate has not changed for about two years. The second factor is determining the value of a project. Eugene's building valuation tables were recently updated, which means that project values will be about 8 percent higher than they were since the last time the tab~es were updated (1981). e MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 11, 1988 Page 7 .......~