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Mr. Bowerman asked, rather than hire someone to help people work through a complex system, why not apply the resource to simplifying the system? He noted that staff, such as Mike Sullivan and Denny Braud, was already doing process work in this regard, and he wondered what this new person would do that they don't already do. Mr. Coyle said that was the interagency coordination part of the proposal. He gave as example that twenty years ago in Eugene it might have been possible for just one staff person to do a complete review ora building permit to build a single-family home, whereas an application now for an expansion reveals the level of sophistication and understanding required now to work an application through its process. Mr. Coyle said the knowledge resource is available in the public sector, except that the department is striving for 90% cost recovery for permits. This proposal adds a purchased service for the benefit of the public, he said. Mr. Bowerman asked him to explain. Mr. Coyle clarified that the City would fund the facilitator position without the burden of cost recovery from the individual applicant. Mr. Bowerman said Mr. Coyle's proposed language says the facilitator is to assist existing businesses, which presumably means a new business would not qualify for the assistance. Mr. Coyle said that was correct. Mr. Proudfoot said in his work he sees how interagency coordination can save citizens a lot of money and make government deliver service more effectively. He said he thought a facilitator position would serve that function and would more than pay for itself over time if the person in the position does the job well and if the market place is listened to. It could lead to regulation streamlining because the person interacting with others needing the service is in the best position to understand what administrative changes need to be made. He urged that process facilitation and process review not be separate functions but be combined in some sense. Mr. Re'Voal said the organizations that are supposed to be in existence today to help businesses should step up to the plate to be more effective. He said over the years he had seen different City divisions come together to work better with each other, but he has not seen that so much from the Metro Partnership, which receives a significant amount of money to do that. He added that any business afraid of the bureaucracy to start up a business maybe should not be in business. If there is to be a person to help businesses, he said, rather than taking funds from the City budget perhaps the advocate should come from the Lane Metro Partnership. Mr. Coyle cited an example of an existing business in Eugene wanting to expand and hire more employees but their perceptions of the difficulty of dealing with the City made them not even want to attempt the process. Mr. Coyle said he helps such businesses through the process now on a capacity basis, and the question for the committee is do they want to increase that capacity. Ms. Rygas said having one person as a facilitator is not nearly as effective is embuing all of the staff in the department with the capacity to counteract negative perceptions people have. She said she had great respect for City staff, and so was somewhat confused by the proposal. She said she expected it would be part of City staff training that each person interacting with an individual would help that individual move to the next step in the process. Like Ms. Pierce, she said, she still did not understand how adding someone new addressed the problem better than fixing whatever in the system is too complicated and training staff to help on the complications that remain. Mr. Coyle explained that he sees government regulations as a geometric progression, in that every step added has multiple effects on other parts of the regulatory system. He gave the example of new stormwater management requirements going into effect that will require a series of judgements and trade- MINUTES--Mayor's Committee on Economic Development June 14, 2004 Page 6