All right, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

We'll call the budget review committee uh back into order.

Uh welcome back.

Uh we have Council President Leitner and Councilmember Zaf, Cole, Kate, Sherman, Alvarez, and myself are present.

We'll jump right in with our first presentation of the afternoon, which is our development services department.

Mr.

Vachy, welcome, sir.

How much time do you need for your presentation?

Think I can do it in less than six minutes.

You got it.

Thanks.

Good afternoon, Chairman Gloria and members of the committee.

My name is Robert Vachy, Development Services Director.

To my left is budget analyst Raquel Torres.

To my right is Deputy Director Mike Richmond of Code Enforcement.

The remaining deputy directors of DSD are also here and available to answer your questions.

The development services department budget is split into two main parts: a general fund portion for code enforcement and an enterprise fund portion for all permit review issuance and inspection functions.

The local enforcement agency section also operates under its own smaller enterprise fund.

And the transfer of a code compliance officer and the urban core graffiti control contract to the transportation and stormwater department.

Major changes in the enterprise fund include an increase of almost $700,000 to non-personnel expenditures for lease purchase payments to replace our project tracking system, the addition of four program manager positions to improve operations in various divisions of the department, the addition of five positions to improve review times in civil engineering, three positions to improve review times for solar photovoltaic projects, three positions to streamline ministerial project processing, three to improve customer service in the project submittal section, the addition of 100,000 of non-personnel expenditures to meet the development services operating reserve target, addition of one position to approve improve project processing and submittal, the addition of one position dedicated to stormwater inspections, and the addition of one position to improve scheduling of fire sprinkler inspections.

The enterprise fund also includes the reduction of one cashier, one senior cashier, and one senior drafting aid and associated revenue due to the transition of uh our department into accepting online payments.

The addition of 1.9 million in revenue to reflect fiscal year 2016 revenue projections, and the addition of $60,008 in revenue for noise and news rack permits due to the transfer of this function to the enterprise fund.

Talk a little bit about user fees.

Um code enforcement currently has a total of nine user fees.

FY16 proposed budget includes three fee increases, three fee decreases, uh noise permit and news rack permit fees are proposed to be transferred to the enterprise fund side, and the mobile park uh permit annual fee will remain the same because that's step by step for the state of California.

If you look specifically at the fees, uh as I stated, the mobile park permit fee stays the same.

Uh reinspection fees for building and housing increase by $7 a piece.

That's based on an hourly rating that fluctuates from year to year.

Uh reinspection fees for zoning drop by five dollars.

The removal of recorded notice of violation if there's no appeal uh drops by $31.

If there is an appeal, it drops by $21.

And then the property value protection ordinance fee increases by $75.

Uh pursuant to the user fee policy, the proposed adjustments are to bring the fee levels in line with service cost to ensure 100% cost recovery.

The City Attorney's Office has deemed all these adjustments to be in compliance with Prop 26.

We request your feedback and direction related to the proposed adjustments.

I'd like to talk a little bit about vacancies.

Uh financial management's vacancy report showed $102 vacancies for development services department.

Uh we generally operate with vacancies because we'll staff up or we will uh um hold vacancies depending on the construction levels.

Um, the the 102 vacancies that are shown really aren't an accurate reflection of the number of the positions being held.

Out of those 102 vacancies, 59 have been filled or in the process of being filled or reclassed for immediate use.

Forty-three positions remain vacant subject to future need.

Um as I've stated earlier in the FY16 budget, we're asking for an additional 18 positions.

Those positions are to address specific immediate needs where we have a present demand.

That concludes our presentation.

We'd be happy to answer any of your questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Vachi.

We'll turn now to the IBA, Mr.

Ojeda.

Thank you, Committee Chair Gloria, uh, committee members.

Uh the department's Chris Ojeda with the Office of the Independent Budget Analysts.

The Department's presentation has covered the significant adjustments for the fiscal year 2016 proposed budget.

However, our office would like to highlight two items.

The first is the department's recommendation to replace its 13-year-old computer system with a new project tracking system.

The new system will enhance customer service capabilities, particularly in the land development process, and support the department's strategic goals, including tracking of some performance measures.

The total project cost is projected to be approximately $9.4 million.

The department plans to cash fund $3 million of the project and finance a remaining $6.4 million through the city's master lease program.

The project financing is anticipated to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2015.

The fiscal year 2016 proposed budget includes approximately $697,000 for the anticipated financing payment due in fiscal year 2016.

The department will need to annually budget the financing payment from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2020 to match a five-year repayment term of the financing.