Loading...
DSAC Minutes 10/04/2023 October 4, 2023 Page 1 of 16 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Naples, Florida October 4, 2023 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Collier County Development Services Advisory Committee, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 3 P.M. in REGULAR SESSION at the Collier County Growth Management Community Department Building, Conference Room #609/610, 2800 Horseshoe Drive North, Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chairman: William J. Varian Vice Chairman: Blair Foley James E. Boughton Clay Brooker Jeff Curl David Dunnavant John English Marco Espinar Norman Gentry Mark McLean Chris Mitchell (excused) Robert Mulhere (excused) Laura Spurgeon-DeJohn (excused) Jeremy Sterk Mario Valle Hannah Roberts (AHAC-non-voting) ALSO PRESENT: Jamie French, Department Head, GMCD Jaime Cook, Director, Development Review Thomas Iandimarino, Director, Code Enforcement Drew Cody, Senior Project Manager, Utilities Planning Cormac Giblin, Director, Housing Policy & Economic Development Jay Ahmad, Director, Transportation Engineering Michael Stark, Director, Operations & Regulatory Mgt. Division Jason Badge, Supervisor of Project Management, Operations & Regulatory Mgt. Dianna Perryman, Management Analyst I, Operations & Regulatory Mgt. Richard Long, Director, Building Plan Review & Inspection Division, GMCD Diane Lynch, Management Analyst I/Staff Liaison GMCD Julie Chardon, Ops Support Specialist II, GMCD October 4, 2023 Page 2 of 16 Any persons needing the verbatim record of the meeting may request a copy of the audio recording from the Collier County Growth Management Community Department. 1. Call to Order – Chairman Chairman Varian called the meeting to order at 3 p.m. A quorum of eight was present in the boardroom; four joined later. 2. Approval of Agenda Mr. Dunnavant moved to approve the agenda. Mr. Curl seconded it. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. 3. Approval of Minutes a. DSAC Meeting – September 6, 2023 Mr. Curl made a motion to approve the September 6, 2023, DSAC meeting minutes. Mr. English seconded it. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. b. DSAC Subcommittee meeting – August 31, 2023 Vice Chairman Foley said he, John and Chris attended the Right-of-Way Subcommittee and there was a ton of information that we covered item-by-item, as you can see in the minutes, which are detailed. Where we left it was that we had comments for staff, they’re going to review it and meet independently and bring it back to the subcommittee. That has not occurred yet and we don’t have another meeting scheduled at this time. Vice Chairman Foley made a motion to approve the August 2, 2023, DSAC meeting minutes. Mr. English seconded it. The motion passed unanimously, 3-0. 4. Public Speakers (None) 5. Staff Announcements/Updates Mr. French provided an update on the Growth Management Department: • He met with the County Manager’s Office and Executive Director Ken Kovensky, who was with Growth Management for over 17 years, and we were able to move forward with identifying two FTEs within our organization. • We’re going to set up our own HR group within the County Manager’s administrative policies. • Our HR manager will be dedicated and paid for by the fees we collect. It’ll be a 113-131 Fund operation. [Mr. Boughton joined the meeting at 3:05 p.m.] • Over the last 10 years, we’ve had a 10-15% vacancy rate, so we’ll be looking for a professional who meets all the qualifications. October 4, 2023 Page 3 of 16 • The HR director will set up an interview panel with me and report to my office. It will be someone who holds all those skills to be able to recruit from this industry. We want someone who has worked in the field and has industry experience, such as engineering, contracting, landscape architect, planning, zoning, etc. • We do not have an in-house candidate we’re considering. To get here involved 10 years of hardship. We appreciate, and stood up for HR. They’re skilled professionals and they’ve got a big organization to support, but we need a higher level skill set to accommodate the needs of our clients – you – and our community to ensure we’re not carrying as many vacancies as we have now. • This employee will be responsible for recruiting and properly onboarding using the County Manager’s policy so we’re able to support HR. It will make HR’s life easier. He’s asked for a year and if he’s not successful, he said he’d leave. • He thanked Sarah Harrington, who came here about a year ago and has been a phenomenal asset and colleague. She has a plethora of knowledge due to her state and local county experience. She was serving in the interim role as director for Housing Policy & Economic Development and she’s going to stay with that group. She’ll head the management side and we’ll give her a ton of support. [Mr. Gentry joined the meeting at 3:08 p.m.] • We talked Cormac Giblin into being director for that group, a permanent assignment signed by the county manager last week. We appreciate both of them. They’ve teamed up and this was a group the county manager decided was important and the board identified it as important. • It’s a 111 Fund position, a general fund position. It’s not paid for with the fees that you or your clients pay, but it puts us more closely in line with the need for attainable housing and the policies that drive that on the economic development side, so we have full visibility on new businesses, housing ventures and housing needs that our community and you, as business owners and operators, so desperately need within our community, so we’re finally making headway. • The County Manager’s Office and board fully funded two general fund positions in Chris Mason’s area. Chris, the director of Resiliency & Community Planning, is getting a planning manager and a Planner III, formerly principal planner. They now have David Weeks as a part-time contract employee, Michele Mosca, Howard Critchfield, and William Lang, who was once our FEMA floodplain coordinator. He returned here from the Emergency Operations Center after five years, so we’re excited about it because water management, resiliency and vulnerability assessments tie into long-range planning and our Land Development Code. • Four months ago, we took on Conservation Collier, which came back to Growth Management. It was born here and will be headed by Jaime Cook. We will be putting a manager in there who will be paid for by Conservation Collier. As we look forward, we have an ability to look at opportunities to advance the county on conservation acquisitions and maintenance. We also can tie that in with other community projects, such as roads, stormwater, utilities, Parks & Recreation, so we’re trying to bring this back full circle. October 4, 2023 Page 4 of 16 • It’s a lot of work. He volunteered for all this and didn’t receive a raise or title change for these new responsibilities. He’s still the interim department head for Growth Management and Community Planning. Mr. French introduced Hannah Roberts. Ms. Roberts said she’s a development associate with Soave Real Estate Group and is here as the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC) member, who will be a non- voting DSAC member and liaison to the AHAC. She’s excited to work with everyone and listen to what they’re working on. a. Development Review Division – [Jaime Cook, Director] Ms. Cook told the DSAC: • We had the Right-of-Way Subcommittee meeting at the end of August. Due to the end of the fiscal year, we had to put things on hold to close POs. Now that the new fiscal year has started, staff will get back with our consultant, finish the changes and comments that the subcommittee made and then we’ll have another subcommittee meeting before we bring it to the full DSAC. • Because Cormac is moving over to Housing Policy & Economic Development, his planning manager position will be posted tomorrow. • Sarah is also staying with that team, so her former environmental manager position will be filled. We’re hoping to fill those two manager vacancies quickly. [Mr. McClean joined the meeting at 3:08 p.m.] • We worked with the County Attorney’s Office on performance agreements for excavation permits, early work authorization and site development plans no longer need the clerk’s signature, so we’re going to be updating those forms on our website so there will soon be a new form for when you need to fill out those agreements. b. Code Enforcement Division – [Thomas Iandimarino, Director] Mr. Iandimarino provided a September update: • It’s the status quo. Cases come, cases close out, some go on to hearings. • For Contractor Licensing, about 1,000 contractors renewed out of 3,000 renewals we sent out. • As of this month, we have just over 2,000 renewals, and they’re delaying the status as of the first of this week until the end of the year. There’s a $20 late fee per month for those who wish to renew throughout the rest of the year. c. Community Planning & Resiliency Division [Chris Mason, Director] (No report) d. Public Utilities Department [Drew Cody, Senior Project Manager] Mr. Cody provided a September update: • We rolled out the new FDEP permit review process, so anything coming in now is going into a more streamlined process. • There’s a new template and new guide posted on the online resources page for you. He’s received a few calls and questions about that. October 4, 2023 Page 5 of 16 • For the outstanding permits that received review comments, we’ll try and work through those with the original review comments for the next couple of weeks, but by October 25th, we’ll to shut it off and force those people onto the new template for the new review process if we can’t clean up what’s outstanding over the course of four weeks. e. Housing Policy & Economic Development [Cormac Giblin, Director] Mr. Giblin provided his September report: • We had our first pre-app for a project that’s proposing to take advantage of the state’s Live Local Act program, which allows them to go straight to SDP for an affordable housing project that’s on commercially zoned land, commercial, industrial, or mixed-use. It will be the first one. • For the housing plan GMP Amendments that you approved a while back, the last tranche of incentives that were coming out of the county’s Affordable Housing Plan, are going to the Planning Commission on Thursday, Oct. 5th, and then the Board of County Commissioners on November 14th. That’ll finalize the housing plan incentives. • We have three applications from developers for use of the surtax money, the one- cent local sales surtax that will be used for workforce-housing land acquisition. We’re looking at those applications in-house now. Mr. Espinar asked about the location of the affordable-housing project. Mr. Giblin said off East 41, near the Fiddlers Creek area. f. GMD Transportation Engineering Division [Jay Ahmad, Director] Mr. Ahmad provided an update on design projects: • Goodlette-Frank Road from VBR (Vanderbilt Beach Road) to Immokalee Road is currently one lane in each direction. We propose two lanes in each direction, a four- lane roadway. Some sections south of Immokalee were four lanes at part of that developer on that corner. We’re going through procurement for a consultant and hope to conclude that soon and begin design. We expect construction to begin after the completion of the design by the end of 2025. • Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension Phase 2. Phase 1, which is under construction, ends at 16th. It’s seven miles from Collier Boulevard to 16th. This project will take Vanderbilt Beach Road from where it ends, 16th east by two miles, and to just east of Everglades Boulevard. We recently negotiated with Kimley-Horn. The procurement process is done, and we hope to take it to the board in late October or early November. We should begin and complete that design and construction in 2025. Hopefully, we’ll get the design completed before the construction finishes. That is one project, so we hope to encourage more bidders to compete on our projects. [Mr. Brooker joined the meeting at 3:19 p.m.] Making Wilson Boulevard in the Estates four lanes. Wilson Boulevard is two lanes from Immokalee to Golden Gate Boulevard. The proposal is to make it four lanes in each direction, plus turning lanes at the intersections, like Golden Gate Boulevard and October 4, 2023 Page 6 of 16 Immokalee Road. The designer was selected, and the board approved the contract. It’s in the beginning stages of design and started in August. Hopefully, the design will be completed in about two years. There’s permitting. There’s no construction money budgeted, but the goal is to get all the rights-of-way and make sure the roadway is designed and all the lots along both sides of the roadway, they can build very quickly and the bottom sides is hard to find these days and that will take care of that. Chairman Varian said it’s early in that design, but do you foresee some of the roads not having a left, like when you did the boulevard 20 years ago, there were some accesses you shut down from a left-hand turn. Do you see that on Wilson? Mr. Ahmad said the preliminary design plans are on the website. There are some intersections with median openings and with some, you’ll have the ability to make U-turns to come back around. If you want to see which street is access-controlled, it’s on our website. He also has it in his office. Mr. Ahmad continued his updates on design projects: • The 16th Street Bridge. It’s a surtax project, funded through the one-cent sales surtax. The project starts at Golden Gate Boulevard and continues to Randall Boulevard, with a bridge over the canal, almost exactly the same shape and form as the 8th Street Bridge. It’s currently in design and we’re almost completed, the 60- 90% stage. There’s an associated grant and we hope to be in construction early next year. • Randall Boulevard and Immokalee Road intersection. This is funded through the one-cent sales surtax. It widens Randall to four lanes from the 8th to the Immokalee intersection. It’s an intersection improvement and sets the stage for a future overpass, so the lanes are in the right location and the abutments are not blocking any lanes. An overpass is planned but is not being built in Phase 1. Construction is planned for late 2024. The state conducted Project Development & Environmental (PD&E) studies for the intersection, and we funded that. Funds weren’t available to build, and that study now needs an update. We’re updating the PD&E stage so we can retain some of the funding. • Veterans Memorial Phase 2. Phase 1 started at Livingston and ended at the new Aubrey Rogers High School. It concluded recently and was built as two lanes in each direction, with signals at the elementary school and high school. This project will take that to U.S. 41, including Old U.S. 41. We’ve been looking for a pond site and there’s nothing available in that vicinity. Conservation Collier is on the north and south, there’s a railroad and that section between old U.S. 41 and where we ended with construction by the high school is a difficult one. We’re going through a process with Conservation Collier. We haven’t submitted the application to the advisory committee to see if we can go through that exceptional benefit ordinance that allows for roadways and certain land that can be taken from Conservation Collier for those purposes. We hope that can get approved so we can take it to the board, and they accept taking it out of Conservation Collier to a pond site within that project. We’ve been looking for a pond site for 2½ years and nothing was available, so that put this project on hold until we could find an answer to pond sites and satisfy the permitting agency. October 4, 2023 Page 7 of 16 Mr. Boughton asked if he had anything on his list for the north end of Airport Road. Mr. Ahmand said yes. We are currently in the design stage. A contract was awarded to KCA (Kisinger Campo & Associates) as the ranking consultant and the surveying is taking shape. They have markers. They are designing it and we hope to be finished with design and permitting in 1½-2 years. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • It takes it from Vanderbilt Beach Road to Immokalee Road. • It’ll be in design for two more years. • Permitting takes a long time and is unpredictable. • We have to have a 404 permit from FDEP, South Florida Water Management District permits and others. If that moves quickly, it will be done faster, but it usually averages two years. • Public hearings are held at the 30% stage, which is probably coming soon, possibly early 2024. • Another public hearing is held at the 60% stage, sometimes at 90% and when we award a contract, but sometimes we combine the 100/90% with the contract. • The Golden Gate Parkway bridge is almost done. A railing was implemented by MSTU that’s quirky and hard to obtain due to supply chain issues and that’s what’s holding it up. They expect a month delay. They can’t blame the contractor. • Whippoorwill is being held up due to a similar issue, but it’s a traffic controller. It takes 1-1½ years to get a traffic controller. On Veterans Memorial, we would not have been open to traffic, but we loaned our traffic controllers to the contractor. Once he has the controllers, we’ll get those back. The project was finished in July, and we still don’t have the traffic controller, so it takes a long time for certain items. Controllers are one item we can’t get. They expect it by December, possibly sooner. • The four roundabouts are done. g. Collier County Fire Review [Michael Cruz, Captain] Mr. Cruz reported that: • We did 397 reviews with a two-day turnaround. • We did about 60 (PLs) Planning Reviews, with a one-day turnaround. • For assistance projects, we have 226 projects that are issued. • For sprinklers, we have 11 issued projects. • The submittals increase is expected to continue for the remaining year before the change of the code cycle, so you should see a significant increase. • The lithium-ion battery class will be rescheduled for the second or third week of November, possibly November 13th. • Prevention Day is still being hosted by the City of Naples at Coastland Center mall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on October 7th. • He and Capt. Mejika met with Collier County about electronic appliances. The county was asking if we could accomplish what North Collier does with their staff and that’s a no for closing out permits on behalf of the contractor. We’re working on a system that will be less complicated for contractors to close out permits. We’re still 12 months out from a trial. October 4, 2023 Page 8 of 16 • It’s all EPR now (EPR Systems Fireworks, a software system that allows all sections within the fire department to speak to one another). Capt. Beddow touched on that last month. If you’re an underground contractor, that information is there. That’s translated to our trucks, our uniforms, fleet, anything you could imagine. EPR is really changing the system for what we do in fire service communication. • We are transitioning from MobileEyes software platform to EPR software that will be transitioned within 12 months. The new platform will have operations, inspections, investigations and pre-planning that is crossed over to different sections within our own department. Now, if we go out to a building, we’re able to pre-plot the Knox Box program it and put it into the software system so our operational personnel know exactly where it is before they get there. Hydrants also will be plotted. If we’re on scene and our BC (Battalion Chief) says you need a 100-foot lay, he already has it measured through the software program. It’s really complicated because it’s coordinated into one system. h. North Collier Fire Review [Linda Naples, Senior Fire Plans Examiner] Ms. Naples detailed the September report: • We reviewed 525 building permits, with an average of three days. • We reviewed 37 planning permits, with an average of four days. • She doesn’t have the numbers for the fire alarm and fire sprinkler system projects, but can provide them, if needed. i. Operations & Regulatory Management Division – [Michael Stark, Director] Mr. Stark told the DSAC: • We’d like to address your comments and concerns on records management and thank everyone for staying last month to gather information and determine how we can solve some of the issues. It involves looking at the intake of information and requests and how they come in, the format or the method. • We’re trying to assess the overall scope of the request. We have multiple resources within the department taking a look to understand the concerns and information sent to us. We’re taking a look at if the records are found, the length of time it takes to respond and possibly involving leadership in the overall process. • Many Collier government employees have moved up throughout the organization, so they’re often subject matter experts for sharing that information. • We also looked at how we’re structured. • Alex Tellez-Santoyo is our supervisor for records management. She has a team in the records management section. • We also have specialized employees within our team under Kevin Summers, Diane Lynch and David Marino. Some of them are a part of this process. It sometimes takes an army to track down this information and ensure it’s accurate, timely and that we get you the answers you need to make business decisions. • We’re looking at different options. Some common themes were the naming conventions and how we pull this information. He and Diane had several discussions about that and when you’re looking for different types of information, you have to do a broad search for that. October 4, 2023 Page 9 of 16 [He asked Diane to speak.] Ms. Lynch told the DSAC: • She’s an instrument analyst. Recently, Chris (Mitchell) contacted me to research several older SDPs and she had tremendous luck in trying to draw information. It might not be in one place, but we cross reference multiple areas, and we continue to cross-reference. If A and B don’t match, we try A and C, then B and C, and A and D, so we try multiple things. • David was once the records group supervisor, so he has first-hand experience. • Her experience is with GMD records, plans and permits, so we build on each other’s skills and assist Alex and her team because they’re also dealing with AIMs issues, 311 and similar issues. She, Julie (Chardon) and David offer her support. We’re coming up with a plan to give everyone access and exposure so we can all help you and share everyone’s experience. Mr. Curl said requests usually are emailed, and he’s guilty of asking for something three different ways. Maybe it’s the way he’s asking. Would it help if we had a standardized form where we could check a box to say, “I want landscape plans, here’s the folio number.” Ms. Lynch said it can’t hurt. Mr. Curl said he didn’t want to hear that. Ms. Lynch told the DSAC: • There are many years here. There were older documents that were scanned by one third party and other documents scanned by another third party. • At the time, anything that had to do with SIRE, she was the chairperson with the agenda, indexing and storage. When that went away and OnBase came in, someone else was involved and she doesn’t know how they planned it. We’re trying to understand that logic. • Sometimes it’s difficult, but we get there. Folios always help, especially if multiple folios are involved. • Any information you can provide us is another Sherlock Holmes moment for us to spark something. For example, she found a master project number for Chris. She never had to look for a document that way before but that’s where she found them. Chairman Varian said he noticed that CD-Plus is not on the site anymore. It’s gone? Ms. Lynch said correct, but employees have access to it. Ms. Lynch told the DSAC: • We’re looking in CD-Plus, we’re looking in (Microsoft) Power BI, all of that. We also have conversion files that were scanned and OnBase, multiple sources. We also have our own drives. • Jamie, Cormac and everyone who has been here are resources and know exactly how to find it. Chairman Varian said that for years, he used to go to CD-Plus when it was on the web, plug in three or four digits of the address and you might get 100 addresses and he was able to find old information. October 4, 2023 Page 10 of 16 Ms. Lynch said you can still do that, but it stops around 2007. The more information you provide us with, the better. Ms. Lynch told the DSAC: • One of the SDPs for Chris was around 1996, so the portal will help. If you put that in as a Folio Number, it’ll list everything, so you can sort what you need. But it will only go back to when we upgraded Cityview. Anything before that is on our archive in CD-Plus, which we can look at. We use all of that. • Sometimes if you go to the Property Appraiser’s site property detail tab, that might answer your question, or it might be a start. • Not long ago we were having AIMs issues. People were showing us screenshots of houses for sale and were saying that the pool, deck, screen, all of this was not permitted because it’s not on the portal. It’s not on the portal because the house was built in 1996, 1997 and 1998. We can assure you we can show you all this information. It’s public record. It’s either there or it isn’t, so all that information is there, but if you went to the portal to look, you could conclude that it’s not public because it’s not there, but it is in a public place. Mr. Stark said he and Evelyn are looking at an issue involving a homeowners’ association dating back to the 1960s. It’s taken time, but we want to make sure we’re doing a thorough job. Many people and entities are involved in this process, depending on the different areas where they need access. Mr. Curl said he appreciates that he put all those employees on it. It sounds like the right employees are helping. Mr. Stark thanked him. The second topic for discussion is a DSAC request to obtain pricing to upgrade the Cityview texting feature to include notifications for multiple phone numbers. Jason Badge will give you a quick update on that. Mr. Badge said we looked into the pricing for the changes the DSAC requested, and the vendor said it would be $18,000, $2,400 of which would be recurring costs we’d have to pay in addition to yearly maintenance. That’s what they came back with after analyzing everything that would go into upgrading the portal to allow for multiple emails to be added when you’re scheduling or adding multiple phone numbers to receive text messages. Chairman Varian asked if they were going to move forward with it. What’s the process of moving forward? We’re an advisory committee. Mr. Stark said Mr. French would make that decision. It’s a new fiscal year and new technology. You can make a motion and take the first step. Chairman Varian said they should make a motion. Mr. Curl thanked him and made a motion. Mr. Valle seconded it. Chairman Varian asked if there were questions. Mr. Boughton asked if it’s worth that much. October 4, 2023 Page 11 of 16 Mr. Valle said there are 22,460 inspections done, and when you spread it out over the number of permits and inspections, it’s pennies on the dollar for us and our clients are willing to pay for the service to get inspections done. We have these great people here to make it happen. Chairman Varian said we’re all very busy. The way the system works now is only one phone number and one email can be placed. In his company, if there are three in the field, there are only two comments. With multiple, now everybody or multiple people can get it, so whoever is closer. It may not be his job, but he’ s closer and he can help you. He’s sure everyone is the same. We’re just so busy. This is a definite help for us in the industry. A discussion ensued and the following points were made. • There’s an additional cost of $2,400 yearly. • There’s also a maintenance cost. • The recurring maintenance cost is $300,000, which is nothing. Mr. Curl made a motion to upgrade CityView’s texting feature to include notifications for multiple phone numbers. Mr. Valle seconded it. The motion passed unanimously, 12- 0. Mr. Stark said the third topic was the customer’s view versus staff’s view of the portal. We believe the information both parties see are found within Cityview. We’ve dedicated resources available to our customers, including Dianna Perryman. She can share more about our training programs. We also brought pamphlets and training material. Ms. Perryman provided an update on what they provide for training: • We offer external training to customers, whether it’s a homeowner, business, contractor, architect or engineer. They just need to reach out with the e-mail that’s on the portal and it comes directly to her. • She sets up training and will go to their site, if necessary. • There’s also virtual training on the portal. • We have inspection training and video inspection training for contractors. • She has provided training to permit-runners and anyone interested in using the portal. • It’s not just the portal. She came up with training that helps with how to submit an application, what’s required for an application and the naming convention we require for submittal through the portal. • She takes them through the application form so they understand what’s required, what must be filled out on the application, revision form or any form, and the prerequisites for each application type. It’s a robust training, about 1½ hours. • Hundreds of contractors have gone through training, especially new ones who come to Collier and aren’t familiar with our building process. • She also trains internal staff, new hires and pre-existing employees. • Thanks to Michael, we’re going to start going to homeowner’s associations or set up satellite offices or at the library, possibly Orange Blossom or Heritage Bay October 4, 2023 Page 12 of 16 Government Services Center to offer classes to the general public so they can understand how the portal works. • That’s your source of submission to us, so we want you to be successful. That’s the message we put out. We don’t want you to have an issue. We want you to know how to do it, how to submit to all the app sites and do it successfully, so you won’t have recurring correction letters. • There are brochures and we put them out at the business center. • There’s also a dedicated website, bit.ly/CollierE-Permitting, with all the information and we also have videos on YouTube that walk you through each process, such as permitting, conditions, uploading and revisions. • Our intent is to educate our customers to make it easier for you to use the resources we have. The information is out there. • We started bit.ly/CollierE-Permitting in 2011, when she was a supervisor, so she understands some of the frustration you have when you don’t know how to go through the process, but a lot of the documents from 2011 forward are the ones that are the most current. • She can show you how to research the portal to find older documents. • We’re here to help. She’s been charged with being more visible, so she created a flyer. We want you to tell the industry to call her and contact us so we can help you better get through our processes. Mr. Curl said there have been challenges before with the website, which handicapped that migration over to the new website. He likes YouTube for research. Is there a way to put a hyperlink, a redirect link there or something at the bottom that says there’s a resource on YouTube, where how-to videos are posted? Ms. Perryman said it is linked. You just click on the link, and it automatically takes you to the video, so you don’t have to take an extra step. Mr. Curl said he had no idea and thanked her. Mr. Boughton asked about the nomenclature/naming conventions. Is it on ePermitting? Ms. Perryman replied: • Yes, but sometimes it takes more explaining about what’s required and where that is in the process when you get to a certain point on the portal. • We want you to save those documents a certain way, so the naming convention is there. It’s a pre-preparation. You must know the name to save it under before you save it. • It gives you the names and what’s required in the process, so that explanation sometimes gets missed. You may call an application “Document 17,” but we try to cut that off and explain the flow and how they should come in, so you don’t get a letter saying you need to do something. Mr. Boughton said he was familiar with the nomenclature five or six years ago, but it seems to have morphed into something else. He’s trying to verify the current way. Is it on the ePermitting site? Ms. Perryman said yes, it’s there. October 4, 2023 Page 13 of 16 Chairman Varian said we believe employees have a different screen than we do out here and there’s information on your screen that would help us. Sometimes we have to call to get information and we’re trying to figure that out. Is there a reason for that? Ms. Perryman responded: • That’s true. What we see internally is different from what you see. • But the information on the portal is the same information we have. You just need to know where to find it. For us, it’s one screenshot. • The application is one screenshot, and we have several attributes, but for you on the portal, it’s broken into sections, so if you’re looking for permits, the permits status or corrections, you need to know to go there. If you’re looking for conditions, you need to know to go there. • There isn’t one big screenshot of everything. You just need to know where to go under those headers to find the information. Mr. Dunnavant said we do that. Chairman Varian said he still believes they have more information than we do. Ms. Perryman said we can have that conversation after the meeting. Chairman Varian said Dave brought it up at the last meeting. We’ve seen screenshots of various people who were answering a question for us and it wasn’t near what we could find. That’s the question that came up. Ms. Perryman responded: • You have the information we have in the portal. It’s free information and we’re not holding anything back. It’s just how you find it. • It’s just located in a different spot. That’s the point of the training, to take you through that and answer questions. If you’re looking for something, this is where you need to go. • It’s not just about learning the portal, it’s finding information. • She gets questions all the time and she’s available. The brochure has her phone number and email, so she’s here to help. Ms. Lynch further described the process: • The help button is on the top right and that will bring you to our webpage. • For naming your files, if you have plans signed and sealed documents, if you change the name, then that cuts off the signature and then we don’t get signed and sealed plans. • For the naming convention we require, if plans are saved and signed under one name and you change the name, that causes an error. Ms. Perryman said do not use “save as.” Whether it’s from an architect, engineer or landscape surveyor, just save it under whatever that name is. The moment you hit “save as,” it will invalidate that signature and then you get a correction letter. October 4, 2023 Page 14 of 16 Ms. Lynch said if you’re in the portal account, if it’s your portal account, you’ll see things that the public can’t see. But if you run into something or think you’re not seeing something, contact Dianna or me and we’ll be happy to look it up. We found one that was an NA. You could see it, it was not required, it was something else, and that was part of the system. We go to the top and you go to the side, but it’s all there. Ms. Perryman said when you sign in, that was done on purpose. It was a request, so they could not see certain things like correction comments by plan reviewers. You can only see that if it’s your submittal. That’s the purpose of registering and signing in so you can see that, and we can then know who is signing it. Mr. Curl said he appreciates the public not seeing the staff letters because that can be a bone of contention when they’re nine pages long and they make us look like idiots. Ms. Perryman said she’d leave the information and brochures for anyone who wants them. Mr. Stark said we want to make sure we’re connecting all our subject matter experts in the room. Julie Chardon is also one of the key parts of this team under Kevin Summers, Diane, David, and Julie, so they’re here to support you. All of us are. Mr. Stark detailed the September monthly report: • We received 3,694 permit applications through CityView software. • 50,626 was the fiscal year total for permit applications, a reduction from last year, when there were 5,545. • 286 of those 3,694 September permit applications were related to Hurricane Ian, bringing the total to 6,103. • Our Business Center intake staff assisted about 1,188 walk-in customers, and our satellite locations welcomed 148 walk-in customers. • The Call Center received 5,131 calls to the main number, with the average call lasting three minutes. • The department has 312 full-time employees, with 29 positions in the hiring pipeline. • We’re recruiting and interviewing for plans reviewers, building inspectors, a code enforcement officer with Contractor Licensing, and a manager of planning positions. • We appreciate the opportunity to answer your questions today and provide you with team members. • It’s the new fiscal year. We have seven divisions now, with about a $70 million operating budget. • We want to make sure we do everything possible to ensure we’re supporting this advisory committee. j. Zoning Division – [Mike Bosi, Director] (No Report) 6. New Business 7. Old Business [Richard Long] October 4, 2023 Page 15 of 16 Mr. Long provided an update: • We have a new code cycle coming in January 1st, which sunsets all the master permits that have been processed. • We’re going to eliminate the pool masters, that option. Pools have to be site- specific engineered, and it’s created a mess not only for customers but us. • The statute only requires single-family homes to be offered a master, so we’re going to stick with that. • NOCs are 5,000 and 15,000 as of October 1st. • The AC went from 1,250 to 15,000. • We’re also working on paperless applications. We’re going to eliminate you from filling out our forms and having to upload them. They’re testing it and we’re hoping to have it available next week as a soft opening. • They’re eliminating pages 3-4. • You’re going to be able to add subs to the portal, if you have them, as the City of Naples does, when submitting your initial submission. Chairman Varian said in the City of Naples, if their insurance or license is lapsed, you’re not allowed to upload them. You’re probably doing the same thing. Mr. Long said we’re following that. We’re still verifying that. Mr. Long continued his presentation: • If you don’t have your subs in line when you’re doing your initial, there will be a condition. We’ll probably have a different form, but it doesn’t have to be notarized at this point. We’re working on that. • We are now entertaining how to build a workflow and process for Change of Use and Change of Occupancy for businesses. Right now, it’s clunky and people rent things before they figure out what’s needed for that space. We’re working with zoning and talking with Business Tax Licensing to find a workflow. • We should have something by January that looks smooth and minimizes the impact when it needs to be minimal. Chairman Varian asked if they were close to being paperless on Building Permit applications. Mr. Long said yes. Chairman Varian asked about revisions. That also requires a notarized sheet. Mr. Long said we’re trying to get rid of all the notarized sheets and forms and trying to go 100% electronic this week so we can do everything on the portal. Mr. McLean said on the Change of Use, if you want input from an architect, let him know because you’re right, it’s a disastrous process now. He’d be happy to test it. Mr. Long said yes, we’d like your input. 8. Committee Member Comments Chairman Varian said it’s October. Are there any vacancies or expirations happening that we’re going to have to worry about? October 4, 2023 Ms. Chardon said there are members expiring. Wanda Rodriguez has notified the members of their reapplications. She can forward him the email if he wants. Chairman Varian said we usually get to vote on that before it goes to the Board of County Commissioners. We usually do that at our December meeting. Ms. Chardon said yes, she has the timeline, and all applications will be included in future packets. 9.Adjourn Future Meeting Dates: 3 p.m. Nov. 1, 2023 3 p.m. Dec. 6, 2023 3 p.m. Jan. 4, 2024 Mr. Curl made a motion to adjourn. It was seconded. The motion passed unanimously, 12-0. There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by the order of the chairman at 4:04 p.m. COLLIER COUNTY DEVELOPMENT SERVIc,.ES ADVISORY COMMITTEE L -:::--, � William Varian, Chairman These minutes were a roved by the Committee/Chairman on ( choose one) --ta--• or as amended __ . Page 16 of 16 J l f •tc:13 , as presentedI