Planning costs show staffing dissonance
Published: November 22, 2009
I would like to respond to the editorial in The Daily Progress on Nov. 13 (“Planning costs need cutting).
I have studied the workings of the Community Development Department over the last two years. There are three divisions of this department (zoning, planning and building inspections).
When the 2008-09 fiscal year started, there were 77 filled positions in the department. During the fiscal year, two positions were added; the reason given was that the cost was offset by new fees approved by the Board of Supervisors during FY 08-09. Now remember, this is in the middle of the biggest economic downturn in 30 years.
Fiscal Year 09-10 started on July 1 with 76.5 positions filled, which is one half a position fewer than the previous year.
I attended the Planning Commis-sion public hearing on Nov. 10 concerning the zoning fee increases. It was discussed that there has not been a rezoning application in more than months.
Now, to the building inspections division.
In the first half of 2002, there were 855 single-family home permits issued, with a staff of 15 employees. In the first half of ’08, there were 266 SFH permits issued, still with a staff of 15. In the first half of ’09 there were 155 SFH permits issued, still again with 15 employees on payroll. These numbers are taken from reports from the county.
These types of staffing issues do not rest completely on the department director. They were approved and added to the budget by top-level management of Albemarle County.
Hopefully, the new Board of Supervisors will take a very strong look at how these staffing decisions are made.
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I am curious. What were Mr. Boyd’s responses and/or actions in re staffing, seeing as he was the BOS Chair, and self-proclaimed lone fiscal ‘beacon’ as the storm gathered?
Mor poignant, can we trust Mr. Boyd to do better at the next level? It so not that the GOP has a solid reputation in Congress for fiscal responsibility. Given that, should we not be more attuned to any track record the candidates have (vs. what they say)? And does not the current fiscal crisis facing Albemarle speak volumes about this man’s lack of competence in difficult circumstances?
Mr. Boyd has previously been consistent in his praise and support of county staff, and exceedingly defferential to their wants, not to metion their work product. Don’t know why, really. It is a mystery that it takes so long to get anything done in this County.
Try and do something as simple as work out of your home (in name only, in the case of a consultant who travels to their clients), or add a shed that happens to be 12’ x 14’ (be prepared for a lengthy review process and fees), or God forbid, build an addition to a church (try a two-three year planning and approval process).
In the meantime, we have such fine examples of the efficacy of our planning and approval process as that hideous complex called Hollymead Town Center. Barely 1/3 complete, it has given new definition to traffic flow, with such innovations as the entrance (but no real exit) to CVS, the labyrinth of traffic patterns within the center (could we have one more stop sign in front of Harris Tetter, perhaps), or one more one way ‘street’ within, or perhaps narrower parking spaces?), the absolutely ugly vista of Lowes/WalMart-like architecture perched tier after tier high above 29 on terraces (amazing that some of these are housing [warehousing?] alternatives), and the ever present source of run-off and siltation that grace Powell Creek and its downstream ponds and lakes.
Now that we have moved ahead on Places 29, aka the Boyd Plan for Unintelligible Growth, dare we expect a legacy of this kind of ‘planning’, extending beyond his tenure?
The surest way to simultaneously end this nonsense and bring the county budget closer to the Snow-Thomas proposition of 20% reduction in the county budget is a significant streamlining and subsequent reduction in force of this non-productive, non-value-added group.
Let’s see if the newly elected BOS follows through appropriately. Or is the only thing that our fiscal ‘talkers’ know how to do is slash and burn matters of education, and similar needs?
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