-- on the project. but is common sense. the thing that scares me, and i would love to hear your response to this -- i do not know if the number of instances of units of measure taken for permanencits. would it have seen a substantial drop because of the lack of economic activity? if we are looking at october permits on the first or second week of february and the economy comes back and there is a lot of activity, there isin a chance to -- there is a chance of that happening. i am hoping the banks do not

start freeing up cavaco -- capital, but if we do get a little bit of activity, i am worried about that time line going further, and if you want aside what you do not have to worry about, -- aside what you do not have to worry about, and relative to the last year and a half, that timeline is evolving and shrinking, or is it a continuous strand that we should be alerted to and raise a flag and take action against what might be a boom in activities? >> i have been there the last 11 years, and what we experienced is the growth of 20% taser 40% a

year until four years ago -- 20% to 40% a year until four years ago. what was surprising is that as a private construction declined, we experienced an increase in utility and infrastructure improvements, so the number of permits we received outside of small business and development actually held constant. we're issuing over 10,000 permit spirited >> 10,000 a year? >> it went down a little bit, but we issued a 10,000 last year. we realize there are a dozen flows to the economy's -- evidence and flows in the economy. -- ebbs and flows and the

economy. we are trying to figure out a way to stimulate and support the economy very good >> the other thing would been -- and support the economy. >> the other thing with the vet -- and would be, and you have any kind of leeway in how you operate, that you could intervene and say as opposed to where you are on a first-come first-served basis, if you allow any openings for extenuating circumstances -- it is never a perfect world, as you know it. every process has its exceptions, and some people have a perception that it is very

fixed. whether it is fair or not fair does not matter to me. it might open a can of worms. >> currently for our permit we have is divided into lesser complexity and greater complexity. it is the first in, first out system. there was a law passed many years ago requiring the various apartments to come off with a policy about how permits are processed, and we established a policy with certain exceptions. for construction which access, but it gets priority. for city project, it gets

priority. in cases where there are green buildings, it gets priority, so there are exceptions, and we can provide a copy of the order the specifies when exceptions can be granted. it needs to be specific in these cases. >> i am just asking you to keep an eye on that by god, and if it starts to get out of hand -- on that backlog, and if it starts to get out of hand, to raise a flag so we do not get into it too late so we have people complaining that it takes a year to get a permit. if this gives to where it is more than three or four months,

we need to take a look at it. i would encourage us to alert you to that fact. you mentioned you are looking at ways to make it work faster or work for you can process it more. let me know if it gets to the point. i do not want to get a mouthful from the people in the community. thank you. >> what is always critical on projects are the certificates of occupancy on the category. is there a coordination of the allows for a seamless merging at a point of when this certificate of occupancy has known

incumbrances associated with what the two categories will be completed on time richard -- on time? >> that is a good question. we typically issued a permit for new construction or additions to buildings, and we automatically placed on the final sign off. there are usually two parties within public works that need to sign off. the bureau of urban forestry would inspect to make sure the required trees are planted as prescribed by the planning requirements in the permit things as though the. and -- permiting. what typically happens is they would instruct our staff on the

process. toward the end if everything is correct, we will sign off. the applicant would get a certificate of final occupancy. if there are outstanding issues, the department can issue cert, providing some time for an applicant to complete the necessary repairs so they can get a certificate of occupancy. >> we are working with our customer base as opposed to being restrictive. thank you. >> any further comments hamas -- comments? thank you for your presentation. public comments?

>> good evening, i am a construction engineer. let me start by saying i happen to have a great deal of respect for the technical confidence of the apartment. they have so great deal of experience. i have worked with him for 11 years, but i have been surprised about the backlog of some of this. yet i understand he claimed some consultants do not have the expertise to submit sidewalk and drawings. i can understand how they would reject these. my firm and other firms have been doing sidewalk drawings for a while.

i think the 12 taser 14 week backlog potentially can be -- 12th to 14 wheat backlog potentially can be rectified with a premium thfee. the fire department has cut. if you request an expedited service, there is a fee associated, so it is possible that some of my clients would be willing to pay that additional fees. in terms of the interface between dpw and some consultants, perhaps a warning leveabel, but in regards to the

expedited permit fee, it helps significantly within the fire department as far as the review process. as far as a similar process were an additional fee will put u.s. ahead of the line, there are some exceptions that have been made for life-saving issues were potentially an additional fee may help people who are willing to pay that and expedite it. >> thank you. any further public speakers? seeing none, next item. >> item number six, presentation and discussion on gthe dbi

online permit tracking system with vivian day. >> i am the director of dbi, and i am here to discuss our current tracking system. in 2006 and -- actually in the 2005-2006 fiscal year, and we had a private company come in to read a few for planning and -- to research for planning and dbi, and it was determined it would not meet the technology needs of the future. we are in a position where it is like a rubber band. we stretch it, and we have five to 7 programmers who work on its

daily, trying to keep the system up and running so we can actually keep operations daily. the system does serve the department's needs, but it is not functional for other departments to access the system, especially on line. it is not interactive with other departments. each department has its own system. public works has its own system, and the goal of the city is to get a citywide system. that is where we are. we are making it as accessible as we can, but we are limited with what we can do with the current system. the deputy director of administration will be doing the presentation on our future

system. >> very quickly, we went out for an rsp. we issued its on the 14th of january, and that is for a commercial off-the-shelf. it is a commercial off-the-shelf system that would establish a new permit the project tracking system which will allow the city to be able to process and track all permits and projects across all city departments boundaries, and this was originally put out between the planning department and building inspection department, and it will take expanded to the

other departments that were involved. we were considering a hosted at non-hosted solution. that is where you have a situation where you have it located off site by another entity. we have required to have a full implementation within 24 months of the affective date of the contract. we are requiring the last day for people to be able to submit their proposals to be on march 2, and we hope by the time we get into late april, early may to be issuing, and that is when

we really sit down across from the other entities and talk about the final scope answer hammer out a contract. -- en hammer out a contract. i am happy to answer any questions. commissioner o'brien collin and just for the record and -- last week until it -- commissioner o'brien: just for the record, last week they held a commission meeting and we talked, and i presented at that meeting. we are talking again in short order, but this was on the agenda before i even realize it last week as well.

i do not mind that it is coming up for discussion in a few days, because i cannot emphasize enough how important this tracking system is going to be down the road, and as my fellow commissioners will testify, they have constantly ask about the tracking system. they have constantly commented the feedback from the small- business community when anybody is trying to start a new business is negotiating city bureaucracy and getting their permits processed. it is one nightmare story after another. good it gets done eventually but it gets done in a way that -- it gets done eventually, but it

seems to be in spite of the way they do it. whether it is health permits for the health department for a permanent from dpw or dbi, it is for a convoluted, so this is very important. as i mentioned, when you are doing the negotiations after you received hathe rfp's, is it just going to be people from dbi, or will there be anyone representing the user communities who will know what will be good for the system and what will be important for the system? >> negotiation of the contract

is done in the city with the vendor, and that will be done with the planning department and building inspection and the city attorney's office. in terms of the devaluation of rfp, that is done and now internally, and if we gave an opportunity with the action plan the planning department gave, and the business process re- engineering to get some feedback initially, and that was incorporated into the system. there is not much of an opportunity to be able to have outside the public involved in

the actual issuance of an rfp evaluation for the actual doing the contracts. >> is it to be assumed the first time the public are going to see this new system is when a days up and running and basically the system that it -- when it is of and running and basically the system is in place, or is there a facility for them to be involved before it becomes prime time? >> yes, after it is implemented, there is an opportunity, and we will have facilitated discussion so we will get the input of people not only with the city family but outside of the city family to make sure we are allowing an opportunity for comment, but when you sit down

and negotiate a contract, it is a very regulated process where there is not much leeway, but once we actually get a contract and have a scope, which means you know you are doing x, y, z, we can run by people and say this is what it looks like, and they can say, yes, but as long as it is in the scope of fthe rfp, there is an opportunity, so as for the door being shut until then, no. we have to go through the contract, and we cannot include

anything in the contract that is not already been within its. >> when do you think somebody would say able to see something? region would be able to see something bowman -- when do you think somebody would be able to see something? i see this in april or may. i had february in my head for some reason. that might have been the first phase, but when i am talking to people, when can i say, you will be able to see something tangible and real, look at it, see it, everything you are going to want to know about in november or september? >> the documentation and more documents then you would want to

save are available on our web site. >> which documents? >> all of gthe rfp documents, every document we put out for responding to or using as reference information is available on our web site along with various clarification memos we have had to put out. the schedule is interesting. we are only showing flipping by zero weeks, and part of that is due to people's vacation -- now slipping by a week, and part of that is due to vacation schedules. we hope to half when we do the notice or intent to sit down and start negotiating the contract

-- last time it took us three months to get anywhere, and as you know, we pulled back the bid. i am really hoping within at least three months that actual negotiation of the contract and finalization of the contract will be done in about three months, but that is fairly ambitious, depending upon how well we did in producing the actual rsp. a lot of it depends on how well people are responding to it, and that helps us to lead to how easily we can do the contract. there are a lot of things that happened behind the scene that

you will not see like conversion of data. i am not sorry to see what that looks like. -- i am not going to see what that looks like. >> i am talking about the user interface. to see about how it is reacting with other agencies and how it is devolving -- evolving. >> that is still going to be down barone -- down the road at least a year and a half, because there is going to be all sorts of activity. there is going to be a change management between the various departments.

suggestion probably nine months ago, and i want to make it again tonight. is there a possibility at all that you could create a timeline for your goals that people can see before the rfp phase? we could call it a discovery phase of what is going to be implemented. some target dates. i know we do not want to hang ourselves and put ourselves under the thumb of deadlines, but they also help keep us focused. is there any possibility we can do something like that? >> there is an rfp that got us

to the last point before they come to interview in the last process of doing this election. it is to come in front of the steering committee. those time frames are in me -- in the rfp. after that, it gets murky until we can see what is proposed by the various vendors. we should have a much better idea after march 3 -- i mean on march 3. they are due on march 2. i can write something down, but i have to see what we are balking at before i can give you anything. as soon as i put it out, i will be held accountable to being able to do that. there are all sorts of unknowns right now. it is a little difficult.

but i will list all the assumptions and work on a schedule for you. president o'brien: thank you. commissioner kasselman: i think now when you search for an address on the dbi web site, you can get what permits have been issued and completed. what other information will be available on the system? is there a little bit more for people to look up? >> there will be more information that is going to be available, but i am being a little reluctant to go into a lot of detail because a lot of that is contained in the rfp and i do not want to do anything to jinx the rfp. what we are doing first and foremost is to make what we have right now better, and to be able

to have more visible information so that you would know exactly where you were in the process, who has signed off, who has not signed off, what is next. hopefully, there could be some information on, you know -- i do not know what is out there in this commercial environment as the ability to be able to say, "when did you expect something like that?" how long things have been in a queue is fairly quick and easy to do. we are looking to have more easily and meaningful information available to the public. we do realize that right now it is very, very minimal.