Portland Permitting & Development will need consistent funding from the city’s general fund to escape a boom-and-bust cycle that has rendered permitting agencies flat-footed when the economy improves, a city official told developers recently.
“We’ve got a structural financial problem for this business process, and we need to fix it, and I don’t see a solution but the general fund,” interim City Administrator Michael Jordan said.
Jordan was appointed by Mayor Ted Wheeler to help shepherd in the city’s new form of government led by an expanded, 12-member City Council and a professional city manager.
Jordan’s comments came at a June 26 meeting convened by law firm Jordan Ramis to hear from interim Permitting & Development Director David Kuhnhausen and other city officials on progress toward reform of Portland’s municipal government.
The Bureau of Development Services (BDS) soon to be PPD relies heavily on permit fees to operate. That has resulted in layoffs, with more expected later this year. When the economy improves, the bureau tends to get caught with an undersized staff, city officials said.
“When we have to lay people off every time there’s a blip in the economy, and then we can’t be responsive when things improve,” said Terri Theisen, the city’s permitting improvement strategy manager. “It’s not only frustrating for customers; it’s extremely frustrating and demoralizing for staff.”
Jordan candidly told developers, attorneys and others that Portland’s sclerotic bureau system was not working. City commissioners are not accountable to each other or to the mayor, and bureaus operate at cross purposes, he said.
“This system has created a culture over decades where nobody is in charge,” he said. “On a day-to-day basis, there is no accountability. It’s easy to hide.”
Under the new system that begins Monday, July 1, Kuhnhausen reports to Deputy City Administrator Donnie Oliveira, who reports to Jordan.
Kuhnhausen started at BDS in 2008. He’s risen through the ranks to become the agency’s top administrator, albeit on an interim basis.
“The whole city’s going through a huge change right now,” he said. “That’s definitely going to trickle down to how this organization works.”
PPD will deliver better customer service, Kuhnhausen vowed. Some staffers who work from home have become accustomed to not returning phone calls, and that needs to change, he said.
Kuhnhausen got an earful from some developers who were invited to the Jordan Ramis forum. Marty Kehoe said his company, Kehoe Northwest Properties , had been able to build 100 houses in Oregon City while it was still awaiting a permit for a single duplex in Portland.
“BDS, in our opinion, is completely broken,” Kehoe said.
Kuhnhausen declined to provide a specific goal for permit timelines. But he said BDS is closely tracking the data and will identify where the agency is falling short .
The agency is noticing an uptick in permit activity, Kuhnhausen said.
“We are getting busier,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s not the large-scale construction a lot of us would like to see, but we are getting busier.”
Jordan cautioned that improving permitting timelines and other city processes will take time. “We’re going to try to get better, and that’s all I can say for it,” he said. “It’s a hell of a piece of work.”
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