Tangled process ; City's system for obtaining permits has to be made more efficient

Despite efforts at streamlining, the City of Buffalo retains the reputation of having a tangled permitting process.

Good workers can make bad systems work, but bad workers can kill good systems. It's the job of management to make the system function properly, and that's where the Brown administration may be falling short: not enough attention from managers, including important follow-up.

It's important to define what exactly is broken. Buffalo's permitting process is a case of a system that was updated to make it more efficient, but after much time and talk it is still not fully utilized.

Granted, the fee restructuring approved in 2004 has made many permits associated with home renovations and commercial projects more affordable and the city allows some applicants to obtain some simple permits via the Internet. The changes may have made the process slightly more user-friendly for some applicants. But it's clear that much more progress is needed.

What if you're a business owner? Or, a wanna-be business owner?

A recent News article featured the case of Deborah and Joseph Andriaccio, who wanted to open a family restaurant on Hertel Avenue.

By their account, they suffered through a system that wassupposed to have been unwound and easier to navigate years ago. Butthat wasn't the case and, as they told a reporter, fortunately forthem they knew a city employee who helped them through the process.

We realize each case has its own set of circumstances, and perceptions of speed and ease may be different when seen through the eyes of City Hall administrators and budding entrepreneurs. City officials strongly contend that the permitting process for the couple was anything but cumbersome and completed in less than a month. The city's customers, the Andriaccios, don't agree.

Most retail businesses rightly adopt an attitude that thecustomer is always, or at least almost always, right. The cityapparently can be home to a different attitude.

Problems with the city's permitting process date back decades.The previous administration set to work updating the process bycalling on volunteers from the business community to help. AndMayor Byron W. Brown talked a lot about it when he entered office.

So, why haven't some long-standing issues surrounding the permitting process been resolved?

By now, inspectors were supposed to have hand-held computers thatwould allow them to conduct inspections and issue reports while in the field. This was to accompany a complete overhaul of the entire permitting, licensing and inspection process. By all accounts, these efforts have not yet been completed.

Inspections Commissioner James W. Comerford recently toldlawmakers more steps have to be taken to improve the process.

He talked about efforts to "streamline" the application process, which he called "convoluted," and the desire to bring the fee application from 20 pages down to two. That would be helpful since, he said, "In most instances, our own people can't even decipher it sometimes."

Despite those statements, Comerford told Common Council membershe believes efforts to make the process more user-friendly havebeen "a rousing success by all accounts."

What's clear is that it is a work in progress and much more needsto be done. The permitting process is in place to protect the community, but it's time for the city to review old requirements with an eye toward making the process simpler.