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The council continued its retreat with an update from the Department of Community Development (DCD). On permitting, the permit reviewing contractor has increased speed/efficiency as they get familiar with SJC code and will add a fifth staffer. The average time to process a permit is now 200 days. Some permits like basic plumbing can be cleared in as few as two. The goal overall is 90 days. In 2024 they received 616 building permits and processed 616, but many of those were prior year permits. There are a little over 200 outstanding building permits. They are reducing the backlog of land use permits. The backlog of docket requests, which are very labor intensive, continues to grow. The council plans to look at the docket request challenge in more detail.

The DCD is updating the Comprehensive Plan to bring it into line with new state law, new analyses and data and add a new climate element. The county is doing public engagement on the Comp Plan update. County non-profits received state grants to support engagement, and the council wants to hear how they are using the grants. After the Comp Plan, they will update the Critical Areas Ordinance which is overdue. DCD and the Prosecutor’s Office are working on the building code to fix confusing and conflicting language which contributes to the permit issue processing challenge.

The auditor reviewed her functions of financial services, elections, licensing and recording. Financial services include budget planning, updating and processing, grants management. She offered resources for understanding the county budget process. She suggested the possibility of adding a council member to the budget committee, which Council endorsed. The auditor proposed changing the indirect cost recovery policy for grants. She addressed the move last year to stop providing services to 29 junior tax districts, which caused angst among smaller tax districts. The workload became too large for something that was not the county’s responsibility. The state audit is complete.

Public Works gave a brief rundown of county marine facilities and their challenges and roads affected by sea-level rise. He will bring to the council the results of their outreach to find an alternate multi-use trail route so they can decide whether to direct further action on the project. The Land Bank director reported on some upcoming real estate transactions and said they will take a deeper look at stewardship. Kendra Smith reported the county had sent the letter to engage 14 tribal governments and is following up. Brandon Andrews outlined the proposed design of the Cultural Access Program which hopes to begin dispersing grants in early 2026. Mark Thompson said they will be giving the council more details on the emergency ferry money on January 21 and will be ready to issue RFPs for contract passenger and barge service soon.

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization encourages informed participation in government. The Observer Corps attends and takes notes at government meetings to expand public understanding of public policy and decisions. The notes do not necessarily reflect the views of the League or its members.

LWVSJ Observer Corps Notes: County Council Janua