The Dallas City Manager’s executive in residence recently gave City Council members a report on permit delays, which could be causing millions in lost revenues, and how some of the problems could be fixed.
But Mayor Eric Johnson is taking his own route to solutions in permit delays.
The Mayor sent a memo to City Council Monday:
I have no doubt that people like Will Mundinger, our Executive-in-Residence, and the staff in the permitting office are working hard. But even so, we have not seen the operational and systemic change that is needed, and problems have persisted. Enough is enough. Dallas deserves better.
Johnson created the Mayor’s Working Group on Permitting and appointed City Councilmember Paula Blackmon its chair.
Blackmon has chosen a co-chair in Macey Small Davis, the founder of of The Davis Advocates LLC, a public policy and planning firm. Davis previously worked as the Executive Vice President of Government Affairs for The Real Estate Council in Dallas.
The Mayor’s office described his working group’s scope in a media release:
The Mayor’s Working Group on Permitting will be responsible for seeking input, researching solutions, monitoring progress, holding city staff accountable, breaking down silos in city government, assessing potential budgetary impacts, and returning to the relevant City Council committees with any policy proposals deemed necessary to fix the problems in the permitting office.