Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

In addition, the majority of another Senior Planner’s available time is largely allocated to managing the City’s RDCS system (see our discussion under the “RDCS” heading for a description of activities), which is very labor intensive and requires continuous monitoring and reporting to ensure that all RDCS commitments are fulfilled, which can be tied to a Final Map or to a Building Final, depending upon the type of commitment. This position also supervises the DST and MSA positions and one of the contract planners and manages the front counter and Planner on Duty schedule. As such, only fractional time (e.g. about 15%) remains to process 3-4 other Current Planning projects annually. The remaining fulltime regular Senior Planner is devoted fulltime to managing Current Planning Activities, including providing oversight to the Design Review Committee function. This planner is currently managing 6 cases, in addition a substantial amount of time is spent managing post-approval cases that are in various stages of permitting and construction.

Fulltime Regular Associate Planner

There is one existing, fulltime regular Associate Planner in the Division. Currently, 75% of this Planner’s available time is devoted to implementing the TRAKiT project, which leaves minimal time to manage Current Planning projects. Nonetheless, this planner is currently managing 10 cases, which is an excessive caseload given the TRAKiT implementation challenges that we noted earlier.

See our discussion under the “TRAKiT” heading concerning making more time available to the TRAKiT implementation project.

In addition, the City just hired a new Associate Planner, whose time is slated to be divided evenly between Current Planning, including counter duties and Long-Range Planning activities.

Part-time Contract Planners

The Division supplements fulltime planner staffing resources with part-time staffing resources, which is a good strategy that we often recommend. Currently, four part- time contract planners, totaling 1.35 FTE are utilized to bridge staffing gaps created by increased development activity, the TRAKiT implementation project and the Morgan Hill 2035 project. Two types of contract planners are used. The first type includes 2 annuitant (e.g., retired) planners (e.g., a Senior Planner and Principal Planner) that the Department contracts with directly. These 2 contract planners provide part-time assistance, averaging about 24 hrs. per week each, which equates to .65 FTE.

Morgan Hill, California

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Zucker Systems