Multi-disciplinary departments

[luckless pedestrian]

My department has planning, code, economic development, community development and housing - I feel like this is the norm when I go to the planning conferences or ICMA when departments get combined but I was wondering how the hives elsewhere do it

 

[Salmissra]

In my new place it's:

Planning
Building Inspections
Code Compliance
Environmental Health

In previous places, GIS was part of the department, and sometimes Env. Health was not.

 

[luckless pedestrian]

In my new place it's:

Planning
Building Inspections
Code Compliance
Environmental Health

In previous places, GIS was part of the department, and sometimes Env. Health was not.

oh yeah I forgot about health - when I worked in Massachusetts, Public Health was in the department I worked in

 

[JNA]

Before I retired it was Planning & Zoning
After I retired it is only Zoning - going on 2 years with out a planner.

Building Commission - joint City County dept
Dept Metropolitain Development - Housing & Economic Development (City only)
No GIS dept - several dept have 1 person
MPO - independent org - bistate/multi county
Health Dept - joint City County dept
City & County Engineer - are 2 seperate offices

 

[mendelman]

First ring Chicago suburb of ~16.5 sqmi and 60,000 population

We are Community and Economic Development (CED):

• Building Permits including Code Enforcement Division
• Planning, Zoning & Licensing Division
• Economic Development Division
• Administration Division
  • 21 full time staff

I think we are officially too 'big' and diverse to be one Dept under one Director and 4 Divs. We have enough going that it's too much for one Dir to have any real understanding of the day-to-day as well as a Director and Asst Dir (me) at least that have to be day-to-day working management on everyday case/applications processing too.

But we also keep getting unfunded mandates and more and more internal bureaucracy heaped on us that slows us down too much. Plus, we tend to be defaulted as the 'problem solver' dept for issues other depts should be handling beginning to end, but are unwilling/incapable of doing their own problem solving.

I'm getting sick of it. We get chastised when we get things less than ideal, but have no internally authority to call out our other teammates' seeming incompetence.

Sorry for downloading, but there's been a couple recent issues where I've had to problem solve for other people that should have thought ahead one or two steps with additional problem solving questions.

 

[DVD]

It's easier just to say our department does all the building. We have planners, code reviewers, civil team, traffic reviewers, and fire reviewers. Although the water and street departments actually plan out and maintain the infrastructure.

 

[Planit]

Planning
Zoning
GIS
Engineering (vacant position)

We used to have Main Street too, but it got spun out on its own, but still resides in development services building & we work very closely together.

 

[bureaucrat#3]

Planning
Zoning
Historic Preservation
Community Development
Building Inspection
part of Code Enforcement
Other duties as assigned (ie whatever else they don't know where to put something - trees/ADA)

 

[Salmissra]

I just checked, and the website says that Historic Preservation is also in our department. However, it's not. It's handled by a separate entity, but we work with them for scheduling any items that need a public hearing.

 

[michaelskis]

Edge suburb of Memphis, population of nearly 56,000.

Our "Development Services Department" has the following divisions that almost operate as their own departments.

• Planning
  • Current & Long Range
  • Historic Preservation
  • Zoning
  • Design
  • Development review
  • Signage
• GIS (Part of Planning at the moment, but will be it's own division with the new budget cycle to encourage cross collaboration with other divisions and departments)
• Building & Code Enforcement
  • Residential Permit Review
  • Commercial Permit Review
  • Building Inspections (General & Trades)
• Engineering
  • Storm Water
  • Development Review
  • Infrastructure & MPO
  • Transportation
  • Signal Maintenance (We fix the simple things, but contract out a lot of it)
• Economic Development

We also staff the following Town appointed boards:

• Planning Commission
• Historic Preservation Commission
• Design Review Commission
• Board of Zoning Appeals
• Board of Construction Appeals
• Industrial Development Board

Total, we are a staff of 42.

 

[zman]

Planning
Economic Development
Building Inspection

Total staff of 7. Code enforcement is with the Police Dept for now (I am fouling off pitches to have it moved to my dept).
In the coming budget cycle, I will be requesting an Administrative Assistant/Front desk person, a zoning enforcement officer, and an electrical plans examiner/inspector.

 

[mendelman]

Total, we are a staff of 42.

How are you able to 'stay on top' of the stuff happening throughout the Dept?

Do you often say 'let me get back to you on that'?

 

[michaelskis]

How are you able to 'stay on top' of the stuff happening throughout the Dept?

Do you often say 'let me get back to you on that'?

I don't need to stay on top of "It All." I operate in a similar way that really good CM's do. I have great division heads who I let run their division for the most part. I will course correct when needed, paint the picture of what 'done' looks like and let them figure out how to get there. We have regular scheduled meetings where I want updates on things that might go political, might be an issue, or that we should celebrate. I also meet with all the staff periodically, attend division meetings occasionally, and empower staff to do what we hired them to do. If someone has a question that could be better answered by the Transportation Engineer, a Building Inspector, or a Planning Tech, I let them answer it.

In addition to being the director, I am also the sole person doing Economic Development. I am very system oriented, but yes, I work way more than 40 hours a week. But I love what I do and the municipality that I am in. I get a ton of support from Administration and the Elected Officials and the community as a whole.