What’s Delta?

Jeff Schweers

Tuesday, May 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

With a name more reminiscent of jungle-stomping mercenaries than policy-spinning bureaucrats, the Delta Team is cutting through Clark County's thicket of zoning and building procedures.

For more than a year, this group of mid-level management wonks has tried to find a way to simplify a process that currently involves three different departments and five divisions.

And now that they're asking for money to implement some of their plans, some county commissioners are getting nervous. When the Delta Team asked for $2.6 million in the 1997-98 budget to help reorganize the Permit Application Center on the first floor of the Clark County Government Center, the commission balked.

"I want them to bring an update of their activities before the board," Commissioner Mary Kincaid said. "I really feel strongly that we bring this back to the board before that money is spent, and receive a full report on what the Delta Team is doing, because I'm not really sure what they're doing."

The money would have come from the Building Department's cash flow statement for capital expenditures. The Building Department is an enterprise fund, which means it relies solely on the money raised from licensing fees.

Commissioner Myrna Wil-liams suggested that the budget be adopted with an assurance that the money would not be encumbered for the Delta Team, "until we're satisfied."

Finance Director Rosemary Vassiliadis explained that the money had to be spent within the "realm of responsibility for what the building enterprise fund is set up for."

Kincaid said that was fine as long as the money was not encumbered specifically to the Delta Team.

County Manager Dale Askew, who left county government last August before his appointment three months ago as Pat Shalmy's replacement, has also asked the team for a briefing on their activities.

"What they're doing and trying to accomplish, I know the goal is worthwhile, to have a one-stop shopping," Askew said. " but I confess I'm behind the curve."

Askew explained that the group came about from discussions among commissioners several years ago who were under pressure from developers to speed up the zoning application process. The commissioners pitched it to Shalmy, who handed it to Assistant County Manager Jim Ley, who appointed people from current planning, building and public works to study the issue.

Askew said commissioners are now discussing the team and its activities because this is the first time it's asked for such a large sum, Askew said. The commissioners want some assurance that their managers are comfortable with what's going on before committing those funds, he said.

"The Delta Team is a business process re-engineering work group that is charged with basically tearing apart the current development review process ... and put it back together in a way that's more cost-effective and provides better service," Ley said.

The ultimate goal is to create one department for customers, Ley said.

"We've been slowly doing that," Ley said. "The question is do you want to take the next step in creating a department responsible for this."

The group wants to cut the permit application cycle time by 50 percent, and cut the amount of tax dollars spent by 35 percent, he said. A major commercial project can take as much as 60-65 days to go through the permit process, which is still faster than anywhere else in the country, Ley said.

"It's not a question of whether growth is good or not, we're just improving the process," Ley said. "It's not like we're trying to encourage growth to occur quicker, once the decision is made to permit something how fast can we get it through."

Ultimately, Ley said, the group wants to go from a permit-based system to a project-oriented philosophy where a team of county staff would help shepherd the project through at once instead of making the customer go from one counter to another to obtain permits, filling the same information out over and over.

Ley also talked of using the "work flow" more efficiently, in other words, take advantage of software systems so people don't have to constantly put the same information into a computer over and over again.

"So that when somebody applies for a permit, that should be the first and last time they should have to take any information," Ley said.

Throughout the process, the information would build and build until, ideally, the final building permit is issued and automatically transfers to the tax system, he said.

The biggest expense will be technology, with some training and remodeling.

"You don't make organizational changes without changing space," Ley said. "As I explained to one commissioner, if you change the menu, and that new menu item requires new equipment, you may have to remodel to put some of that equipment in."