4-8-2024_PW SS Briefings (3) - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 Beyond the state law requirements,sharing permit review times with applicants helps ensure predictability,a key Growth Management Act goal. Governments can also use this information internally to identify areas where process improvements may be needed.Therefore,although not a requirement for all governments,this is a leading practice for all governments. For this portion of our audit work,we surveyed other local governments that are required to post these reports,so that we could measure statewide compliance with this requirement.Our survey population included 45 required governments: 42 responded,for a 93 percent response rate.For more details on our survey methodology,see Appendix B. 1r,N1iC2rLC-1" i re C1f oC,aL C ovC'-r'At`�1( n. �h C:II1r c}LA' �r�.C-n-LILT. f�ft'i(n, �1.!' C::C� �C L�1tC}C-1ti -t1C�:Lt L` C�L'1:VCG� � s a Of the six audited governments,four are required to publish permit performance reports.Two-Bellingham and Snohomish County-did not publicly post this information.When asked why they did not do so,staff said other matters had taken precedence. Officials at Bellingham said that they had published permit performance metrics under a previous mayor but had stopped for unknown reasons;the planning director said the city intended to resume publishing this information but had not yet done so. Another 29 governments also failed to publish annual permit timeliness reports, which means only one-third of required local governments did post them. The surveyed governments that said they did not post permit performance reports offered three main reasons for not complying with state law: i • Most governments mentioned limitations in their IT systems,including having older systems that lacked the functionality necessary to track the data or produce the reports,as well as working to develop and implement new systems. • Thirteen governments said they had concerns about the quality of the data they would report. • Seven governments said they were not aware of the requirement or believed the requirement did not apply to them. Growth Management Act - Audit Results 33