Saturday, March 23, 2013

Half Moon Bay is outsourcing their planning department


Half Moon Bay Review/Mark Noack, 3/21/13.  "Half Moon Bay prepares to outsource planning", City hopes contractors can fix 'broken' department. 

Half Moon Bay has building goals
"Saying they needed to fix a broken city division, the Half Moon Bay City Council on Monday unanimously approved plans to outsource the city’s planning department and hire contract firms. 
Eh gad, call in the Sierra Club

City Council members explained that, after an economic slump, Half Moon Bay’s economy seemed to be rebounding with several large projects on the horizon. But they described a dysfunctional planning department as something that could be an obstacle to that recovery. City leaders approved contracting out the department by a 4-0 vote. Councilwoman Marina Fraser was absent.

....  The report examined 38 strategic goals from the Matrix study, including revising the city’s zoning code and the permit process, and upgrading the city’s website. In all cases, the staff report indicated that contractors could handle the job as well or better than the city’s own planning team."    Read article.

Note:  Photographs:  right from Bloomberg, left from Expat in California.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

16 comments:

Tom Clifford said...

Kathy the headline for this Posting is incorrect Half Moon Bay is looking at outsourcing it's Planning Department not its Planning Commission. Two very different things.

Anonymous said...

If Half Moon Bay's Planning is dysfunctional, what is Pacifica's?

Kathy Meeh said...

Thanks, you are correct Tom. And oops, I knew that, but typos are my friend.

Right Way Willie said...

Pacifica's Planning Department may be one of the best run departments in our city. George White has done a great job at cleaning up the dysfunction left for him. One of the reasons for less planning commission meetings is that staff is actually doing what they are supposed to do.

Anonymous said...

LMAO

Nothing is in planning because nothing is being built.

Duh!

Anonymous said...

Yeah 629 that's exactly the situation. Nothing being built, nothing in the pipeline, nada, zilch, zippo. Let's spin that sad fact into praise for a $200K per year guy who has so very little to do. The whole department has very little to do. What's it worth? Think that might be a place to cut? Just til that building surge hits and saves our ass?

Anonymous said...

another lawsuit for the city of Pacifica, looks like they got dragged into a dispute with Recology

http://openaccess1.sanmateocourt.org/openaccess/civil/casereport.asp?casenumber=128010&casetype=SCS&courtcode=A

Anonymous said...

Haha@1102, we've been waiting for that "building surge" for about 25 years. HMB has a great idea re outsourcing their planning department. They have projects in the pipeline and if they don't need an in-house planning dept, we sure as hell don't. We should cut it immediately and contract out what little of these planning functions we actually need when we need them. What's it worth?

City Council, let's get serious about saving Pacifica!

Anonymous said...

hey pacifica is fast tracking all the projects that are not being built. this is a good thing. let's face it, no one wants to invest in pacifica and the people who scared the builders away have no stake in the demise of the city.

Anonymous said...

how many times have we heard from the nobies: "I support development, just not this one"

Anonymous said...

10:28

This council seems to be just as devious, sneaky, and deals from the bottom of the deck as the past councils over the last 25 years.

Anonymous said...

Oh say it isn't so 1015. I remember when they were so close. Guess it goes to show, never go in business with your friends.

Anonymous said...

@1101 amen! those 2 are way beyond sneaky.

Anonymous said...

Pacific's problem is not the Planning Department.
It's the Planning Commission.

Chris Porter said...

Anonymous 3/24/2013 10:15 AM This lawsuit has nothing to do with Recology.

Anonymous said...

@647 Different kind of problem...one works for free. The other is highly paid to do very little actual planning. How can anyone justify the big expense of a planning dept? So very little is being built. Are we just keeping them around on standby? Just in case we're deluged with projects? Ridiculous waste of money. Farm it out and pay as we go. Saved a lot of money faring out the city attorney. Planning seems another opportunity.