EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Shoreline Planning Director Joe Tovar's Final E-Mail to City Employees

Editor's note: This is former Shoreline Planning Director Joe Tovar's final e-mail to city employees on his final day of work. Tovar told Patch in November that he was leaving, "because it's time. I think I planned to move on, but it's sooner than I expected. It’s good for everyone concerned," he said.

See the original story  See City Manager Julie Underwood's response .

A man stood on his roof and looked at the stars. Soon he could see a truth in the stars, and he thought, “I'd like to tell everyone.” So he went to the Village, and he said to the people “Look! See what I found?” But no one listened. So he went back to his roof and looked at the stars. After a while, he was still there. And the stars were still there. And he thought, “the truth is still there. And I'd still like to share it.”

As I reflect on my three decades as a planning professional, including 18 years as a planning director, I can relate to Galileo. He saw many things well before others did, including sometimes unsettling but stubborn truths. His insistence on describing the universe as he saw it came at a personal price. The flat-earthers in charge of the Village suppressed the truths he saw and he spent his final days under house arrest.

In my own career, I have worked with and for thousands of caring citizens, hundreds of dedicated city employees and dozens of city councilmembers. I was fortunate to be hired by city managers for three different cities, and worked as a planning director for a total of six city managers. It was tremendously rewarding, both professionally and personally, that five of them permitted me to help them to “see the truth in the stars.” Because they did, I was able to help build successful planning programs, city organizations and communities.

Much of my success as a planning director I credit to the competent and dedicated staff I had the privilege to work with, including many fine people here at the City of Shoreline. Equally important, though, was that five of my six city managers “got” city planning – they valued it for more than just permit revenues. They helped their cities succeed in part because they understood, respected and trusted my ability as a planning director, and I succeeded largely because of that. Unfortunately, when it comes to city planning in Shoreline, I wasn’t always able to help everyone see “the truth in the stars.” People see reality based largely on their own experiences (or lack thereof), through the lens of their own biases, and in response to many inputs, including political pressures. I certainly don’t question people’s right to disagree with me. I’ve had no shortage of that in my career. But I do object to people, especially those in authority, who resist attempts to separate myth from fact. For the record, here are three of the most unfair but easily disprovable myths about the Shoreline Planning Department:

MYTH #1: “The Planning Department is difficult to work with and has a bad reputation with our customers.” This was actually said by one of our Village’s most prominent leaders directly to the entire department at our retreat last spring. When pressed for details, this prominent leader would only say “I’m just saying. That’s what I’m hearing. You guys are hard to work with.”

FACT: In response, I shared with this individual the Department’s written Customer Satisfaction feedback as of May 2011. At that point it was 95% excellent or good. This apparently didn’t square with her “hearsay evidence”, so, in the fall of 2011, she retained an independent consultant to evaluate the satisfaction of our customers with the City’s permit process.

After convening a focus group of permit customers, the consultant reported “All attendees were pleased by the department’s customer service, knowledge, and availability, especially in comparison to other jurisdictions.” When asked what should be changed or improved, the focus group’s unanimous response was ‘keep it up.”

THE TRUTH: The Planning Department customer service ratings are excellent. The allegation that the people in this department are “difficult to work with” is absolutely untrue. The people of the department who were tarred with this hearsay deserve an apology.

MYTH #2: “No, we don’t expect that eliminating two planning positions will affect the City’s ability to continue to process permits in as timely a manner.” This City Manager's Office opinion was actually given in response to Councilman’s question at a budget hearing. Council was told that because permit revenues were down, that permit activity (i.e., work) was down and therefore the loss of two positions wouldn’t affect the capacity to get the permit work done.

FACT: While permit revenues are down in recent years, permit activity is actually up and the type of permits we are now seeing are far more staff time intensive even than two years ago. Comparing Hansen data base for 2011 permits with 2009 permits, we see that while revenues were down by about 30%, the total number of permits was actually UP by 10%! See Attachment #1. The amount of work required to be done was actually MORE in 2011 than two years before, not less.

The 2011 permits were also more time intensive because of the nature of those permits. In previous years most permits were filed by experienced developers. However, in 2011 many permit applicants were Shoreline homeowners who needed substantially more staff assistance.

TRUTH: Permit revenue is one important metric, but it alone doesn’t tell the story of how busy a permit department is. The Truth of the matter is that the Planning Department did more actual work in 2011 than in 2009, and there is no reason to expect 2012 to be less busy than 2011.

The ability to process permits in as timely a fashion as 2011 definitely will be affected. Permits will take longer to process.

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MYTH #3: “The three other large Departments received more resources to do their work in 2012, but the Planning Department can do more with less. See Myth #2 above.”

FACT: Laying off 2 employees out of the City Planning Team is a 23% reduction in resource. (8.6 planner FTEs minus 2 FTEs leaves 6.6 FTEs.) How well would other functions of City government work with one in four fewer people? I daresay that a 23% cut would have a dramatic impact on any program. It’s even more dramatic here because Shoreline began 2011 as one of the leanest organizations in the region.

I have 18 years of experience in running planning departments and can say with informed confidence that a 23% cut can’t be shrugged off. It will have an effect. For those who have zero years of experience running a city planning department to tell the Council otherwise is naive at best.

TRUTH: The City Manager's Office and Council certainly have the prerogative to reduce the levels of FTEs assigned to any city department or program. But they also have an obligation both to Shoreline citizens and to the staff who serve them, to be truthful about the obvious consequence of such reductions. “Doing more with less” is a politically popular mantra, especially in these fiscally challenging times. But, for a lean Planning department such as ours, no amount of happy talk trumps the timeworn truths that “you get what you pay for,” and “you don’t do more with less, you do less with less.”

Facts are stubborn things. Truth is important to me. People deserve better than to be judged on myths, rumors and hearsay. Sadly, despite my urging, there is no evidence than any of the above cited facts or truths were ever shared with the citizens of Shoreline or their elected officials.

In closing, I’d like to say that I have greatly enjoyed five of my six years in Shoreline and the vast majority of the employees who serve this fine community. I won’t be here to participate in the important discussion that will be prompted by the recent employee satisfaction survey. But I do hope that it provides an opportunity for the leaders of the Village to engage a candid, honest and healing conversation. And that it will help lay to rest some of the myths that have clouded the truth in the stars.

Good luck, all. Peace on you. Joe

Increase in number of Permits-up 10% from 2009 to 2011

Permit Type

2009 Number of Permits

2011 Number of Permits

Trends /          %

Addition/Remodel including ADU

211

224

Up 16%

Conditional Use Permits

1

3

Up 300 %

Demolition

18

33

Up 83 %

Electrical (in-house)

50

46

Down 8%

Fire Systems

91

72

Down 21 %

Home Occupation

4

20

Up 500 %

Lot Line Adjustment

2

7

Up 350%

Mechanical

319

431

Up 35%

Misc. Structure

15

15

Level

New Construction

35

37

Up 9%

Plumbing

122

143

Up 17%

Preliminary Short Plat

2

3

Up 50%

Right-of-Way

469

445

Down 5%

Signs

41

33

Down 20%

Site Development Clearing/ Grading

13

21

Up 62%

Street Vacation

0

2

Up 200%

Temporary Use Permit

4

5

Up 25%

Total                      1,397       1,540                     Up 10%

NOTE: Compared to New Construction (which was actually up 9%), the permits shown in bold are typically permits applied for by novice applicants, e.g., single family homeowners. Such permits frequently require more staff time while yielding relatively lower revenues. Not shown are the hours that staff spends working with notice potential permit applicants who ultimately do not apply for a permit, and therefore, for which the City receives no revenue.