They gave me good directions from the rear entrance of the Municipal Services Building, down the steps, fourth counter down, but when I approached I could not imagine this was L&I. There were around 150 people or so hanging off the chairs, some sleeping, all kvetching.

OK, thank God my question was such a good one so they sent me right back into the seat of power itself. I raised myself up and pretended that I worked there so I would not be attacked by the hordes who were now noticing me.

Now I am seriously wondering, .......

Can't they switch over some of the public librarians who now have so much free time and give them something to do at the Licenses & Inspections desk? I mean they are mostly runners, running here, running there, and grabbing plans or something. Its not like the librarians will have to earn a civil engineering degree or something. But wait a minute?

Why not?

Why not create a city initiative, FIRST buy thousands of T-shirts and hats, and then hold some huge rallies? It shouldn't take more than five or six million federal dollars (less Ronald A. White's skim) to do the entire thing.


Joel


PS- And these people, the L&I supplicants, I know you call them applicants, but these guys PRAY TO GOD that they can just get their permit and get home, these people ARE PAYING CUSTOMERS!


DEFINITION: One praying humbly for something



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It sure would help if L&I had more staff, with all the different items that fall under their jurisdiction, and the number of people they have to deal with each day. It is completely ridiculous.

I've had to visit L&I several times, mostly because I was given incomplete information each time. They are obviously too overwhelmed to function efficiently. I don't mean this as a criticism of the people that work the desk there, because they work extremely hard. But those that are in charge need to take some serious time to organize and streamline all the processes that fall under L&I. Even if they worked on the small ones, it would make a big difference.

Yes, we hope and pray for our permits. Others I know have been lucky (or have completely given up on the process and just taken a risk), but I still have yet to get mine. I've learned by now that the next time I go, not to expect any miracles.

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Freixenet, Moët. Doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s not Great Western. -- Henri David

Well how about making even more of the forms available for download as a pdf? How about putting up on the web accurate and concise workflows of the application process from one L&I Dep't to the next? Currently the information that comes from eople working in each section has contradictory information about the stages that an application must go through. How about computerizing the the whole office there, instead of using triplicate carbon paper?

Excellent suggestion! In fact at a recent Zoning Board of Adjustment, David Auspitz directed the attorney to personally go out and verify whether there was macadam under gravel or some such nonsense like that.

By hooking up the ZBA into the 20th century, people could submit variance appliations online, and a lowly clerk could prepare a list for Auspitz to vet.

The list would then be sent to the applicant with items such as,

1. Forward to us photos of the table arrangement to the left and to the right of the proposed restaurant.

2. Forward to us a digital photo of the view of said exhaust fan and plenum from the streeet (esthetic concerns).

3. Forward to us a digital photo of your sign.

4. Forward to us six or twenty six photos of the trailers you want us to approve.

5. Forward to us the appearance of the barbed wire and the razor wire that you want us to approve.

The last several are actual cases. The direct language is strictly mine ... Joely

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Free time? WTF? GRRRRRRRRRRR. You better watch it, bub. Public librarians work their tails off. And they (usually) have graduate degrees of their own.

I hope you took that in humor.
By librarians I meant the people
that the city laid off last month
where they do not have the money
for library services.

Just a spoof on the city ......



Joel

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