Development Services Director Jeremy Pagan

Development Services Director Jeremy Pagan: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Development Services Director Jeremy Pagan: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Steve:
Welcome to a City of Redding podcast. Are you looking to start a do it yourself project at your home and wondering how to navigate the permitting process? And why do some simple home projects require a permit anyways? In this episode, we'll meet Jeremy Pagan, the newly appointed development services director, with his background as an engineer and building official. He'll explain why the permitting and building inspection process is so important for the safety of our community and why you should care that it's done right.

Katie:
He also talks about the important role development services has in reading from working with DIY ers and construction professionals to major planning documents that shape our future growth. He'll give us the latest updates on the progress of the riverfront specific plan and the Reading Tree Ordinance. Jeremy has a lot of goals for his department and big plans for Redding. If you're interested in any kind of construction project or are curious about what Redding might look like in the future, this episode is for you.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
So my name is Jeremy Pagan. I'm the director of the Development Services Department, and that entails me overseeing the Building Division, Planning Division and the permit center division for the city.

Steve:
Great. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jeremy. We're excited to have you. I guess first and foremost, when folks hear the term development services, sometimes there's some ambiguity around that. What exactly does development services mean and how does it function here in the city?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Sure. So I think what most people probably think of when they hear development services is primarily building permits or maybe zoning regulations. So we do a little bit of both of that. So we have a planning division and we have a building division, and I'll start with planning. So planning's primary function is to work through the entitlement process for people that are looking to do some development in town. So once someone acquires a piece of property and they want to do something with that piece of property, it has to go through our planning division to make sure it meets our land use regulations, our zoning codes. It has to go through a public hearing process so that the public can have a chance to weigh in on what this particular property owner wants to do with that piece of property. And that goes through an administrative process, generally through our planning division, and then to either the Board of Administrative Review or to Planning Commission. And after it goes through that process, they end up getting their entitlements. So they'll get a use permit or a site development permit, something like that, and that will allow them to then pull a building permit. So you can think of our planning division as sort of step one in the process. If you own a piece of property and you want to do something with it and you want to build something on it, so once you've gotten your entitlements and your planning permits, then you come over to the other side of the shop in development services and get a building permit. And a building permit is what we would define as a non-discretionary permit, and a planning permit is a discretionary permit. So in other words, with a planning permit, the city has the ability to require conditions of that permit to to require you to adhere to certain things in our zoning code, etc..

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
There's a public hearing, so a public governing body can say yes or no to your project, right? So if you go to the Board of Administrative Review or to Planning Commission, that's a hearing body that can decide whether or not to give you your permit. A building permit is a non discretionary permit, so we can't say no. You know, all we, all we can say is, well, it must meet the building code. So once you have entitlements and you have your discretionary permit that you're planning, you'll come to building, you'll submit your plans. A lot of people think of these as blueprints, plans, drawings, whatever you want to call them. You'll submit that to our building division and they'll check your plans for compliance with the California building code. And usually that can take one or two cycles of review. Our plans examiners will look at your plans, assess them for compliance, require some revisions. And then at the end of that process, we'll issue you a building permit. And then our building inspectors will inspect your project through construction. And then at the end of construction, the building division and the building official will issue you a certificate of occupancy that says this building has been built per the California Building Code Standards and is safe to occupy. So development services really encompasses from the first step in the process of acquiring that piece of property and owning it and developing it from that blank piece of land all the way to a finished project. We provide the regulatory oversight for that process.

Katie:
I mean, that sounds like quite a big job if you're dealing with everybody from residential to commercial entities. Is that correct? It's somebody building a shed in their backyard to somebody who wants to build a five storey building downtown.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Yep. Yeah. It encompasses it all. You know, to to use your example specifically, it's kind of a good one because a shed technically can be exempt from permits. So there are some projects. If they're small enough and meet the requirements of our exceptions, whether they're zoning exceptions and planning exceptions or the actual building code has certain exceptions, one of them being shed. So if you have a ten by 12, 120 square feet or less of a garden shed or a tool shed, and you're not running plumbing or electrical or anything like that. That particular small project is actually exempt from permitting, but there's not too many exemptions out there. So we we do end up dealing with quite a few different types of permits.

Steve:
And on that note, Jeremy, what's the best way for residents to determine if they need a permit for, to Katy's point, maybe a smaller project on their property?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Yeah, our our website, we're continuing to hopefully improve. And I know the city overall is trying to to improve our overall web presence and customer friendliness to our website. But our website does have an FAQ section for the building division. One of those actually is Do I need a building permit? And we go ahead and list there what the several exemptions are for needing a building permit. So I'd recommend that as a resource to the public. Also coming down to the permit counter and just talking to one of our permit techs or our supervisor down there, usually we can get a sense from folks at the counter of the scope of their project and we can give them guidance on whether or not a permits needed from the planning perspective, you know, it's always good. They have they do have a phone number. You can call a general email inbox. I don't know if we have a ton of resources on the web yet, but you can always come down for a pre application meeting with our planning staff. In other words, that's a chance to get with them. Describe your project to them and then they can give you guidance in terms of whether or not a permits necessary.

Katie:
And something that people may not know about you is that you are recently promoted to the Director of Development Services and prior to that you were the Redding building official, which means that you over oversaw a lot of these building and permits questions that people would have. I wanted to find out what were the most common DIY homeowner projects that should require a permit but people don't often get permits for or that people get want to get permits for that they actually don't need permits for. So you covered sheds already, but kind of what are some mistakes that you see from people?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Yeah, that's a good question. So I would say we could tackle it from the angle of what do people do without permits that should be permitted, because that's probably a more common one. Standard, real simple one is a water heater replacement. People think, Hey, I'm swapping this out, no big deal. I'm swapping out like for like, why do I need a building permit for this? You actually do need a building permit for that. But we have what's called over the counter permits and we try for some of these really simple projects to get you a permit right away. It doesn't take a process, a review period doesn't take much. It essentially an over the counter kind of rubber stamp permit, any kind of electrical or plumbing work requires permits. The building code allows for maintenance and basic repairs, emergency style repairs to be done without a permit. If you're doing finish work and tiling and cabinetry, that kind of finish work and niceties that you put on a house that actually does not require a building permit. So when you want to do some painting and trim work and tile, let's say you're remodeling a bathroom. That's pretty standard. You could get away with doing that without a building permit if you were just doing cosmetic upgrades. The second you want to say move a waterline or relocate a drain line or install some new outlets or rewire a light any time you touch some of those trade functions.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
So whether it be plumbing, electrical, HVAC or any of that kind of trade stuff, then that will trigger the need for a permit. But we I think what I'm working towards to in terms of the future is I'd like to give tools and resources into the hands of DIY ers because I myself am a diyer. I've pulled a number of building permits from the city of Redding myself before I was in this job and while I've been in this job. So I get it. And I think if we educate our customers a little more and help give them tools, it might not seem like such a mystery in terms of how you can come down here, get your permit, because really, at the end of the day, it's really about safety. You know, if someone doesn't install correctly a GFCI outlet or miss wires, a light or whatnot, I mean, we're talking fire danger, flood damage from incorrectly installed plumbing, etc.. So if we can help folks get their permits easier and then have one of our inspectors come out and inspect that work, it's a win win. And so I'd like to make that more accessible to our customers. But those are just a couple examples that come to mind right away.

Steve:
And Jeremy, with regard to the permit, you mentioned the safety aspect, which I think is a big part of why the permits are needed. Permits themselves can be somewhat costly at times as well. Are permits revenue generating or are they strictly intended for the safety element and to cover costs?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Yeah, so we we don't cover our full cost as a department. We have some general fund money that subsidizes our department to the tune of, I don't know, 500,000 to a. Million dollars a year of general fund. So our fees pay for a lot of our services. Certainly we're not making a profit or making any revenue off this. It's really just to keep all the various functions and staff we have here going with that revenue stream. So we do charge permit fees and plant check fees and we have all that updated pretty regularly on our website and also in the city's master fee schedule. But in terms of generating a lot of revenue and or making money, no, we we break even. And then we also get a little bit of help from the general fund in order to provide the services that we do.

Steve:
And with regard to the fee structure for these permits, are they based off of industry standards or similar scoped and sized cities here in California? How are those fees determined and how regularly are they updated?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Yeah, that's a great question. We revisited the fees a few years ago, so this was before my time with the city. But by looking at other jurisdictions, looking at some industry standard benchmarks, looking at valuation in terms of construction cost indices. And so right now those were set a few years ago by city council to a certain level for our permit categories are pretty, pretty extensive. I mean, if you look at our master fee schedule, we have, I would say over 100 different types of fees for a plumbing permit, electrical permit, square footage, construction type, etc.. And so what those fees were set at can now be adjusted based on both the Consumer Price Index and the construction cost index. And so the Consumer Price Index, as we just saw about a month ago, we're in times of high inflation, of course, everyone knows. And so that was about an 8% adjustment across the board to all the cities fees based on just inflation. And then twice per year, the International Code Council puts out a construction cost index update and that occurs in February, I want to say. And August, though, maybe don't quote me on that. It's two times per year and they adjust the cost of construction based on labor costs, cost of materials and goods, other factors. And it's also based on the type of occupancy and construction type. So that could mean the construction cost, for instance, of building a single family home, that being a residential occupancy and Type five be construction light frame would construction, that's going to be a different cost per square foot to build than, let's say commercial construction or the construction of a school or a hospital. Those are obviously going to be a lot higher cost per square foot to build. So that's the construction cost index. And like I said, it does get updated twice per year and that feeds the calculation in terms of how much we charge people for permits. So it goes up and down. The cost of construction.

Katie:
And the building and planning permitting process can often be really intimidating for people who have never done it before and know that they need something done in their house. What do you tell people who don't know where to start?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
It sort of depends on the project. So if it's going to be a really small remodel project and it's a homeowner that's DIY or some some really small, not complex project generally, I mean, our staff here are really great and they try to help people as much as they can. So they'll bring in quite literally, some people will bring in their plan on not quite the back of a napkin, you know, but certainly a eight and a half by 11 piece of printer paper sketched out in pencil. And if it's a small project that doesn't require an engineer or an architect and it's really minor, we'll try to help them through and provide them guidance and we'll mark up their drawings and give them the tools they need. And oftentimes our staff here is great about just trying to get them that permit and get them going. If it's a more complicated project, say, a brand new single family home or an engineered custom home that is complex and and multi story, or if it's a commercial project, we generally then mostly refer out and tell them to go find professional help within our design community here in town or otherwise. So when the projects get that complex, it's generally really, really prudent to get an engineer, an architect on board and help them through the process. One caveat to that I would back up a little bit is if you're doing a standard home, just a single story, pretty simple, single family, new construction, there is something called the residential building code, and that does not require an engineer and architect for you to do a standard single family home since a single family house, I should say. So in that case, there are what we call designers, drafts, persons, that kind of thing, where they can provide you drafting services and draw up some plans for you without the help of an architect or engineer. And so we'll oftentimes point people in that direction as well.

Steve:
I'm curious with regard to you mention that there's sometimes projects where residents or community members don't know that they need a permit, whether it be inadvertently or through nefarious means. What is the enforcement? Repercussions. If someone's found to have done a project without pulling a parameter they required to scrap that project and put it back to its original state? Or is it more of use? The example of a GFCI outlet if a fire were to occur and fire inspector determines that it was installed incorrectly, there's additional fines at that point, yeah.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Oc So how do I unpack that question? So we definitely aren't going around looking for people building without permits, you know, that we don't have the time or the resources to do that. Generally it's complaint based or a neighbor talks about another neighbor or whatever. Our inspectors are going throughout the community doing their work. And so if they pass by a huge project going on and it's not on their computer, the tablet they have in terms of permitted projects, sometimes they'll flag things as well. But in general, it's a complaint based system or someone concerned and they report that to us in terms of the repercussions or the consequences for unpermitted construction once we are aware of it. I mean, we're obligated by law to ensure that it gets permitted and depending on the project can be simple or it can become somewhat complex. So a good common example would be someone illegally converting a garage into living space. So if someone decides to take their detached two car garage or shop and turn it into an accessory dwelling unit or into a living space without a permit, generally the work's done right. So how do we permit something after it's all completed? Well, they'll have to document through submission of plans and drawings to us all the things they changed and how it went from its original state to its new state. And then sometimes there's a little bit of destructive investigation we have to do in terms of removing some drywall, peeling up some finishes, moving cabinets to inspect plumbing, electrical and that sort of thing. And also it has to end up working from an engineering standpoint.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
So we'll look at it from either a conventional code requirement or an engineered requirement and make sure it's designed for seismic and for wind and snow loads and that type of thing as well from a structural standpoint. So it is possible. It's not the way that we recommend going about getting a permit because it can obviously be a bit troublesome. But the one thing I want to focus on, too, in terms of our department, though, is I want to encourage people that it's not the end of the world. You know, if you come to us and want to get something permitted after the fact, we really want to work with people and try to get that project permitted because if it's a mystery or if it's difficult or, you know, if we have this air of, hey, come in here and we're going to we're going to make this difficult for you to get it permitted. Well, then I realize that no one's going to want to come in and get permits, you know, and so we want to I think it's really important that we have a working relationship with the community and help them to get these projects permitted, even though because oftentimes people will inherit these these things. Right. So one last example I'll use would be the case of real estate transactions. So you buy a home and California law requires you to disclose unpermitted construction or permitted construction, as the case may be. And sometimes people will disclose unpermitted construction and they won't understand as the buyer sort of what they're getting themselves into.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
So in other words, well, I did this remodel, I didn't get permits, but I disclosed it to the buyer. And the buyer thinks, well, this looks nice. They did a good job. You know, the remodel looks great. But now as the new buyer of that property, they have just bought the problem. So the old owner sells and is no longer liable because they disclosed that it was unpermitted and they're no longer the property owner. So if it comes to light that they have unpermitted construction, now they're the ones that are responsible for bringing it up to code. And so I would just caution people, when you're buying and selling homes, you know, permitted construction, sometimes it can change hands two, three, four times and you end up being that fourth owner with all this unpermitted construction. It can really be a huge challenge for people. And it's really disappointing, honestly, because it comes to us and really no one that's trying to make it right was responsible for that in the first place, but we end up having to try to clean up the mess. So yeah, permits are really important and our goal is to make the process. I wouldn't say simple because the building code and planning zoning ordinances can be complex, but we try to make it approachable for people and make it a process that we can help you through so that so that you can have a permitted and safe structure. What many people don't understand or don't know is that our building department and to a degree our planning division and our building division are graded on our performance.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
And so the building division is graded on how well we do our jobs, how many permits we issue per capita, how many inspections we perform. How well trained our staff is and what certifications our building inspectors have and our building official, etc.. And so what I think is a really interesting point is that if we are doing our jobs well and people are pulling permits and the grade is based on our population size, right? So they understand that based on a population size, X amount of permits really should be pulled for that, that scenario or that community. If we're doing a good job, that directly affects property and homeowner insurance rates. So if you have a building division or a building department that's doing a great job processing lots of permits, doing lots of inspections, insurance companies understand a result of that is that the people they're insuring are much less likely to have life safety issues with their homes. Much less likely to suffer from flood damage from house fires due to faulty wiring from roofs collapsing due to heavy snow. These types of things, if the building department gets a good grade, really everyone wins in the end in terms of lower insurance rates. And that's something I didn't even know when I started this job. And so I like to let people know that because I think it really shines a light on the importance of not only what we're doing, but how it can really benefit the whole.

Katie:
Community and what is our grade.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Jeremy We are a two out of ten, but a one is the best. So we are. We're one from the top, both in residential and commercial, and we are working towards a one. There's not many communities in California that are ones, but it would certainly be a personal and professional goal of mine to get us there, not only because it would say a lot of great things about our our department and divisions, but also because it would be a huge benefit to the community, not only in terms of providing that safety and protection, but lower insurance rates, too.

Katie:
Well, then that's probably a good segue into another question, which is as you've just taken over as director of Development Services, what are some of your long term goals for the department?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Great question. And yeah, I'm still still trying to hone in on those, but I do have a few really. It helps me to sort of in my brain split this up between sort of the two divisions planning and building. And as far as planning goes, there's a lot of huge efforts underway that staff is undertaking right now and a lot of important projects that we're trying to get off the ground and move forward with. So some of those are plan updates. And so probably the two most significant plan updates as goals would be the general plan update for the city. Our senior planner, Vishnu Krishnan is taking on that effort and that's a multi-year effort. It's been about 20, 25 years since the last general plan was was updated. And so it's due its time, time to have that plan updated. It's a huge effort. It involves a lot of stakeholder outreach and engagement. He is working alongside several consultants to make that happen. And so getting the general plan updated and adopted by planning, commission and council is a huge goal for the department here in the next year, year and a half. The riverfront specific plan is something that actually I'm working with both of you on in terms of reaching out to our community and engaging them. The Civic Center land deal from a few months ago, the unsolicited offer really to to purchase that land north of the freeway there up at Turtle Bay, really, I think started getting the community thinking a lot about our riverfront and about the future of the riverfront and the future of the northern riverfront, in particular the Civic Center in the rodeo grounds.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
And as some of your listeners might recall, council voted to not accept that land deal and instead directed staff to pursue the update of the riverfront specific plan. And that specific plan is nearly 30 years old, was originally drafted and adopted in the late eighties. And so the specific plan for the riverfront goes along basically from City Hall here, up Park Marina Drive and across the freeway over to Turtle Bay. It's an area of our town. It's it's the core right there by Civic Center Rodeo Grounds, not too far from all the really neat things happening downtown. It's a lot of riverfront property that a lot of community members felt really strongly about. And so that's an exciting goal for our department, is to get that updated in the next couple of years. So I'm really excited about that and think really in terms of that being the next generation's sort of project. I mean, downtown isn't finished, but it's on its way and that's been in motion for 15 to 20 years. I feel like the next problem to tackle, or maybe not problem, but the next opportunity area, if you will, to use some planning lingo is there's a lot that can be done there and a lot that needs to be thought about. So that's exciting. Ordinances that we need to work on in planning short term rentals are a real hot topic right now for the community. And so looking at that ordinance and how it can be made better or or reviewed or changed is is a goal. Also the tree management ordinance, we have some community members that want to see that ordinance looked at.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
And so we are beginning the process on both of those, just starting really to engage the public on that, probably start forming workshops or committees to get those ordinances updated. So some big picture, big goals in the planning division would be that as far as the building division and I would say more the department overall a huge goal of ours is to improve our technology and improve our electronic submittal and review processes. So we are very paper heavy still. Our planning division has done a good job in the last few years being less and less paper driven. They're a little more electronic than building division is, but in general, our whole department needs to sort of come up to present times and our customers are looking for that. Our clients are looking for the ability to instead of hauling down a big set of construction documents. You know, I don't know if you guys have seen those. But they can be huge and heavy, multiple sets of drawings and calculations and forms and applications. We're really working to make that a fully electronic process. So it's a big goal. We are through the first couple of steps in the last year since I've been here, with the help of our i.t department and department staff, we've finally made a big upgrade to our software system. And so now we have the software platform that's capable of helping us be fully electronic. Now we have to configure that and implement that. So that'll be a lot of work, but it's a huge goal for our department to provide that service to the community.

Steve:
It sounds like you have a little bit of work ahead of you, Jeremy. So good. Good luck to you and that maybe we could talk for another brief minute about the Redding riverfront specific plan that you mentioned mentioned this is a multiyear effort and just kind of in its infancy right now. We recently had two preliminary meetings on this topic. What were those meetings about and why are we having them so early in the planning process?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Yes. So these two meetings really were about engaging the public as much as we possibly can. So knowing that this is a hot topic, a sensitive topic, and honestly, even if it weren't, I mean, we're always striving to better engage the community, get them involved in what we're doing. And so city council, when they voted to not accept the land deal and we decided to pursue the riverfront specific plan, update requested that staff reach out to the community early and often and they wanted to workshops to be done prior to the RFP going out. And so I'll take one step back and explain that we don't have the staff and resources to update the riverfront specific plan here internally. So what we'll be doing is hiring a consultant to do that work for us. And part of that process is putting together a request for proposal and getting that out so that consultants can bid on the project and do that work for us. And so as part of developing this request for a proposal we are having, we've had these two workshops and really the goal of those workshops was one to explain to the community members what our current riverfront specific plan is all about. And so that one that I mentioned earlier, that's about 30 years old, we're trying to explain that to folks and let them know what does the plan currently say? And the second workshop was really about getting feedback and providing them with sort of answering the question, where are we going? So the second workshop focused more on what the draft request for proposal was about, what the goals and the scope of work for the riverfront specific plan was all about getting the public's input and thoughts on that and just sort of working together with them to craft this request for proposal. And then hopefully here in the next month or two, their requests for proposal will get authorized by City Council and we'll be able to advertise that and begin looking for consultants to do the work.

Katie:
And so you mentioned, of course, that the city doesn't have the bandwidth to take on a process like this and we'll be hiring a consultant to do it. In terms of goals and scope for the consultant, what what are some broad ideas that the city would like the consultant to review and deliver on?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
So the goals and scope of work in the draft RFP, I'll speak first, I guess to the goals and really the goals there are to provide a roadmap to sort of re-energize the area. We want to look specifically at the riverfront and what can be done there to sort of create a catalyst for high quality residential commercial development. We want to really respect the area's history and character. Civic art and landscape are a big piece of that. And and really just the riverfront specific plan as adopted. Now, the land use pieces of it are pretty good. And I think perhaps we'll see what the community has to say, but probably not a lot of changes there. But more specifically on implementation strategies, how we can make things actually happen on the riverfront I think is really important. And so as we work with the community, those those goals could also change or be added to as we hear from community members before the RFP goes out. In terms of scope of work, we're dividing the specific plan up into two sections. So the northern riverfront and the southern riverfront area and both areas, a big part of the scope is community engagement. It's very clear to us, like I've said earlier, we want the community really engaged, being really transparent in this process so that everyone has input into the specific plan. The Public Works Department is working on a traffic study right now for that corridor and hopefully that'll be finalized soon. To give us some information in terms of what the plan is for Park Marina, how that section might change and be more bike ped friendly and also have other, other streetscape improvements there.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
We can look at residential and mixed use opportunities. There needs to be a lot of work or looking at the floodplain and proximity and development because the floodplain has changed over. Years. And the rules and everything has changed as well. So in terms of what can be developed there and where is the floodplain exactly, that all needs to be looked at as well. The northern riverfront area is, of course, sort of how all this started in terms of the civic center and the rodeo grounds. So huge community involvement there. And then looking at the civic facilities, looking at public private partnership strategies, river access, boardwalks, etc.. And so without getting too into the weeds, that's loosely speaking, the goals and the scope of work as it stands right now. But of course, looking for tons of community engagement if any of your listeners were a part of or listen to those city council meetings a few months ago with Lando, there was just my take on that was there were so many people that were passionate about it from all sides of the issue. And so I think it's important as we move forward that everyone has a seat at the table, everyone has a chance to provide input, and I'm hopeful we can find some good compromises and really end up with a specific plan that's achievable and can be implemented and and see some really good things happen down there.

Steve:
I'm curious, you talk about your long term goals, which seem like they'll take some time to achieve. How do you balance in your role being proactive when setting those goals as well as having to be reactionary when topics that maybe aren't currently in your goal list come to city council and City Council and directs your department to revise specific plans or things of that nature that may not currently be in your goal set. How do you balance those two things?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Yeah, it's a good question. It's not easy, but we have a really great team here and a supportive city management office that allows us to figure out the changing priorities and allows us to adapt as we need to. So as City Council directs or as priorities change, you know, it's understood that certain things need to become less of a priority if those thing needs those things, those other priorities need to be increased. And so it's a balancing act in terms of long term. But I do think some of those goals that I spoke about before are pretty firmly set in terms of those really need to be long, hard fought, you know, projects that need we need to see come, come to a conclusion. So in terms of our software system and electronic submittal and review and some of those big general plan and specific plan updates, but in terms of some of the smaller things, I really need to do some hiring. So I need to backfill my old position and fill some other critical positions in our and our department, and that will help us check off some smaller term goals and priorities. For instance, across the board, we really need to come up. We are in on a big transition between a lot. In the last few years, a lot of institutional knowledge has left the building, a lot of retirements, a lot of people that have been doing this for a really long time.

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
And so we're trying to work on processes and procedures and checklists and things to get the departments talking to each other better and better coordinated. And so some of the the smaller goals and smaller day to day priorities, as you as you mentioned, Steve, those I'll have more time for those and do have time for those as I sort of get some of these bigger projects up and moving and as we continue to get some additional staff on board, was really thankful that city council passed for this year's budget, some additional positions for us. So we got an additional planner and one additional plans. Examiner So as we have more people to do the work and to do the daily deliverables, it will allow me and some of my leadership staff to think about how do we do our job better, how do we get more efficient, how do we put processes in place and procedures in place to make sure we're reviewing permits and issuing permits really efficiently and really well? And so I would say those are just under the big picture goals in terms of secondary goals at this point.

Steve:
And why are you passionate for the betterment of Redding?

Jeremy Pagan, Development Services Director:
Well, I grew up here. I've got I'll give a little shout out to my wife and four little kids there why I do what I do. And so I want to leave this place better for my kids. And I know that sounds maybe a little cheesy and maybe like a throwaway comment, but it's true. You know, there I got two boys, two girls, and my wife was born and raised here. I was not born and raised here, but started living here when I was young. And so I'm passionate about when I was working for the state. I enjoyed that job and I enjoyed what the mission was and what we did. But being involved more locally and day to day, having an impact right here where I'm living, I do live in the city too, is really rewarding. And to think, you know, think about the riverfront specific plant, for instance, that might take ten, 15, 20 years for various things to happen there and for that to come together and us to start seeing some really interesting projects and things happen down there. But that could be a legacy that I get to leave for my kids and for their kids to as we get to see our community, just continue to grow and and develop and become the community we want. So it's really not I wouldn't say it's hyperbole to say that every day my job is about that, about somehow some way facilitating development in the city, whether that's issuing a small building permit to someone wanting to do a little remodel on their house to a. Huge developer that's building multimillion dollar buildings downtown, you know, that can all be in one day's work, you know, which is fun and exciting. It makes the job really challenging. But I care about reading and I really want to see it grow and prosper.

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