They say an elephant never forgets, well COWs have pretty good memories too. We remember a few years ago, the Town Council gave the Town Manager a performance assessment and asked her to look at the functioning of the Planning, Building, and Engineering Departments to try to improve the application and approval process.

Town Manager Susan George paid a consultant. Irwin Kaplan, somewhere around $60,000 or $70,000 to come and advise how the entire entitlement process could work better. He spent months looking at the Department and finally delivered a report with excellent recommendations.

The Almanac News said Mr. Kaplan found that “the process is plagued by redundant reviews, contradictory and unclear rules and policies, and a fragmented process in which many people are involved but no one person is accountable.” Some of his proposals were for technical things like reclassifying positions and changing internal department procedures, but many were important commonsense changes, like having one particular staff member responsible for each project and setting a reasonable timeline for each project.

But four and a half years later few, if any, of the improvements are still being followed and once again the process is plagued by redundant reviews, contradictory and unclear rules and policies, and a fragmented process. Seems like they sent the Kaplan recommendations out to pasture. But the Town recently hired another consultant — Management Partners, Inc. — and spent more money (you can’t pay consultants with hay) for another study. Guess what, the recommendations are very similar.

NO BULL: Here’s the Almanac News article that talks about the Kaplan report and here’s the report itself.

Excellent idea on the town manager bonus witholding…the Planning dept and its lack of structure, process, and management are the laughing stock of the area..these changes should be done by now, not just starting!! If this were a biz, Hope & Susan would be out.

As I understand it the Town Manager gets a performance bonus. Since performance at the town is at this all time low as evidenced by having two consultant reports (at the cost of $80,000.+) on the subject; no bonus should be given until these suggestions are put into place.

This report has terrific ideas and does seem as if it would help improve the Planning, Building and Engineering departments. We are curious as to why these suggestions have not been implemented in the four years since its approval?

“The Almanac News said Mr. Kaplan found that “the process is plagued by redundant reviews, contradictory and unclear rules and policies, and a fragmented process in which many people are involved but no one person is accountable”……..wow–I could not have said it better myself! There is an overwhelming and immediate need for true oversight and management of that department.