MinutesFlorida ePermits Working Group Meeting

Thursday, February 19, 2015 9:00AM-11:00AM Broward County Government Center West Hearing Rooms 1 and 2

1 N. University Drive, Plantation, FL 33324

1. Chairperson Jeffery Halsey opened the meeting at 9:02 a.m.a. Introductions around the table of Working Group Members and League of Cities guestsb. ePermits update

i. Recall that there are two ePermit initiatives at Broward County: Internal (Broward County Programs) and External (Cities, County, other agencies)

ii. External ePermits Working Group History1. Customer focused, streamlined permitting to facilitate construction and development

in Broward County2. Reviewed Historical timeline beginning July 2013

a. Formed Working Group and its Subcommittees3. Members represent permitting stakeholders4. Customer interface (Web/GIS in Cloud) transparently handles processing

complexities5. Reviewed Working Group tasks, accomplishments, and outstanding items

a. Building Officials Subcommittee deliveredi. Uniform Applicationii. Application Signature Requirediii. File Naming Conventions

b. BORA ePermits Leadership criticali. Building Officials’ approval requiredii. Focus on Uniform Applicationiii. BORA committee to finalize soon for code adoption

6. In February 2014a. Broward refocused on its Internal ePermits

i. Huge effortii. 3 live programs and another 16 over the next three years

b. ePermits Working Group focused on advocacy rolei. Make progress where we can, promote culture change and

consistency, and serve as forum to share progress iii. Outstanding items

1. eSignaturesa. Local Architects to confirm State Board letter of 2/2/2014b. Effect legislative changes to allow fully electronic signing and sealing of

documents for remaining professionalsi. Recruit Professional Design Subcommittee Members to represent

remaining professionals:1. Surveyors and Mappers2. Landscape Architects

2. Tamarac coordinationa. Partner with Broward County to pilot electronic permitting coordination

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c. Open discussion on Broward League of Cities participation in ePermitsi. Reminder of reasons why ePermits necessary in Broward County:

1. Build in Browarda. Permitting Customers are Developers and Buildersb. Increase tax rollc. Competing with other counties, though Broward is built-out (redevelopment

only)d. Make Broward the easiest place to do business e. Cost of permitting can be as high as 25% of the cost of the projectf. Matrix of the 31 cities’ with different permitting processes illustrates issue of

costly inconsistencyii. Shouldn’t we improve the permitting process before we build an ePermitting system?

1. Standardize cities permitting processes2. System is a tool which cannot be standardized for each city3. Virtual System though API interfaces to different permitting systems, giving a virtual

single system (to the customer) while allowing each city to maintain their own systems

iii. Code change is slow process1. Chapter 1 through BORA

a. Working Group to recommend changes of voluntary standardized permittingi. Working Group develop Permitting Best Practices from cities inputii. Recognize a city’s voluntary adoption of Permitting Best Practices iii. Others cities will followiv. Getting such an approach memorialized in Chapter 1 of the Building

Code may improve changes of incorporation into the Florida Building Code

iv. Another idea - one database for contractor documents1. Liability insurance, Workers Comp Insurance2. State and County Contractor License databases already exist

v. Next steps1. Resolution to League of Cities

a. Work with cities to develop voluntary standardized permitting best practicesb. Take recommended voluntary permitting best practices to BORA for

incorporation into Chapter 12. Recommend Working Group goals for the next year3. Survey Monkey survey to Working Group

a. Rank and order stepsb. What is missingc. Link to League of Cities (through Patty Asseff) for input from Building Officials

2. Action Items:a. Jeff, via Survey Monkey, will facilitate development of

i. Action Plan with focus on this years Working Group goalsii. Permitting Best Management Practices

b. Commissioner Patricia Asseff will forward survey to Building Officials for their input

Connie Boden, Broward County/PPD(954) 519-1405cboden@broward.org

MINUTESOCTOBER 19, 2014 FLORIDA EPERMITS WORKING GROUP MEETINGPAGE 3 OF 3

Jeffery Halsey, Broward County/PPD(954) 519-1468jhalsey@broward.org

Attendees

Jeffery Halsey, Broward County EPGMD/PPDPatricia Asseff, President, Broward League of CitiesDavid Rosenof, First Vice President, Broward League of CitiesSergio Ascunce, President, Building Officials Association of Florida (BOAF)Debra K. Mink, Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA)Mason Jackson, CEO, CareerSource Broward / Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance (GFLA)John Siegle, Executive Vice President, Construction Association of South Florida (CASF)Steve Bassett, Commissioner, Florida Building Commission (FBC)Joan Fletcher, GIS Manager, City of LauderhillJack Bennings, CareerSource Broward / Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance (GFLA)Mary Lou Tighe, Broward League of CitiesDustin Dubois, President Dubois Construction Services, LLCLinda Loiodice, Broward County/EPGMD/PRDAngel Wong, Broward County/ETSRoldee Espana, Broward County/EPGMD/PPDBilal Hashmi, Broward County/EPGMD/ELBPDConnie Boden, Broward County/PPD