Ann Arbor realigns Planning and Development Services Department into three new divisions
Ann Arbor officials today announced new management structure for Planning and Development Services, the department that oversees all building-related functions in the city.
Sumedh Bahl, interim community services administrator, will oversee the department. The reorganization, Bahl said, was outlined by Jayne Miller, the former community services administrator, before she left the city for another job this month.
The changes reflect a flattening of management in the department, Bahl said. The new structure also better aligns functions related to construction activity.
According to the city, the Planning and Development unit now has three divisions:
• Planning Division: This division handles development review, zoning and sign administration and appeals, historic preservation and master planning. Wendy Rampson, planning manager, will oversee this division.
• Construction Division: This division handles building and trade plan review, permitting and inspection, grading and right-of-way permits and code enforcement. Ralph Welton, chief development official, will oversee this division.
• Rental Housing/General Permits Division: This division handles rental housing registration and inspections, in addition to general permits, such as sidewalk occupancy and peddler permits. Lisha Turner-Tolbert, projects and programs manager, will direct this division.
Rampson had been interim manager of the department while the city sought candidates for the permanent position, but officials recently decided not to fill it.
Turner-Tolbert had been interim planning and development customer support manager.
Welton is a new hire, Bahl said.
The new structure replaces three supervisory positions:
• Senior city planner. Connie Pulcipher has moved into the city's systems department.
• Building official/plan examiner: Tony Savoni has retired.
• Inspections supervisor: Jeff Ellis remains a city employee and has not yet been reassigned, Bahl said.
The city had 29.5 full-time equivalent positions in the department before laying off three employees in December.
Comments
limmy
Wed, Feb 17, 2010 : 9:08 a.m.
Not sure if this is it, but they need to do something radical. From a rental property perspective, the place has been very dysfuntional. There is a lot of unhappiness both inside and out.
Gill
Wed, Feb 17, 2010 : 8:32 a.m.
Sadly, I been around this area long enough to know some of the history in the City: 1. City has functioning Planning Department, and Building Department with Rental Housing Division. 2. Consultant, Laycock?, paid lots of money to reorganize the city and merges these departments all into one 'Service Unit'. 3. Business model adopted, where managers are managers and not skilled in the aspects of what they are managing - ends up destroying the functionality of the departments (no concept of State and Federal code requirements that the City must adhere to). 4. Managers all eliminated and they reorganize back into what the departments looked like prior to spending all the money to reorganize.
logo
Wed, Feb 17, 2010 : 1:34 a.m.
This is a smart move by the city. They saw through the former manager and went in a new, better direction.