LAW & GOVERNMENT
February 2020 may have been the worst time to take a job as city manager , as Harry Black did in Stockton . When California Gov . Gavin Newsom ’ s stay-at-home order came down in March 2020 to try to stem the COVID-19 pandemic , hundreds of businesses across the Capital Region shuttered . Statewide , small-business openings plunged by more than a third between January and November 2020 . All that could have pushed one of Black and city leadership ’ s key priorities — revamping city services to promote long-term economic growth — to the end of the to-do list .
Black had been city manager in Cincinnati and chief financial officer in Baltimore and is a proponent of data-driven efforts to improve government performance ; Cincinnati ’ s bond ratings improved on his watch . Among his first acts in Stockton was to set up an Office of Performance & Data Analytics and the Innovation Lab — a room called the iLab filled with whiteboards — designed to bring teams together to do datadriven performance reviews and problem-solving .
A key performance metric Black wanted to tackle is the time it takes businesses and developers to get permits . Permitting is a big driver of developers ’ decisions about where to invest , he says — time being money , that ’ s where they make up or lose ground . He wanted to strip it down , making it leaner while also ensuring legal compliance and protection of city priorities .
His team took the permitting process into the iLab last fall , and 12-15 staff met every day for a week with the help of a facilitator to break it down . What was the purpose of each step in the process ? Was it needed ? The result was a list of 85 action items , each of which required changes in other systems , including budgeting , human resources and more , Black says .
It took until April 2021 to put the new system fully in place , but the city ’ s building permit times were down 25 percent in the latest quarter , Black says . “ In COVID , you couldn ’ t be stuck ,” he says of the city ’ s economic development priorities . “ The pandemic required pragmatism , speed and courage .”
“ These small businesses are the backbone of our community , and we really want to support them .”
AMANDA NORTON Economic development manager , City of Rancho Cordova
Across the region , Stockton ’ s was one of several local government initiatives to keep businesses open and economic development and construction projects on track since March 2020 . Some solutions they ’ ve come up with will stay around post-pandemic , which could further improve the business climate and make economic investment ever easier .
Rancho Cordova and Vacaville keep small businesses afloat
In the days after California ’ s stay-athome order , many small service businesses in Rancho Cordova were on the verge of failing . Owners who had shut down were frantically calling the city ’ s
Economic Development Department , says Amanda Norton , the department ’ s manager .
Overnight , her team needed a plan to get businesses that could operate outside back up and running safely . But they ’ d need to be inspected and permitted for outdoor operation , which normally takes two weeks to one month .
Her office formed an outdoor operations team — with representatives of critical city agencies and the fire department — that hit the streets , often issuing same-day permits . They released mini-grants that let businesses buy tents , tables and chairs . By 8-10 weeks in , city officials estimate , they ’ d issued about 30 permits to restaurants , gyms , breweries , and nail and hair salons .
That led her team to look at other barriers for entrepreneurs . They hired consultants to get on the phone with businesses to help them apply for loans . And they ’ ve launched a pilot program to address another problem : the cost and time involved in getting a floor plan designed , which is required to get a certificate of occupancy . They ’ ve now created a rotating list of designers under contract with the city , and the city covers up to $ 5,000 of the cost . “ These small businesses are the backbone of our community , and we really want to support them ,” Norton says .
In the City of Vacaville , Don Burrus , the director of Economic Development Services , was honing in on small businesses too . “ They were knee-deep in running their operations ,” he says of his city ’ s small enterprises . “ Tracking down information about what they were eligible for was a real stretch for them .” So Burrus and his economic development manager went door-to-door to let owners know about help they were eligible for , holding stand-up meetings on sidewalks and in parking lots .
56 comstocksmag . com | November 2021