Title
Approving the Audit Committee’s recommendation to examine how businesses interested in developing residential housing development projects navigate the various City departments' processes and requirements.
Body
WHEREAS, the Saint Paul Audit Committee was established in August 2020; and
WHEREAS, the Audit Committee’s mission is to evaluate the financial and program performance of City departments to build public trust and ensure outstanding service delivery, transparency, and accountability; and
WHEREAS, the Audit Committee is in its second year of doing this work and considered several audit topics and identified affordable housing, community safety, youth programs/crime rates, and HUD/Section.3 as high priorities; and
WHEREAS, at its June 28, 2021 meeting, the Audit Committee invited Planning and Economic Development staff to discuss how the Committee could assist the department in their business project development work with Department of Safety and Inspections, Public Works and related departments; and
WHEREAS, the acting members and advisors agreed that examining and expanding the Saint Paul’s "Open for Business" process mapping tool which was created in 2017 to include a residential housing development projects would not only be beneficial to the affected City departments but to the business community, especially for new and diverse developers, who may find it difficult and confusing to navigate the various City departments’ statutory and legal requirements; and
WHEREAS, there are opportunities to streamline existing processes and systems, implement best practices, and break the processes into easy-to-navigate parts; and
WHEREAS, the acting members, with the advice and support of the advisors, decided that further study is needed to examine and expand the "Open for Business" process mapping tool which would lead the City to become a better partner to developers and attract new, more diverse developers to Saint Paul; and, now, therefore be it...
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