One Stop Permit Center

The City of Manteca's long-awaited "One Stop Permit Center" will be holding its grand opening celebration on Thursday morning. The $400,000 project is designed to process and expedite all planning, building, business license and limited Public Works/Fire development-related activities in one location. In addition, clients will now be able to pay all related fees directly at the new Permit Center location, thus avoiding an additional stop at the already over-burdened Finance Department counter. Business licenses will now be processed at the new Permit Center, and minor activities normally processed at the Public Works Department counter will now be handled at the new center.

This project is emblematic of what we are attempting to accomplish with service delivery of all city functions. This project not improves service delivery, the consolidation of functions will save the city over $200,000 per year. In addition, like most projects this past year, we were able to scale back the project without reducing the benefits to the public. By reducing the original budget by 70 percent, the operational savings realized by this project will pay back the capital cost in less than two years.

I realize that there will still be some critics of the project, who feel like we shouldn't be expending any capital dollars in the current economic environment. However, if we had decided to be penny-wise, we would not only not realize the future cost savings, but likely discourage future development projects from choosing Manteca as a business-friendly destination.

In other words, if you have a project that can save money, be delivered cost-effectively, provide better service to the public, and generate future revenue to the city and jobs to the public, how could we possibly not do it?