How Denver Is Getting Its Regulatory Reform Project Back on Track

• October 30, 2014
• Regulation

This post is part of the Regulatory Reform for the 21st Century City project.

As any government official who’s done it will tell you, streamlining permitting and licensing processes isn’t easy. The aspirational goal of increased efficiency is often complicated by the challenges of implementation, resulting in delays, increased costs, and bad press.

But bumps and bruises along the way don’t have to spell a project’s doom. Consider the City of Denver’s multi-year effort to implement new technology to streamline permitting and licensing processes.

The initiative began in 2010 when Denver contracted with Accela – known for its success streamlining Palo Alto’s permitting process – to shift the city’s permitting, inspections, licensing, and hearings to an enterprise system. But as it became clear that the project was taking more time and costing more money than expected, the city took a step back and began to reassess. Now, after four years and $5.5 million, city officials have launched the first of three phases – and have taken away valuable lessons for the future.

Bumps and bruises along the way don’t have to spell a project’s doom.

To learn more about Denver’s regulatory reform effort, we talked with David Edinger, the city’s chief performance officer, who acts as executive sponsor for the Accela implementation. When asked what the city should have done differently throughout the process, Edinger said that Denver should have focused on how cross-agency regulatory, licensing, hearings, and permitting processes could be institutionally improved, before jumping to improve them using a technological approach.

Recently, the city took a step back, collected, and analyzed internal data that highlighted internal inefficiencies, such as overlapping responsibilities among staff and agencies, as well as bureaucratic inconsistencies. Now that those issues have been addressed, the city feels that it is in a better place to implement the next step of its regulatory reform effort: the rollout of online citizen access and mobile workforce functionality. Edinger believes there was a “failure to understand the complexity of the goal the city aimed to accomplish.” As a result the project took much longer than initially proposed and the city “paid more than was necessary.”

At this point, Edinger is feeling more optimistic about the online platform’s future. As he says, “making mistakes can help you make it right.” After addressing internal challenges and barriers, city officials expect that the Accela will be fully up and running by mid-2015, providing great benefits for residents, small businesses, and city staff. Challenges remain, but understanding where in the process those issues exist is the first step in being able to address them effectively.

“Making mistakes can help you make it right.”

Although it’s been a difficult process, the recent surge in permitting requests makes this initiative all the more important – especially given that residents, small businesses, and city staff will “work in one transparent system” moving forward, Edinger said.

Edinger has simple advice for city officials who intend to shift their regulatory, licensing, hearings, or permitting processes to an enterprise system: you must plan ahead. “Spend the time early before you go down the path of applying new technology,” Edinger said. “Understand business requirements – meaning what you need to have happen – to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your operations.” Ultimately, technology is not a substitute for effective organizational processes, but a complement.