The City of Dallas has a new chief building official who acknowledges there’s a permitting mess to clean up and says he’s the man for the job.
After nearly two years without a director and thousands of backlogged building permits, Andrew Espinoza was selected in May to become director of Development Services and officially began work in the new role June 1.
“It seems like there was just a perfect storm,” Espinoza said in reference to what’s happening with City of Dallas building permits, a process that began steadily unraveling in 2020. “You had COVID, folks working from home, and a department pushing out software prematurely. I think COVID prompted us to move forward expeditiously [with the new software] because we were trying to keep everyone safe. Our stakeholders, employees, and other working groups were not comfortable with the product and didn’t know how to use it.”
It’s still not uncommon to have information technology issues three or four times a week, Espinoza said.
“IT has done a great job of working with the vendor, but that’s still the biggest issue we’re dealing with,” Espinoza said.
The costly blunder has drawn scrutiny from the building community and the public and is one of several reasons cited as Mayor Eric Johnson and others have called for the termination of City Manager T.C. Broadnax. The city manager’s performance review is scheduled to be taken up during a special-called council meeting Thursday, June 23.
‘We’ve Done a Poor Job of Communicating’
Espinoza, 50, began his career with the city about three years ago, starting out in code compliance. He earned an MBA at Texas A&M-San Antonio and led San Antonio’s Development Services Department for 17 years. The new Development Services chief said the first step in getting the train back on the tracks is to define the department’s purpose.
“One of the challenges that Development Services has been going through is we don’t know why we exist,” he said. “They don’t really have an organizational chart. When I was interviewing, I asked for the mission statement. No one knew what it was. Where we’re falling short is being able to communicate to our team why we exist and what our purpose is. We need to figure out who we are and where we’re going.”
Espinoza says he’s committed to being open and transparent.
“My purpose is to serve the community and to serve the team,” he said. “My calling is to add value to others and to influence with good, effective leadership. Your calling has a spiritual touch to it. As public servants, we can affect many more lives if we’ve identified our calling and our purpose than if we come to collect a check.”
Development Services has about 290 positions, but operates with a 20 percent vacancy, Espinoza said. As department head, he earns an annual salary of about $190,000, according to city records.
The efficiency of the permitting process depends on several variables, including what type of permit is being sought, Espinoza explained.
“We’ve done a poor job of communicating,” he said. “We need to do better in communicating how quickly we can get you on track and get your permit and what we need from you. We need to rebuild confidence with our customers. We need to hold ourselves accountable and set performance goals.”
Thinking Positive
Phil Crone, executive officer for Dallas Builders Association, has said that builders and contractors have had difficulty getting permits since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Texas in 2020 — and the situation hasn’t improved in the two years since, even though restrictions have been lifted and businesses are back to operating at pre-COVID capacity. Crone has publicly supported the hire of Espinoza and expressed optimism that improvements will be made.
“The permitting situation still hasn’t gotten better more than two years since it became a crisis. The only major positive steps that have come, have come at the insistence of the affected industry and council members who have set up third-party plan reviewers and pushed for the building official position to be filled after it was left vacant for 18 months,” Crone told Daltxrealestate.com earlier this month. ”I am optimistic that the newly-hired building official can bring a new culture to the department.”
Councilwoman Paula Blackmon and government consultant Macey Davis are co-chairing the Mayor’s Working Group on Permitting to provide guidance on the matter.
“For months, the Working Group sought solutions and solicited feedback from the private sector surrounding their legitimate and real concerns,” Davis and Blackmon said in a letter to stakeholders. “Make no mistake – the long wait times are losing Dallas real dollars and real development – this isn’t an embellishment created by negative PR. It impacts the city’s ability to meet its growing housing crisis, and attract businesses and it hurts small business owners who cannot float months of lost revenue for a delayed CO. A true leader sees a crisis and tackles it head-on. They bring people to the table, ask for help and open the books. While this issue is purely operational – it remains one of the biggest issues facing our city and it requires all hands on deck. Bruised egos and an unwillingness to answer questions about these ‘operational’ issues will not solve this problem.”
The working group made the following suggestions:
- Developing performance metrics that are transparent and available to the public
- Onboarding of an additional third-party reviewer
- Presenting a plan to the City Council regarding the $42M in savings in the Development Services Enterprise Fund
- Conducting meaningful stakeholder engagement with industry partners such as round tables, listening sessions, and responses to their feedback
- Implementing needed IT improvements with Project Dox and Posse
- Hiring vacant positions, compensating employees fairly, and sharing the results of the compensation study with the public and city council
Making Progress
In less than a month on the job, Espinoza concedes he has a long way to go in solving the department’s problems. Permitting is moving a little faster, he says, but more importantly, performance goals and accountability measures are being put into place.
“We’ve been really drilling down on what our performance goals should be for all permits, then we can begin to track and measure those,” Espinoza said. “By July we’re going to share those at stakeholder meetings and on our website. At community meetings, I want to bring a report card to the public. As a leader, you’re always trying to leverage your team. We have some great staff members. In general, I can tell that the staff is really trying to do a good job but there are certain roadblocks that we need to eliminate or minimize.”
Upcoming projects for Development Services include a $1.5 billion renovation at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas.
“Dallas is very diverse, vibrant, and fast-paced,” Espinoza said. “There’s more volume [than in San Antonio]. The expectations from the community are very high and they should be. We want to connect the community with city staff. We want to identify the problems that are really hurting our operations. We want to implement policies, procedures, and good business practices. My role every single day is to try to influence others, work on relationships, take time to talk to folks, communicate and sell the vision of where we want to be and where we want to go.”
Espinoza said he’s thrilled to be leading the department out of its past turmoil and into a new era of positivity and transparency.
“I’m extremely excited,” he said. “I’m really enjoying myself. Our department is in the spotlight and receiving a lot of criticism. I feel pressure to perform and deliver, but I don’t feel stressed because I love what I do. Where I am right now is right where I belong. In the very near future, you’re going to see progressive improvement. We’re going to make this the best department in the country. Hold us to that.”
