LTC 262-2019 Building Department Services MIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC# 262-2019 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Dan Gelber and
Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: May 3, 2019
SUBJECT: Building Department Services
The Building Department is the face of the permitting process. Whether pulling a fire alarm,
sprinkler, or planning permit the process begins with the building permit counter staff. The
Building Department uses a multi process ticketing system to serve and track the customers
and their service needs. The department issues over 1200 tickets a month, with average
transaction times at under 20 minutes. Homeowner tickets are given priority when routing and
providing service.
Previously the department had implemented a paper list for those that came in early; this was
during a period when due to longer wait times the list was required. In recent times permit
expediters had re-established the list and began to sign up hours before the department opens
for business. The Building Department has since made changes, in order to provide faster
service in the plans walk through area, including the deletion of the list and opening doors at
7:40 a.m. for ticket issuance.
Once a ticket is issued the total time of service is usually quick, customers continue to come in
very early hours before the department opens. The goal that is being worked towards is for the
person that comes in at 8:15 a.m. to complete their transactions very quickly and remove the
urge of coming to city hall hours before we are open for business. Striving to better the process
and improve the customer experience is key to the department; currently the Building
Department is working towards having permit forms available for electronic submittal to shorten
the wait time even further for both the walk through plan review and the drop off plan review.
JLM/SMT/AMS/ND