Alameda City Council is Unhappy with the Planning Department

By Erica Madison

“These kinds of permits are less thirty percent of the permits you issue” said Councilmember Frank Matarrese, “These aren’t the things I hear people complaining about.”

At the September 7th, joint Alameda City Council and CIC meeting the Council was unhappy with the Planning Department’s report on typical building permits.

The planning department will have to come back with a more comprehensive report, because the Council is concerned with the service and procedures of the planning department due to complaints the council has received.

Mayor Johnson was concerned with customer the department’s customer feedback.

The planning department representative informed the council that twenty percent of the customers fill out am anonymous survey provided through Survey Monkey. These comments are always positive.

Mayor Johnson was suspicious of the statement made about positive comments.

“May be we should let a third person handle the comments from the survey,” said Mayor Johnson.

The Mayor went on to explain that people are afraid to complain, because of fear of retaliation.