KTLA News: "Tom Bradley gives press conference on streamlining the building permit process" (1979)

[Silence]. [Mayor Tom Bradley] I just think it'd be unconscionable uh... with the uh... severity of the problem facing California motorists at this time with a shortage of gasoline. For service stations to deliberately close their doors for an extended period of time further complicating an already aggravated situation. [Silence]. We start by introducing the gentlemen who  are going to join with me this morning in describing for you this concept. [Bradley] ...[Donald] Tillman, the City Engineer; Cal Hamilton who is our City Planner. I'm pleased that today we are able to produce a document...a report that has been the result of several months of study by three of the  major departments of city government concerned with the processing of building permits for the  City of Los Angeles. We've been seeking ways of centralizing that activity so as to avoid  people running from one floor to another, from one department to another to accomplish  the completion of their applications to build- whether it's remodeling a home or building a  major subdivision. We believe that the costs involved, not only in terms of city personnel, have been unduly large to carry out these functions in a decentralized fashion. And certainly it has  been very costly to the applicants- in terms of loss of man days when they could have been doing work; in terms of loss of enormous amounts, in the multi-million dollar range of financial cost; loss of interest because of delays. All of these things, we think, will be helped by an expedited  procedure with a centralized permit processing center here in the City Hall. We estimate that  we can save in terms of city dollars alone half a million dollars or more. And the savings to the  private sector, those who are the applicants, is in the multi-million dollar range and so it's a  with a great deal of pride that uh... we announce the production of this report and I want to commend these three gentlemen and their staffs for the work that they have done. They've demonstrated that... [Bradley] ...wasteful and duplicative... [Bradley] ...on Jack Frat (?)  to describe for you a little further the nature  of his element of the report. [Jack Frat (?)] What we are proposing is that representatives from the  Building and Safety Department, the Planning Department and Engineering Department, that have  to do with the issuance of permits, all be located in the same area of the City Hall. Addition the  cashiers would be located in that area also. This then permits a homeowner or a large developer  to come to that particular area and get all of his approvals, all of his questions answered and  get his permit and be on his way for the smaller jobs. The larger ones would have to be filed as  they are now. But it would result, we feel, in at least a week's saving in time for all permits. And for the larger projects, when you bring other savings in, which would be made in connection  with subdivisions, and that would amount to much greater savings. Uh...this particular area that we  have in mind would be on the fourth floor of the City Hall and we have most of that area already. Uh...I wonder, Mr. Edmondson, could you bring that plan up here? It's, this is just a... [Frat (?)] ...Bureau, all of the  departments records and the cashiers here so a party can come into this one area and get all of  his approvals, in which now in some permits, there's as many as eighteen different stops involved. So we feel that this would result in a real great savings [Silence]. [Unidentified Speaker] ...all the various agencies need right at the  central file point so that you can reduce redundancy. We expect... [Unidentified Reporter] I understand your desire to cut red tape and I'm  wondering what this, in your opinion, will do to Los Angeles image to the potential developer  as a better place, to perhaps, want to build than a surrounding County with less red tape. Will be more attractive now with this system? [Bradley] I think it will be more attractive to those who want to do  business in this city and that ranges all the way from single homeowner who wants to remodel to a major developer who has an enormous uh... development that he wants to put into our city. We've been  striving for elimination of duplication and waste for a long time and this is one of the  major opportunities for breakthroughs. I think that the private sector is going to be pleased  with it. The citizens task force headed by Howard Edgerton uh... made a number of these observations  and this, I think, served as a catalyst for our effort to bring these departments together  and to have them do the work that they've done. [Room noise]. [Unidentified Reporter] How soon will... [Room noise]. There's some confusion about that issue. Some  saying they propose to do it and some associations saying that they'll have no part in it. I hope that... that none of the service stations and none of the associations would be a party to any such effort. Uh...should there be some indication that there will be an organized effort to close down service stations  for three or four days, I think, it's a matter of such serious consequence that I would propose uh...  that the District Attorney, the State Attorney General look into that matter to see if there's  some criminal violations that they might invoke.