Sarah Frey: 0:09

Welcome back to our next episode of the Rouse Review. Today is extra special because Dan, unfortunately is out of town. So we've got some special guest, um, most importantly. I am your public information officer Sarah Fry, but we are so graciously joined today by the city's communications director, kit Red Meck. Good morning, kit.

Kit Redmer: 0:31

Hey, Sarah.

Sarah Frey: 0:32

All right, so since Dan's not here, we're not gonna go super in depth on what's coming up at council this week, but it's gonna be a lot of the same. We're talking budget. Budget, budget, budget. So please come out. No surprise folks. No, no surprise. But come out, learn about it, make a public comment, get involved. We'd love to see your face in chambers on Tuesday night.

Kit Redmer: 0:54

Absolutely. Yeah. And this is the time to come and, and check it out too.

Sarah Frey: 0:57

I mean, this is,

Kit Redmer: 0:58

this is crunch time for the budget.

Sarah Frey: 0:59

This is the most important thing your local government does every year.

Kit Redmer: 1:03

Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 1:03

Get involved. Make sure you're informed and let your counselors know what you wanna see happen.

Kit Redmer: 1:08

Absolutely hope to see everybody there.

Sarah Frey: 1:09

Fantastic. Well, maybe not everybody because fit, not everybody, everybody in chambers, but it's a small room. But

Kit Redmer: 1:14

yeah, at least some of you, to be honest, no offense to those that don't come.

Sarah Frey: 1:17

And don't forget, if you can't make it in person, you can submit a public comment online ahead of time.

Kit Redmer: 1:22

Good. Point, point, good point, Sarah. And you can

Sarah Frey: 1:23

also watch the meeting online. Um, there's a big button in the front page of our website that says public meetings. Click that you'll get straight to our portal where you can watch all the meetings. Absolutely. Now we're gonna talk about what's coming up in the city. It is an exciting month of April. There's so much happening and since Dan's not here, I get to ask Kit to do my session, my section, talking about what's coming up because. The first point is so near and dear to kid's heart.

Kit Redmer: 1:58

Ah, that is true. That is true. Alright, looking at my briefing points here. No, just kidding folks. I know this one by heart, so please be aware that we are celebrating all of our city volunteers next Friday, so a week from this Friday on the 11th of April. Now you may be aware that April is National Volunteer Month and interestingly, city Volunteer Week runs from April 8th. Through the 14th. So this is a perfect time for us to honor all of those awesome residents. All the folks that you know, give of themselves for the community. Don't ask for really anything in return, but they're out there doing so many things, you know, and you, you can think of all. Yeah, everything that, that volunteers do, right? So you've got, uh, volunteer firefighters, you've got the police VIPs, you've got, um, the, all the folks that work in the various nonprofits around town. And if I might add, you also have the city snow busters, which we, we are very proud of. You may have heard of them. Hopefully you have, um, you have folks that come out to pick up parties. You just have so many volunteers that care about our city. And, and it's actually interesting, you know, uh, Winchester was identified, uh, the Federal Reserve folks came by last year, and they, they highlighted that Winchester had a very high rate of volunteerism. So, so that's all to say we're very proud of our volunteers. We wanna celebrate. So we are having a volunteer celebration is the name of the event. Um, again, next Friday, the 11th of April. It will be held at the, our health campus on the green space, which is, um, 3 23 29 North Cameron. And it'll be held from three to six on the 11th, uh, with. The, the heart of the program, the official portion will be it from four 30 to five, but come on out. It should be a lot of fun because we're gonna have, first off, free tacos. Woo-hoo. Which would be a good draw. Uh, free tacos, free music, um, games for kids, bouncy castle, you know, face painting, tattoos, all that cool stuff. So come on out absolutely free. We hope to see everybody there. It's open to all residents and let's just celebrate our volunteers in the city. Woo

Sarah Frey: 4:04

hoo.

Kit Redmer: 4:05

Thanks Kit. Absolutely. Sarah,

Sarah Frey: 4:07

what else is coming

Kit Redmer: 4:08

up? Alright, well, I know there's a little, little, uh, program that, um, you're working on, and I say little and j it's also a big deal, uh, that we're very proud of, and it's called the Spring Spruce Up. Now I coined this phrase, hopefully it's accurate. I would call it, uh, a pickup party on steroids. You nailed it. Is that accurate? You nailed it. All right, cool. Yes. So this event, or of almost events, I guess you could say. Yeah, it's, it's because it's a series of, of, of get togethers. But, um, and I'll explain in a moment. It's gonna be on April 26th from 10 until noon. And the reason I said it, you could consider it multiple events, is because we're gonna have several locations where people will congregate. And those include Whittier Park, Timbrook Park, harvest Ridge Park. Weaver Park and Family Land at Jim Barnett Park and it's really cool speaking of volunteerism. Mm-hmm. Because folks will have a chance to really get in the Earth Day Spirit. Of course, earth Day is also in April. Um, and just get out there and help pick up, you know, litter. Um, they can also help, you can also help plant trees, um, do some mulching, or you can work in community gardens, so it's not just picking up trash. It's a lot of cool activities. And then after the cleanup, um, everybody is welcome to head over to Whittier Park. We're gonna have a volunteer picnic starting at noon, and I. A little detail, but an important detail. You can also earn, just like at any pickup party, you can earn a 5% stormwater utility fee if you come and participate. So we'd love to see everybody there.

Sarah Frey: 5:41

Woo-hoo. And is

Kit Redmer: 5:41

that all right, Sarah?

Sarah Frey: 5:42

And special thanks to our sponsor, Redding Landscaping, who's making that picnic possible. So extra special thanks out to Redding. Yeah.

Kit Redmer: 5:50

Thank you guys.

Sarah Frey: 5:52

Alright, next up we're gonna be talking to Nasser about our brand new permitting and licensing platform. Welcome back to the Rouse Review. We are here to talk about our new online permitting platform,

Kit Redmer: 6:11

and we're joined by our amazing Nasser Rahim.

Sarah Frey: 6:15

All right. And Nasser is our Deputy Director of Community Development and Nasser, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, because I am shocked to find out that this is your first ever time on the podcast. Sure.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 6:26

No, that's, that's, uh, totally okay and great. Uh, what I am is the Deputy Director of Community Development, uh, as kids stated. So I really, uh, help out the director in terms of the day-to-day, kind of semi major Domo. And then my priority is a little bit different in the fact that I also focus mostly on grant administration with HUD and keeping up with our projects within the city related to hud. So that would also include the housing choice voucher program, CDBG, and then also home funds. And then we also deal with non-federal funded policy regarding. Uh, housing and again, like I said, involved with the director. So also on the planning and zoning side for just other policies that may have some impact on, on housing.

Sarah Frey: 7:19

So a jack of all trades, some may say when it comes to the world of community development

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 7:24

a bit. Yeah, kind of like a fact totem.

Sarah Frey: 7:26

And how long have you worked for the city?

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 7:29

Oh, this will be my. Second time working for the city, so cumulatively almost five years. I didn't know that. It's your second time,

Sarah Frey: 7:36

so you loved us so much, you just had to come back.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 7:38

Yeah. Yeah. I used to walk to work in 2013 and 2014, and then I left here and realized that you can't do that anywhere else.

Sarah Frey: 7:45

I mean, we all ended up back here. It happens.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 7:48

Yeah, that's a good point.

Kit Redmer: 7:49

I walk sometimes. It's very nice. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. That's awesome.

Sarah Frey: 7:52

Alright, so Nasr, we know that you have been spearheading this huge project that has been percolating in the background for what, almost two years now.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 8:04

Yeah, it seems like it's,

Sarah Frey: 8:06

so, can you give us a driving, uh, kind of an explanation of this Dr. Of what you've been driving behind our new permitting portal? It's more than just a platform, just kind of give us a quick overview of what's going live and what people can kind of expect.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 8:20

Sure. So what's going live is, it's called Buy OpenGov, OpenGov Permitting and Licensing. So we can't necessarily change that, but, uh, our focus here is actually on, uh, bringing permitting. To the 21st century Before this really, we had an issue where, I mean, really we,

Sarah Frey: 8:37

are you trying to say that we were stuck in the past?

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 8:39

We, we took Don't say you really feel answer. It was, it was a lot of paper in input that we got. Mm-hmm. We did actually have an internal permitting software, but it wasn't open to the public and we, it seemed like we tried, um, uh, measures at some points to try to make things partially online and it just didn't work. And this is the way to really bring as many things as we can. To the online platform to allow citizens to go online, pay online, apply whenever they want online. So it's, it's really about trying to, uh, increase, uh, ease of use, uh, at That's cool. Yeah. Accessibility. And then the other thing that we also really like is that this allows us to also engage, I think, um, faster, more efficient, and uh, more transparent with the citizens.'cause we can. Yeah, there's a lot of o options for back and forth communication, even within the platform and, you know, who's responding to, because we all have to have our, everybody has to have their own profile. So it's very, um, like I said, it's all about accountability too, to some extent.

Sarah Frey: 9:41

So I can go in, fill out an application at 2:00 AM and then be chatting with the city staff member about it later that afternoon and

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 9:47

yeah, absolutely. Find out where

Sarah Frey: 9:49

it is in the process.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 9:49

Right. Depending on the speed, and you can, we can even see, you know, okay. Uh. It a developer can, or you know, whoever, a property owner or, or even, you know, somebody who just wants to get a fence permit, they can see which department they're currently engaging with and which one might say, all right, instead of just assuming, well, it's, it's the entire city who's mm-hmm. Taking forever to get back to me. Yeah. We can say, oh no, it's, it's this department. Um, and there might still be some outstanding information, or we're so sorry, you know, they're still a week behind and they're just playing catch up. So it's, it's, like I said, it's all about the transparency of where you can see, so you know who's. Yeah, you can, yeah, you can engage with the responsible, uh, party, review the responsible reviewer, and you could find out way more. That's, that's really cool. That's, yeah, I like it.

Sarah Frey: 10:34

Um, so what kind of permits and things can people go on to find? I assume it's not everything because I think there's probably 7,000 permits and licenses that one can apply for through the city. So what can you find on the portal? Like what, what's actively available?

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 10:47

Right. There's a lot of permits. Thank you for clarifying. There's permits that we still have not put on this, and that's not necessarily, that's something that another, you know. Other departments might want to not, it can't handle all the departments. There's some functions that can't. So, you know, maybe things like Commissioner of Revenue and the treasurer, the, those will have their own separate software, but other departments that might at some point show interest can adopt this. But our primary focus, because community development has really been on, um, land use related activities or anything that impacts land use. So.

Sarah Frey: 11:16

What does that mean? Land use? Right. So that's a big phrase, a big question. It is. So, so

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 11:21

any, any, anything that involves you moving dirt or you changing a wall? So think of it that way. So even, so you got, so I'll just go over the departments, but I'll say it's, you know, it's engineering. It's fire, it's building codes, it's zoning, it's planning right now. And then we also actually even have gone beyond that and the uh, police department through the city manager's office even showed an interest and they've already actually started. And their special permit, special event permits already online too. So we've already got other departments that might not be our focus has been on those departments that aren't on land use, but we are already seeing people beyond that get on it.

Kit Redmer: 11:57

And you know, it's interesting too, actually, Sarah, you probably remember this, um, as part of our civic Leadership Academy briefing mm-hmm. For the new students that come in, and we actually used it last night as well when we were, you know, presenting to the Laurel Ridge, uh, ELL class that we talk about, like the basic functions of a city and like the core pillars, right? Mm-hmm. Like what actually the city does, right? And it obviously includes things like public safety, enforcing state law. Um, promoting health, you know, protecting the environment, but land use is one of those core pillars.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 12:27

Absolutely. So I'm glad you asked about it. Yeah. Land use is a big deal on local level. It's locally controlled and everything, so Totally.

Sarah Frey: 12:33

I was gonna say next to the budget, that's like the most, that's hands down. The number one thing you see come up at city council meetings.

Kit Redmer: 12:39

Yeah. That and public safety probably. Yeah. Yeah. Would be the two. Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 12:43

Um, so you can go on, you can get fence permits, you can try to get a conditional use permit. You can apply for a special event. Mm-hmm. All the things that used to take like. Three steps of going to four different buildings in the city and tracking down who you were looking for and hoping you found the right person and didn't have to drive to a different building is now all available online.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 13:02

Yeah, yeah. It is all available. That sounds amazing. So thanks for highlighting that. Yeah, the efficiency is pretty great. Yeah, it's all online. For people that might still want to prefer, you know, being more on the traditional side, pay for cash or even, uh, accept those, you will still have to go to a few different offices. But again, I think if you go online and you. You want things fast and you want it now, it's, it's all right there.

Sarah Frey: 13:22

So even if you're applying for a building permit, can then, instead of having to come down and pick up your building permit, can you just like print it off at home now?

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 13:29

Yep. Absolutely. Thanks for highlighting that. You print it off at home. Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 13:32

That's amazing.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 13:33

It is.

Sarah Frey: 13:34

So like you never have to actually come in. You can just do it all.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 13:39

You could do it all online, remote. Yeah. You never have to. That's amazing. Yeah. And then we're hoping probably, yeah, middle of. Of, uh, probably before the end of this year too, to launch, to then also, uh, require reviews for plans to be, uh, completely digital too. So, oh, you might even, we might even move away or from taking a lot of physical, uh, you know, plans. And sometimes plans can be like a hundred to 300 pages. Yeah. Uh, depending on the size of a, you know, of a building that they wanna build. So then that can all pretty hopeful. We're hoping it's part of the budget if it gets approved that it will. Allow us to buy another software to plug in, and then now you can just do everything online, including plans review.

Sarah Frey: 14:16

Wow. Cool. That sounds like it's gonna just make everything go so much faster. Transformation. That's right. This is huge. Yeah.

Kit Redmer: 14:23

That's the hope. Let me ask and aser, I, I think we mentioned it, but I assume there's a significant internal efficiency upgrade as well.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 14:31

Yeah.

Kit Redmer: 14:31

Like internally for staff.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 14:32

Right. Like I said, because of the ability for, the way the workflow, the, you know, the. Not getting into the details, but the way it works is that it, the notification process to other departments when your turn is up for review mm-hmm. It's right then and there. You know, you're getting an email. So what we're really hoping is like, yeah, when someone says, my part's done and it was, it can go immediately to somebody else. Or also, you know, depending on some reviews, we'll have immediate eyes on it by all departments that are relevant. So the hope is that it is.

Kit Redmer: 15:02

Quick and that's, you know, as everybody knows, time is money. Right? Absolutely. So absolutely. We talk about the budget, I mean, saving staff time so you guys can focus on other things. That's an important part of the budget. Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 15:12

If somebody's not just chasing around a piece of paper and trying exactly. To get it to 15 different people, that's amazing how much time you can save with just that.

Kit Redmer: 15:19

You're sending 12 different emails, right. You know, 12 people. I mean, what is it like Probably three minutes per email just typing

Sarah Frey: 15:24

it out. If the system system is just creating the emails and sending the pushes, that saves. Yeah, an inordinate amount of day-to-day office time. It is, yeah.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 15:32

You don't have to email that anymore. And then what's great too is the applicant, instead of emailing us directly mm-hmm. Or with issues, we can use that platform to communicate within. So we just post comments and notes even on there now. That's cool. Yeah, we're hoping, that's incredible. We're hoping it really speeds up the process. Um. Yeah. Uh, considerably.

Sarah Frey: 15:51

All right, Nazer, one last question.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 15:53

Sure.

Sarah Frey: 15:53

How do people access this portal? Where's the, where do they go to get to it?

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 15:57

Uh, you could go on the city's website and

Sarah Frey: 15:59

Winchester va.gov,

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 16:01

winchester va.gov, and winchester va.gov will have a link under permitting, licensing, and applications. Or you can also just type in Winchester, uh, permitting open gov on Google. And what you'll see is it should be winchester.open gov, and then that should. Let's see.

Sarah Frey: 16:21

Get you right there,

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 16:22

get you, get you right there. Absolutely.

Sarah Frey: 16:23

And then if somebody's a little intimidated by the computer or they're not feeling super confident the first time filling out the form, can they come in and get help with it?

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 16:31

Absolutely. What we have is, uh, we will have some, uh, we have a computer currently up that the citizens can come in and use, and we have staff that will help them through the process so that, yeah, if they're, if there's some intimidation that they can actually. Sign up and apply online here at City Hall.

Sarah Frey: 16:49

Oh, fantastic. Awesome. Sometimes that extra human touch just makes you feel like you did it correctly, at

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 16:54

least the first time at, at least the first time. Yeah. But let's not forgot that. We also got help from communications for, uh, making some tutorials online too, on the helps on the help section. So. A great job. There are,

Sarah Frey: 17:05

there are some very fabulous videos out there, if I may say so myself.

Nasser Rahimzadeh: 17:08

Quick video tutorials to show you how to do it. The hope is it's a very intuitive thing, you know, if you know how to, the hope is that people that traditionally are used to making profiles, they will understand the process pretty quickly.

Sarah Frey: 17:20

Fantastic. Well, Nassar, thank you so much for a spearheading this project and bringing such efficiency and innovation to the city and also for hanging out with us.

Kit Redmer: 17:28

Yeah, appreciate the invite. Yeah, thanks Nassar. Thanks.

Sarah Frey: 17:32

Alright, that's it for today's show, so next time we'll have Dan back in his traditional seat, but until then, we'll see you around City Hall.