Frank Ury Exaggerates Success
by Larry Gilbert

During the past month, I have commenced an audit of two 2012 Mission Viejo programs (Improve, Don’t Move) in which we reduced or totally eliminated Building Permit fees. I have approached this task by using the Public Record Request (PRR) process and applying the Ronald Reagan slogan of "Trust, But Verify." While the City Staff and Councilman Frank Ury boast of the programs’ success, my research reveals an entirely different outcome.

Sadly, the city has thrown around bogus numbers yet cannot provide a report showing the valuations of the alleged improvements, forcing me to spend countless hours reviewing the 1,700 residential and commercial Permits issued during the program life. I spent over an hour in city hall yesterday looking at 24 selected commercial permits on a projection screen where we found the valuations not reflected in the printouts sent to me as requested in my PRR.

On those 386 permits for commercial improvements, Mission Viejo gave away around $100,000 of taxpayer money without any justification. The top program participant was Nordstrom's at the Shops of MV. Their demolition Permit valuation was $300,000 and their two-story tenant improvements added $4 million for which they saved a total of $7,112 in Permit discounts. Nordstrom surely did not delay said improvements hoping that the city might create a fee discount program. The same surely applies to all of the others where time is money and if you have a product or service, in a competitive environment you don't sit around and watch the clock.

After Nordstrom’s, the next 10 (highest valuation) Building Permits in the program were as follows:

• Buy Buy Baby in our Freeway Center valued at $1.2 million where they saved $2,653 in fees
• Panera Bread Permit Valuation of $380,000 saving $2,947 in fees
• Chipolte Permit Valuation of $300,000 saving $1,591
• Five Guys Burgers Permit Valuation of $280,000 saving $1,526
• Joseph A Bank Permit Valuation $276,000 saving $1,428
• Premier Business Center Permit Valuation $250,000 saving $803
• "Pink" in the Shops at MV Permit Valuation $225,000 saved $917
• Navy Federal Credit Union Permit Valuation $200,000 saving $820
• Medical Office Permit Valuation $200,000 saving $786
• Dept. of Defense Permit Valuation $196,000 saving $819

These dozen commercial property permits list a combined valuation of $7.8 million where they saved $13,299.

Are we to believe that they sat around waiting to see if Mission Viejo had any plans to discount building Permits, something that we had never done before? Several permits were issued for Amnesty to those who engaged in tenant improvements without first getting permits.

If these programs were so successful, can someone explain how the number of combined building permits reported by the city increased by 10 percent in the year following the programs from 3103 in 2012 to 3400 in 2013? Source. City of Mission Viejo Annual Report booklets.