Pugh: City moved permit process online

Mayor Catherine Pugh gave the State of the City address on Thursday, which marked her 100th day in office.
Along with policy plans and goals for her administration, Pugh noted that her administration already made moves to put the city’s permitting process online.
“Early in my Administration we learned that our permitting process was outdated. It required several visits Downtown and too much waiting to wade through the cumbersome process. I want to thank [Chief of Operations] Pete Hammen and Acting Housing Commissioner Michael Braverman and his team who answered my request to streamline the process and make it available online,” she said.
Permits are now available online in the Housing Department. This site has info on other types of non-housing permits, but does not appear to have an online system.
“E-permits/online permitting is in operation today and cuts down on the hours and days that developers have had to invest in trying to do work in our communities,” Pugh said. “We are also working to reform our entire procurement process to become more inclusive and diverse.”
During the speech, Pugh also talked about Bloomberg Philanthropies’ recent move to provide Baltimore with $500,000 over three years to form an innovation team. She didn’t elaborate much on the specific focus, aside from a note about the importance of measuring progress. The team will “increase innovation and to bring the latest technology and transparency and measurement tools to City government, while identifying the best and the brightest to lead those efforts in our city to improve government services,” Pugh said.