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VOLUME 172 • ISSUE 107 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
Cougars Celebrate
Courtesy photo
Magnum is all smiles as he poses with his new, custom fire hat. His wish to be a firefighter comes true next month.
El Dorado High School students brought their school spirit to Main Street Placerville Thursday evening. Spectators camped on the curbs to see the band, cheerleaders, athletes and royalty during the Homecoming Parade. Above, the Cougars cheer squad makes its way down the road, leading everyone in a cheer to support the home team. At right, a member of the EDHS Homecoming Royalty gets a ride on a Corvette during the parade. See more photos on A6.
WISH GRANTED
Firefighter Magnum coming to the rescue Mountain Democrat staff
A
young boy fighting a bone marrow disorder has had his wish come true. Magnum Minnick, 5, will become a firefighter for the day, riding with El Dorado County Fire Protection District’s Engine 28 and Captain Jamie Preston in Shingle Springs Oct. 3. The announcement was made Sept. 9 at a special ceremony hosted by Make-A-Wish Foundation
Mountain Democrat photos by Odin Rasco
■ See MAGNUM, page A2
Staff, supes hash out permitting woes in Grand Jury response Eric Jaramishian Staff witer
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El Dorado County’s 2022-23 Grand Jury Report covered several issues but only one became a topic discussed among the Board of Supervisors and Planning and Building Department staff last Tuesday — the permit process and its delays. The Grand Jury investigated the permit
process and procedures, finding inadequacies that supervisors agreed with — at least in part. The board’s official response to the report notes a customer satisfaction survey is available to residents and any complaints are provided to necessary parties involved. Getting into finer details, county officials stress they continue to explore accessibility of the TRAKiT system used in Planning and
Building. The program automates management of a project’s development, permitting and code compliance and is available to the public. In its summary the Grand Jury report states, “The TRAKiT software continues to contribute to the delays in the permitting process due to the fact that TRAKiT was not successfully implemented. Building Services had to create and is still using manual workarounds to
keep the system operational. Additional dedicated resources from the EDC Information Technologies Department continue to be deployed to address ongoing deficiencies in the software.” Regarding the report’s recommendation to expand the simple permit program to allow homeowners to request and pay for the permits online, the county maintains in its response that a contractor’s license
number is required for verification due to California Health and Safety codes. The supervisors did recognize permitting delay issues during its discussion at the Sept. 12 meeting, where they voted to change their response to modify language to set timelines for processing permits by permit type and to modify the ombudsman title, a person meant to assist customers through the process
and answer questions about the status of their projects. “The biggest complaint I hear is how long it takes for things to get processed,” said District 1 Supervisor John Hidahl. “In the past, my district has referred people to the ombudsman to get answers on how best to navigate things and we have gotten, to a certain degree, non-answers ■ See PERMITTING, page A5
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