Do you think things getting better at City Hall? One of Nanaimo's leading developers thinks they are.

Three years ago, he would have been part of a small minority.

In August of 1997, a survey done by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business created headlines when they announced the results of a recent survey.

"Nanaimo is unfriendly to business," the headlines said. For "Nanaimo" read Nanaimo City Hall.

A month later in a report to Nanaimo City Council, City Administrator, Jerry Berry reaffirmed that Nanaimo's bureaucracy was hostile to business, especially new business.

With each of these announcements, a lot of Nanaimo business people nodded their heads in agreement. Few could see things getting better.

Fortunately, a number of employees at Nanaimo's City Hall did see how things could be improved and they wasted little time initiating the kind of changes in structure and attitude that would make that difference.

Nanaimo developer, Bob Wall, says that in less than a year; he could see a lot of improvement.

In fact things got so much better at the Development Department that last year at this time, he nominated four of the managers as Neighbourhood Heroes.

They are: Brian Mehaffey, General Manager of Development Services; Tony Leeming, Manager Support Services, Strategic Planning, Engineering and Economic Development (now retired); David Nichols, Development Liaison Officer; and Toby Seward, Manager, Building Inspection Division of Development Services.

Wall also wants to recognize the following front desk personnel: Selia McCarther, Wendy Porter, Tom Neil, Maureen Pilcher and Franki Victor.

"These people seem to be enjoying their jobs more these days" Wall says, " and they're definitely a lot more cheerful and easier to deal with.

"It seems obvious that a concerted effort is being made to change the image of city hall," Wall went on. "It's not unusual these days to see staff going out of their way to help get things resolved.

"If there was a problem before," Wall continued, "it was getting things permanently resolved and getting on with the project.

"Now, if the front desk staff can't solve a problem, one of the managers will."

Once they got over the shock of being nominated as Neighbourhood Heroes, Brian Mehaffey and Tony Leeming explained that significant changes began four years ago when Engineers, Planners and Inspectors were all transferred into one Development Department and then, soon after that, they were moved into one common area at city hall so communication was improved once again.

Then, a little over two years ago, a City Hall Customer Service Committee was formed. This committee made recommendations regarding internal customer service as well as customer service directed at the general public.

This resulted in better communications within city hall as a whole and an ability to solve problems more quickly and efficiently.

This committee also developed a mission statement and a long list of staff goals. This too seems to be making a difference.

Next the Development Office began creating an Internet based tracking system so that a client will be able to quickly discover exactly where their request is in the system.

The goal is to have this tracking system up and running by September.

Assuming their target date is met, and it should be, Nanaimo will be the first city in Canada to have this information available on the Internet.

Congratulations to the folks in Nanaimo City Hall's Development Office. They are all Neighbourhood Heroes.

Is Bob Wall the only person in Nanaimo who does business with people who would qualify as "Neighbourhood Heroes"? I think not.