Mayor Jones Introduces Ombudsman Program: Making The City’s Permitting Process Easier

Feb 4th, 2013

At a news conference at Government Plaza today, Mobile Mayor Sam Jones unveiled a new program designed to help builders and developers with the permitting process. The City of Mobile Ombudsman is an advocacy program which will work with citizens and contract professionals who encounter issues with city departments.

When building permits are applied for, the permit applicant is given a reference number to follow the progress of their application. Using this number, they track the progress on the city’s website. If their application is being unduly held up, they can now reach out to the Ombudsman for assistance.

"Our goal is to assist the development community in being successful in their dealings with the City of Mobile,” said Mobile Mayor Sam Jones. “The Ombudsman program has been established to facilitate lines of communication between design professionals, owners and the city. We will continue to work with the development community to assist where we can in making this process a pleasant and professional experiences for all parties.”

The Ombudsman program can be reached online at www.cityofmobile.org/dev_center_ombud.php, by email at
permitombud@cityofmobile.org, or by calling (251) 208-7026. The Ombudsman program is staffed by the Mobile CitiSmart team, which oversees accountability and efficiency issues within all city departments.

The website also gives contact information for every department involved in the permitting process, including Urban Development, Engineering, Right-of-way, and Mobile Fire-Rescue.