Top City government offices in Santa Ana, United States

I work for a plumbing company as the designated agent of the contractor to pull permits to provide support on the backend for our technicians and this building department is frustrating to deal with. When they want to be open and work it is such a breeze to get a permit. But the parking lot is in a paid lot so if I have to go down, the wait always makes me pay. If I have any questions or concerns that can be addressed over the phone forget it, I have called so many times for a simple question to be addressed and they dont answer their phones. I don’t even know if they’re open or not, I have been also waiting for a call back and never got it. Visiting the city halls in OC make me want to fill out an application to work there because it must be nice getting paid with government benefits to be incompetent and ruin peoples days.

I refuse to do another job in this city. The permit technicians are the worst. Some of the engineers are not as educated either. It's like they hate their job or something. Any small question sets them off. They need to be investigated and held accountable for treating people terribly. Anyways, this city tries to make it impossible to pull permits for any project.

Way too painful to deal with. Extremely frustrating. Prepare to way a long time to be call.

The most incompetent and frustrating planning department I have to work with. I’m at an architect firm with over 100 active projects in SoCal and I dread having to work in Santa Ana.

Their permit process system is archaic and inefficient, staff is rude and not helpful. I’ve spoken to several customers and they have all expressed similar sentiments.

The worst part is they probably don’t read and care about any input or feedback.

I wish there were something we could collectively do to improve the service or put pressure on city council or ANYTHING to make it suck less.

I never knew the counter would "review" drawings onsite. They asked us to update notes on our site plan so we had to reprint copies and copies. Isn't that the plan reviewer's job during review?! They also told us we rolled the drawings wrong. They don't care about residents' time or money.

This place is a joke. They never came out when my number was called.
Asked them later and saw them laughing. Worst department I’ve ever been to.
Not busy at all but everyone waits forever.
Avoid at all cost.

Absolutely the most unprofessional AHJ I have dealt with in a long time. Have an appointment system that they don’t even follow. Appointment for 11? Good luck being seen by 1. Counter people do not even know their ticket system.

***public humiliation

I've never worked with a worse building department than Santa Ana. The issue is not the staff, to be clear, though some certainly need to remember the "servant" portion of their public service. The issues are typical government bureaucracy nonsense. Low staffing despite massive budgets, poor communication (waited for weeks for a call back), abridged counter hours supposedly to ease this problem, an unnecessary and non standard review process. Building dept won't even look at drawings until planning has approved them (ADU submittals). Most cities have all departments review at the same time. If I could take my drawings to another city to review for my Santa Ana projects I would... If you ever wanted an example of the failure of large government you need look no further.

Update
Had appointment for 12:40... I left at 3:50

10 Free Sandbags when it Rains!!!