Overview

• Mayor Brandon Scott appointed the deputy mayor on Friday as the city's inaugural "Permit Czar" under the Bmore FAST reform agenda.
• Williams also became interim director of the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals after Becky Lundberg Witt's recent departure.
• The position carries authority to root out permitting bottlenecks, install process improvements, and mediate disputes between applicants and reviewers.
• Williams will steer a $3 billion, 15-year effort to rehabilitate about 37,500 vacant properties and to attract roughly $5 billion in private capital with civic partners.
• City Hall casts the step as the first phase toward consolidating development services into a new coordination office, following a troubled permitting system rollout flagged by a sharp drop in approvals.