A senior cabinet member in Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration is leaving his post to become Baltimore’s first full-time “permit czar,” shaking up City Hall as the office seeks to reset the public’s perception of the service.

Justin Williams will take on the new position, moving on from his role as deputy mayor for economic development. City permitting is plagued by chronic delays and bottlenecks and Williams said in a statement that the move demonstrates the city’s commitment to reform.

A replacement deputy mayor was not announced; the statement said that position would temporarily be filled by the mayor’s chief of staff, Calvin Young, and City Administrator Faith Leach.

It was not immediately known who Williams, now the Director of Permitting and Development Services, will report to.

The move comes as the Scott administration, caught flat-footed by the shaky rollout of a new permitting system earlier this year, endures a pressure campaign by the business and development community to devote more attention to refining the tricky city process. It carries extra weight as the city launches a campaign to make a serious dent in its supply of vacant and abandoned homes and lure more investment into neighborhoods, an initiative made ever more daunting as bureaucratic bottlenecks slow results.

Williams’ job-change had been telegraphed for months, though it wasn’t clear he would give up his deputy mayor duties.

In the first months after instituting Baltimore’s long-awaited overhaul, the city issued about half as many permits as the same period last year, a Baltimore Banner analysis found. The stakes are high: A delayed permit can wreak havoc on a development project, lead to financial ruin and make a developer think twice about following the rules.

City permits cover the full life cycle of projects, from demolition and rehabilitation to occupancy and use. A permit is needed to build on empty land, as well as to redo an existing home. Every contractor who works on a given home, from electricians to plumbers, needs a permit to perform a job.

The city has faced public backlash to the crash landing in approved permits, not just from frustrated customers at wit’s ends but also from City Councilmembers.

Williams was among the city officials who were put on the hot seat in July as the City Council grilled members of the administration. While defending the city’s progress in the months that have passed since the new system was instituted, Williams acknowledged that the city was still falling well short. He said the issue was keeping him up at night.

At a June event hosted by BUILD Baltimore, an interfaith community organizing group, Scott said that the city had unintentionally gotten in its own way. He pledged to fix the system, he said, “or folks will be looking for employment elsewhere in the city of Baltimore.”

Williams, a former zoning attorney, joined the administration in 2022. As deputy mayor, he had oversight over city agencies responsible for housing and development, and his portfolio extended to tourism-related arms of city government including Visit Baltimore, the Baltimore Convention Center and the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.

Williams earned $227,000 as deputy mayor, according to the most recent city salary data.

In addition to becoming permit czar Friday, Williams was also named interim executive director of the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals. He assumed both titles immediately.