Any significant project that Oahu residents hope to see requires plans and permits, so the failings of the office tasked with overseeing this very duty — the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting — could be a major roadblock.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi made clearing this hurdle a core element of his election campaign. One year into his term, the progress report was due, and the State of the City address was the time to give it.

In Tuesday’s speech, Blangiardi laid out big plans for improving affordable housing, including tax incentives and other financing strategies. But none of that will gain ground without fixing some serious problems at DPP.

Compounding its image as an agency that’s mired in bureaucratic inefficiency, a year ago five current and former DPP employees were arrested on federal bribery charges, underscoring the sense that some at DPP use a pay-to-play rulebook.

Blangiardi addressed dysfunction in the department, describing a DPP self-assessment to identify “gaps, inefficiencies and irregularities.” The mayor cited a DPP administrative audit of the third-party reviewers who provide services to expedite permits: Only about half of their projects met requirements for permits.

Blangiardi’s approach starts with staffing up at DPP. Over three years, 80 positions will be added, and 80 vacancies will be filled. There’s new software to help modernize residential permitting, which he promised would go live this year. A lot of the backlog has been solar photovoltaic system permitting, and there’s now an online platform to streamline that process, too.

The administration also is expanding the city’s active role in financing, issuing tax-exempt private activity bonds and providing exemptions from the general excise tax for qualifying affordable housing projects.

Why does this wonky stuff matter? Simple, he said: Without fixes, the push for housing and a post-COVID economic recovery will fail.

No argument here. Blangiardi needs to stay on this agenda, and keep everyone in the loop. The mayor said staffing boosts and reforms will help with morale. The taxpayer has to hope that it also addresses the clear shortcomings in oversight, and all that graft.

A decades-long breach of public trust will take years to repair, undoubtedly a mission extending beyond Blangiardi’s tenure at Honolulu Hale.