PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A permit supervisor for the Department of Environmental Management sharply criticized a state proposal that would speed up the application process for developers.

The plan would allow developers seeking wetlands and septic-system permits to pay a fee of several hundred dollars to have their applications handled quicker.

The DEM has said the accelerated program would reduce the time it takes to process a developer’s application, with agency staffers working overtime to provide faster service.

A report issued by the DEM says the processing time ranged from 30 to 100 days for the 2,500 septic-system applications submitted last year, while the agency took between 35 to 65 days to handle the 90 wetlands applications it received.

The DEM says it could take one or two weeks to process the applications under the fast-tracked program. The agency would return the applicant’s money if it could not process the application in the allotted time.

Charles Horbert, a permit supervisor in the DEM’s wetlands program, said during a public hearing Friday that the accelerated review process would foster a belief that money can buy special treatment from the state.

The new fees, he said, would promote “reprehensible and inaccurate perceptions of our conduct being legally condoned,” according to The Providence Journal.

He said he had been offered “incentives” for faster service or favorable treatment at least a dozen times in his career, and had always turned them down. And Horbert said his staff did not want to work overtime to process the applications.

Thomas D. Getz, assistant to the DEM director, said the program would allow developers who needed a permit quickly to go through a legitimate accelerated process and would take them out of the agency’s regular workload.

The DEM has implemented policies since the 1990s aimed at speeding up the permitting process.

A second public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 13 at 1 p.m.