(b) Upon receipt of a complete application, the Department of General Services shall inform the applicant of the period of time that it anticipates to elapse prior to commencing review of the applicant’s plans. Within 10 days of being so notified, the applicant shall make an election to either use the Department of General Services for the review of the applicant’s plans or, request that the plan review be performed by one or more qualified plan review firms pursuant to Sections 81135 and 81136. If the applicant elects to use the services of the Department of General Services for review of the applicant’s plans, the department, as it deems necessary to expedite review of the applicant’s plans, in addition to making a good faith effort to hire state employees, shall do one or more of the following:

1. (1) Contract for assistance from one or more qualified plan review firms pursuant to Sections 81135 and 81136.
2. (2) Employ additional staff on a temporary basis.
3. (3) Maximize the use of department staff through the use of overtime or other appropriate means.
4. (4) Any other action determined by the department to have the effect of expediting the review and approval process.

(c) Each application shall identify, for purposes of receiving the notifications required under this subdivision, an employee of the applicant community college district and either the applicant’s architect or structural engineer. The Department of General Services immediately shall notify that employee, and the identified architect or structural engineer, when each of the following steps in the plan review process occurs:

1. (1) The department requests the applicant’s architect or structural engineer to correct or complete any part of the application.
2. (2) An application number is assigned to the application.
3. (3) Review of the applicant’s plans is commenced.
4. (4) Review of the applicant’s plans is completed and the department returns the plans to the architect or structural engineer for correction.
5. (5) Corrected plans are returned to the department by the applicant’s architect or structural engineer for final review and approval.
6. (6) The department approves the plans and causes a final record set of the plans to be printed in accordance with Section 17304.