Economic Development (2)

Citygate performed a development services process assessment for the city of Cañon City, CO. With new leadership and evolving community expectations, Citygate’s assessment ensures that core service delivery systems are operating as efficiently, transparently, and effectively as possible, assisting the City to ground any potential structural decisions, including the consideration of a regional building authority, in a clear understanding of current performance, root causes, and opportunities for improvement. Citygate's comprehensive and objective assessment assessed the end-to-end development process and identified inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for improved coordination across departments; provided benchmarking against comparable communities to better understand how the City’s performance aligns with peer jurisdictions; delivered practical, actionable recommendations that can be implemented to improve service delivery, predictability, and customer experience; and supported informed decision-making regarding organizational structure and service delivery models, including the potential role of regional partnerships.

Citygate is currently conducting an independent staffing and development review study of the Community Development Department, the Public Works / Engineering Department, and the Department of Life Safety for the City of Hemet, CA. Citygate will provide recommendations on optimal staffing levels—as well as solutions to optimize the development review process by streamlining procedures, ensuring an orderly development process workflow, and enhancing the overall experience of City customers. Citygate’s analysis will be performed in support of the City’s three-pronged Economic Strategy focusing on Places, People, and Process. Through this analysis, Citygate will determine whether current resources align with community and City Council expectations, development review processes align with best practices, and resources are properly organized to carry out their defined responsibilities. Citygate will also develop an Implementation Plan to improve the departments’ processes and staffing and ensure the highest level of customer service.

As a follow-on engagement to our Citywide Staffing Review, Citygate performed an Outsourcing Opportunities Review for the City to fulfill the City of Novato’s Strategic Plan requirement to “Authorize a study of potential outsourcing opportunities that would improve service delivery and reduce short- and long-term costs.” This review identified areas of operations most suitable for outsourcing to a third party as opposed to the City providing the services by existing staff or identify how outsourcing a portion of existing services is the most efficient or lower-cost method to augment or assist with the existing services. This review also identified alternative service delivery methods, such as public-private partnerships, contracting, and collaborative agreements for sharing resources between public agencies.

Scope of work: A departmental process and improvement assessment of the Community and Economic Development Department for the City of Santa Paula. Citygate will evaluate the current practices, procedures, and performance standards of Department functions for conformance with industry best practices and legal requirements. Citygate will also evaluate the Department’s organizational structure, including the types and number of positions needed to meet workload and performance standards, and will identify where organizational and operational performance and service levels can be enhanced with new performance metrics to help ensure the Department’s goals continue to be met.

Citygate performed an organizational and operations review of the Human Resources function in the City of Hercules, California. This comprehensive review will assess the effectiveness of the current Human Resources functions, policies, procedures, and operations and, based on the study findings, identify areas of operational success and provide a set of recommendations to enhance operations and effectiveness of the Human Resources function where indicated.

Citygate facilitated two one-day workshops with the Salt Lake City Planning staff and Council staff on character-based leadership principles.

Citygate completed eight rotating general management and operations studies for the City of Ogden’s Community Development, Public Works, Code Enforcement, Community Services, Redevelopment Agency, Police Department, Animal Services, and Fire Department. Each study analyzed the performance measurement, policies, procedures, management, and operations of the Department. Citygate examined issues related to the philosophy and mission; organizational structure and management systems; organizational relationships; relationships with citizens; allocation of employees and other resources; personnel management and training; data management; records management, communications, and information systems; facilities and equipment; management methodologies; maintenance functions; and fiscal management of each Department.

Citygate conducted a management and performance audit of the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency. The principal purpose of the review was to assess the Agency’s organization and management structure, staffing levels, workload, management control system, procurement, budgeting, human resource and asset management procedures, program effectiveness, record keeping, customer service/relations, plan, and goals.

Citygate completed a Citywide management audit for the City of Pinole, California. The project was conducted at the initiative of the City Council and emphasized the establishment of performance measures for each Department and division of the City, including Public Works, Community Development, Planning, Building, Redevelopment, Administration, Finance, Personnel, Police, Fire, and Sewer Treatment. Citygate also formulated recommendations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the City. Included in the project was the evaluation of the City’s financial stability and measures to improve the health and vigor of the City’s finances. As part of this analysis, Citygate also reviewed the adequacy of the City’s cost-recovery methodology.