Citygate assisted the City of San Luis Obispo, California, and its partners to study the opportunities and constraints in merging some of the County’s police and fire dispatch centers into one shared center located at the San Luis Obispo Police Department dispatch center.

Citygate completed a comprehensive services delivery and staffing review of the San Luis Obispo Police Department. The study included a review of the adequacy of the existing deployment system, scheduling, and staffing. Citygate’s report included a detailed analysis of the response time, crime, and call data that drives the recommendations for staffing in Patrol, as well as an assessment of the staffing of the support functions in the Department. The Police Master Plan was very well received by executive management and then the City Council. The plan continues to drive annual budget decisions in a very tough environment to fund improvements.

Citygate completed a review of projected growth in the City of San Luis Obispo’s current General Plan and an assessment of fire service funding sources as part of a Standards of Coverage update. Citygate assessed the addition of a fifth fire station, or redistribution of the existing four stations, to serve new development in planned growth areas of the City.

Citygate provided customer service consulting services for the Community Development Department’s Building and Safety Division, and in so doing Citygate identified opportunities for improvement and ongoing performance management.

Citygate was selected to assist the City on this two-phase effort. This project consisted of a review of the “Road Map for Implementation,” integration of the Public Works Department permitting processes, and identification of opportunities to improve efficiency of the City’s development review permitting process.

Citygate completed an organizational assessment of the San Luis Obispo Community Development Department, including a review of Administration, Development Review, Long-Range Planning, and Building and Safety, as well as a review of the key elements of the City’s Economic Development Program. The Community Development Department has already implemented 90 percent of the recommendations and credits these efforts to maintaining and achieving high levels of service.

Citygate completed a fire department planning study, which included a Standards of Coverage planning analysis to examine the levels of fire department services by occupancy type and land use classifications. The study included assessing fire services to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The study also included fire station and staffing infrastructure triggers for additional resources and an analysis of headquarters and prevention systems, as well as order of magnitude costs and possible financing strategies.