Provide guidance to the Lee County Community Development Director in the area of state-of-the-art technology support for community development functions, including but not limited to document management, electronic permitting, and review of best practices in other comparable jurisdictions with similar levels of activity.

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.

Citygate conducted a comprehensive performance review of the Community Development Department for Modesto. Citygate assessed the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department’s activities, particularly those in the Building and Development Services and Planning Divisions that relate to the review and approval of land use development and building permits. We evaluated the use of performance measures in the Department, and examined the methodology used to determine the cost of services provided by the Department. In key functional areas, we also surveyed and compared the Department to comparable agencies where benchmarking and the identification of best practices were helpful. As part of its review, Citygate conducted separate surveys of Building customers and Planning Department customers. Citygate focused on the dynamics of rapid growth that can cause the workload of a community development department to increase dramatically, thereby challenging the existing departmental resources, management systems, and service levels.