Citygate is currently performing an organizational review of Monterey County’s current Cannabis Program, including funding, organization, permitting, staffing, and workload. This review will include recommendations for an efficient organizational structure, including formal and informal organizational alignment, management, and supervision of the Cannabis Program; job classifications, specifications, and compensation for employees in the Cannabis Program Office; efficient and effective staffing levels for the Cannabis Program; expectations related to positions being 100 percent funded by cannabis tax revenue; efficient and effective business processes and task assignments for cannabis licensing/permitting to alleviate the existing backlog, and to the extent possible, prevent new persistent backlogs; and best practice performance standards for cannabis licensing/permitting.

Citygate is currently performing an organizational review and analysis of Monterey County’s current homeless programs, funding, and coordination services. For this review, Citygate will identify, evaluate, and recommend funding sources and budget structure for the Homeless Services function; identify and recommend organizational best practices, including comparisons with like cities and counties; evaluate and recommend best practices for collaboration and coordination with various County departments, the Continuum of Care, local cities, school districts, businesses, and homeless service providers; and evaluate and recommend formal and informal organizational alignment, structure, and staffing for the Homeless Services function.

Citygate performed a deployment analysis, with fiscal/governance options analysis, for the County of Solano Local Agency Formation Commission, which includes the Cordelia Fire Protection District, the Vacaville Fire Protection District, the Suisun Fire Protection District, and the Montezuma Fire Protection District. The deployment analysis utilized the Standards of Coverage systems approach to fire department deployment as published by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. The fiscal governance options analysis utilized the deployment analysis to review the cost and governance complexity of providing the services as independent agencies, which were then compared to a best-fit form of merger, contract, Joint Powers Authority, or district reorganization.

Citygate is currently assisting the Southern Marin Fire Protection District and the Mill Valley Fire Department with their fire services merger work. This includes ad hoc coaching and meeting facilitation at the District Fire Chief’s direction, as well as additional work as needed.

Citygate is currently performing an operational review and providing mentoring for the Western Riverside Council of Governments’ Finance Department. The operational review will include an examination of the Department’s organizational structure; a review of the financial policies, procedures, and practices; and a review of the Department’s operational functions, workflow processes, and documents to identify overall strengths and weaknesses and provide recommendations for streamlining procedures and processes. The mentoring will entail assisting the Finance Director in the development of long-range financial planning and forecasting models based on industry best practices and providing professional guidance and mentoring to key management staff as needed.

As a follow-up to Citygate’s assistance in preparing a comprehensive and neutral external After Action Review (AAR) of the Woolsey Fire Incident on behalf of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, Citygate was retained to assist with the development, implementation, and monitoring of an After Action Plan (AAP). The AAP addressed each recommendation from the AAR, determined the sub-deliverables and individual tasks necessary to implement each recommendation, identified the County departments responsible for each deliverable and task, and estimated macro costs and a feasible timeline for implementation as needed by recommendation.

Citygate assisted the City Council in the City of Coachella, California, in a workshop discussion to consider the methods of studying policing services. This entailed a presentation outlining how to develop a police master plan, along with a comparative analysis of separating from the Sheriff’s Department versus starting a City police department or some combination thereof. In the presentation, we assisted the Council in understanding and discussing the study options, costs, and time frames.

As a follow-on engagement from our study for the Solano County Local Agency Formation Commission, Citygate is currently providing assistance as necessary to the Cordelia/Suisun/Vacaville fire task force with their fire services merger work. Much of this will entail coaching and meeting facilitation, as directed by the County.

Citygate conducted a review of the Resource Management Agency (RMA) of Monterey County, California. The objective of the study was to review current conditions, analyze opportunities for organizational changes and process improvements that can further enhance customer service, evaluate future service demands, and develop a Strategic Action Plan with a prioritized implementation schedule. Included in this objective was an emphasis on assessing the adequacy and currency of underlying land use and related policies, the allocation and assignment of long-range planners versus current planners, and how the current situation and practices may compound difficulties in the backlog of application and permit processing, consistency, reliability, timeliness, and overall customer and stakeholder service delivery and satisfaction. Also included was an analysis of the functions included under the structure of the RMA to determine if there are too many or too few functions. Ultimately, this review resulted in Citygate’s recommendation to reorganize the RMA into separate Community Development and Public Works departments, in which Citygate provided strategies and detailed recommendations regarding organizational alignment, staffing, classifications, and business processes. Monterey County completed the reorganization within six months of Citygate’s Final Report delivery. Subsequent to the completion of the review, at the County’s request, Citygate reviewed and evaluated the RMA’s efforts implementing the recommendations from the final report. Additionally, Citygate assisted in onboarding new leadership and management staff.

Citygate performed an assessment of the capabilities of the City of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department to perform all-risk maritime response to the Port of San Diego. This assessment included a review of the capabilities of partnering agencies within and adjacent to the Port and a gap and risk/benefit analysis, among other operational and training assessments.