Local Government Specialist
Mr. Palmer served the City of Folsom, California, for 23 years as Assistant Finance Director/Information Technology, Director of Administrative Services, Assistant City Manager, and City Manager, retiring in 2018 after seven years as the City’s chief executive. Mr. Palmer served Folsom during a time of significant growth, contributing to and completing two annexations that increased the City’s size by more than 3,500 acres and 11,000 housing units. Using alternative service delivery, contracting, efficiency measures, and public/private partnerships, Mr. Palmer successfully led Folsom, a full-service city, through the Great Recession, guiding the City Council and the community through a strategic restructuring of City operations that not only retained the City’s high-quality services and infrastructure but also improved balance sheets in the general, internal service, retiree health, solid waste, wastewater, and water funds. During this same period, Mr. Palmer aided several community organizations through their own restructuring, increasing their self-reliance and reducing their requirements for public funding. Mr. Palmer’s work in economic development, in collaboration with the Folsom Chamber of Commerce, led to the location and expansion of several high-technology employers to Folsom, for which he was awarded the Folsom Chamber of Commerce’s Chairman’s Award in 2014. Mr. Palmer was also appointed to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System Advisory Committee by the California Attorney General.
Mr. Palmer is an International City/County Management Association Retired Credentialed Manager, having earned and held this designation since 2011. Mr. Palmer earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from Golden Gate University, a bachelor of arts degree in Organizational Leadership from Chapman University, and a certificate of achievement in municipal leadership from the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning, and Development. Before his service to the citizens of Folsom, Mr. Palmer served as an information technology professional in both the public and private sector, and he worked on a number of large-scale IT implementations in the banking, corporate, general government, and public safety sectors.
“I really want to express my appreciation for this work that’s been done in a collaborative way in which the study was put together. . . . I’ve seen a number of studies start in the fire department and this is the first one I can remember that has actually been fully completed and brought to the council, and it was done in a very thorough fashion. This is the best assemblage of comprehensive information about the fire department today, as well as what our needs might be in the future, that I have seen. So thanks to everyone. Thank you, Stewart, for giving us our money’s worth on our consultant contract with you.”
City Manager City of San Luis Obispo
“I am really, really impressed. I am impressed at the exhaustiveness of your study, impressed at the honesty and candor with which you expressed your findings; I am very impressed at the constructive tone of it, and that you came in under budget as well. So, thank you very much. I think that this document is going to be a cornerstone for us really moving forward for the next five, ten, twenty [years], half a century.”
Salt Lake City Council Meeting
“I wanted to offer my compliments to Citygate, to Mr. Gary for this very comprehensive report.”
San Luis Obispo Council Member
“I really, really enjoyed reading your Word product. I appreciate the fact that it was direct, it was constructive, and . . . it wasn’t finger-pointing, it was just . . . the facts. And I think that the money was well spent.”
Salt Lake City Council Meeting
“Thank you very much for a comprehensive report. Thank you.”
Palm Springs
“I was absolutely thrilled with the report because it was very comprehensive, very detailed. I call it the ‘time-in-motion study’ almost and some of the aspects [are] ‘how does your paper flow? How can you make your processes better? . . . As a government agency, how can we provide better service to the constituents?’ And to us we think that this study identifies those things down to all of the small paper processes and flows.”
Retired City Manager City of Vista, CA
“Thank you so much for this training. This was the best PIO training I’ve ever received.”
S-403 Information Officer class participant
“Thank you so much for all you have done. And it’s so comprehensive, I know it’s going to take a while for us to digest it all, but I think you’ve come up with some really good recommendations.”
Pro Tempore City of Vista, CA
“I think Citygate has done a great job. It seems like you’ve been most thorough and even-handed in your evaluations and you’ve given us certainly a lot of suggestions and guidelines to work with.”
City of Vista, CA
“I think this is one of the most comprehensive reports and I think probably one of the best presented reports I’ve seen in my years in government service. I want to start off by commending you for that and acknowledge that the work that you were able to do with cooperation from all of the different firefighting agencies in this region was second-to-none.”
Supervisor First District San Diego County