Local Government Specialist and Analyst
Ms. DeWolfe is a local government leader with more than 30 years of experience crafting creative solutions to achieve community vision. She is known for driving innovative outcomes and seeking balance among diverse stakeholders. Her career spans both community development and city management, having extensive experience in both fields. She recently retired as City Manager with the City of South Pasadena, California, and previously held the positions of Deputy City Manager and Community Development Director for the City of West Hollywood. She also held a variety of titles during more than 20 years with the City of Pasadena, including Acting Assistant City Manager, Deputy Planning Director, and Assistant to the City Manager. In each position, Ms. DeWolfe focused on organizational effectiveness, communication, and community engagement as her primary tools to achieve the goals of the City Council and community. She successfully led a variety of complex public projects over the years, ranging from an award-winning Citywide organizational effectiveness program to a comprehensive general plan update, to creative economic development initiatives, to communication strategies for ballot initiatives. She also served as a commissioner on the Pasadena Planning Commission for five years, gaining valuable perspective from the role of a volunteer advisory body.
Ms. DeWolfe earned a master’s degree in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California, a bachelor’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Michigan State University, and a professional certificate in Public Relations from the University of California, Los Angeles.
“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