Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

Morgan Hill, California

Zucker Systems

case. Building the reserve should be part of the fee study and we suggest that a target

be to build the reserve to 12 months over a 10-year time frame. This means that the

fee study should include $373,870 per year to be designated for the reserve fund.

Recommendation:

The City should pursue developing a reserve of 100% of

the normal operating budget for the Community Development Fund over

the next ten years.

FFICE

PACE

The City’s original plan called for the development services related departments to be

collocated within the building currently designated as the Development Services

Building. Through a number of decisions made in response to the severe economic

downturn the City experienced starting in 2008, the Development Services Building

became the location for virtually all City Hall offices. This allowed the City to save

money by “mothballing” the main City Hall building. Since the City has been

experiencing a general economic recovery and an explosive increase in residential

construction, the space in the Development Services Building has become very

crowded. Development Services personnel have frequently been forced to use the

floor space in an exit aisle way as a workspace to prepare plans for permit issuance. In

addition, the benefits to be gained by closing the original City Hall building have been

minimized due to renovations and the relocation of housing staff from an off-site

location into that building. We believe the City Manager should consider relocating

those staff members that are unrelated to the development services mission back to

the original City Hall Building.

10.

Recommendation:

The City Manager should consider moving staff

unrelated to the development services mission back to the original City

Hall Building.

If the City Manager determines that this is not the appropriate time to relocate staff

back to the City Hall Building, then steps should be taken to improve the physical

environment in the Development Services Building. Our walking tour through the

office space in the Development Services Building provided abundant evidence of a

lack of organization in those spaces presumably intended to be used by multiple staff.

Nearly every horizontal surface was cluttered with plans, documents or files with no

evidence of organization. We also observed that the overfilled file cabinets are now

beginning to be replaced by file boxes in exit aisle ways. This arrangement not only

makes it difficult for employees to work, but also contributes to the frustration staff

experiences when attempting to retrieve files. The City needs to aggressively

implement a formal records management system that includes digitizing and indexing

all pertinent documents. Currently the Building Division is engaged in a program of