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Morgan Hill, California
1
Zucker Systems
I.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A.
B
ACKGROUND
This study was initiated by the Morgan Hill City Manager with a contract dated June
24, 2015 and purchase order dated August 13, 2015 for an Operational Review of the
Development Services Department.
B.
K
EY
P
RIORITY
A
REAS
This report includes 160 recommendations for improving Morgan Hill services. While
all the recommendations are important, we believe there are six key areas or
groupings that need the highest priority. These are shown alphabetically below in no
particular order of priority.
1. F
INANCIAL
I
SSUES
Findings
Morgan Hill, like many California cities has to keep a keen eye on budget and finance
issues. During the recession the Community Development activities had to reduce
staffing. Now that the economy is improving, some of the functions have not rebuilt
staffing and performance has suffered. The city does have an excellent approach to
funding development activities out of a special revenue Community Development
Fund (Fund 206) and General Plan Update Fund (Fund 207). There is also a goal to
have a 30% reserve account but the current fund balance does not meet this standard.
Additionally, we believe a target of 30% may be too low. The City’s approach to fees
is full cost which is excellent and a new fee study is currently underway.
Recommendations
To correct financial issues, we suggest:
The 206 Community Development Fund includes some “common goods”
activities that should be included in the General Fund, Recommendation 7; and
The fee study underway should include funds as needed to implement this
report, meet performance standards and increase the size of the reserve
account, Recommendations 8, and 9.