Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

Meeting/Huddle. The Tuesday Division Staff meeting agenda was a working document showing tentative project scheduling for hearings and administrative decision-making and did not contain itemized topics for discussion. In contrast, the Leadership Team Meeting agenda was structured and provided an itemized list of topics and corresponding speakers with allocated time frames for completing discussions. It also identified upcoming events and future agenda topics. We received considerable feedback that more coordination is needed in current planning among case managers. The Tuesday weekly meeting should be expanded to include a time slot for project-level coordination meeting to discuss projects collaboratively, troubleshoot issues and providing training to ensure FT and contract planners process applications and maintain files consistently and have a common understanding of customer service expectations in the Department. In addition, the meeting should inform staff about items of Citywide and Department-wide significance and include exercises to improve morale and promote teambuilding. For example, the majority of the staff interviewed expressed that there was a morale problem and that they were unclear about the current philosophy and mission. 111. Recommendation: The CDD should expand the Tuesday weekly meeting to include agenda items described above to improve project communication, coordination and consistency and the morale. We also received extensive comments regarding communication silos between Public Works and Planning, which points to the need for regular meetings between the two functions, rather than as needed meetings. 112. Recommendation: The Assistant City Manager for CDD should work the Director of Public Works to establish a regularly occurring meeting between development review management staff in Public Works Engineering and CDD staff to discuss, identify and resolve development review process issues.

Also see our recommendations under the Policies & Procedures heading in this section regarding the need to update the Policies & Procedures Manual.

Office Space

We received considerable feedback that the office space needs improvement. Comments received include:

Morgan Hill, California

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