City of Santa Rosa Community Development Department to close for two days for intensive process improvement staff workshops

To accommodate intensive staff workshops as part of the City of Santa Rosa Community Development Department’s Process Improvement Action Plan, the permit intake and information counter at City Hall will be closed from Wednesday, September 9 through Friday, September 11. Additionally, City offices will be closed on Monday, September 7th for Labor Day, prompting the department to offer extended counter hours on Tuesday, September 8, and Monday, September 14, from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

“Recognizing the need to improve Community Development related operations and processes for the public as well as staff, I wanted to bring in a consulting firm that specializes in best practice procedures for the public sector,” said City Manager Sean McGlynn. Hence Mr. McGlynn contracted with Management Partners to conduct a study, which resulted in a report released in July outlining their findings and recommendations. The three-day Process Improvement Workshops are the follow up to that report.

Utilizing the GE Work Out technique, the workshops will be held off site, away from the interruptions of normal work activity. The spirit of the Work Out is to engage staff to develop ideas and actions that accomplish improvement objectives related to the building permit plan check and entitlement review processes.

“This is a community oriented department, with the bulk of the Management Partners report having the greatest effect on people seeking over the counter reviews,” said David Guhin, Community Development Interim Director. “Our end goal is two-fold: to improve the customer experience at every touch point, which we know saves everyone time and money, and to empower our staff to be the full public resources they are.”