AMENDMENT TO RAFTELIS PROPOSAL as of 05.23.23
Background and Project
Summary Section
In response to a report by the California State Auditor, the City of Richmond is seeking a professional consultant to assist with a workforce analysis of City departments to determine appropriate staffing levels to maintain current and future service levels, assess the ongoing need for existing vacant positions, and ensure succession planning is maintained.
Our team has extensive experience working with local government clients, including many in California and the Bay Area. Our focus is on providing solutions that work within the available resources and culture of the organizations we assist. The most innovative solutions in the world are valueless if they cannot be implemented. We pride ourselves on our ability to listen, analyze, and work with our clients to find not just a random selection of best practices taken from a manual, but real solutions that can be implemented effectively. We are pleased that our prior engagements have resulted in corresponding actions by our clients to implement the recommendations that we have jointly developed.
One of our strengths is the ability to build on existing capabilities and resources and to help organizations see things from a different perspective. We do this by listening to our clients and really understanding what they have to say. We do not operate with a pre-packaged set of recommendations, and we diligently work to avoid trying to fit our clients into a standard mold. We do not offer “cookie cutter” recommendations but those that are realistic for implementation in your unique context.
We are excited about the opportunity to assist the City proactively plan and prepare for the future. We understand the importance of respecting the staff who are in place to serve the public and will work collaboratively develop recommendations for improvement. Without this, implementation of recommendations and lasting improvements are not typically successful. We believe this intentional approach, coupled with our extensive expertise in all facets of public operations, makes us uniquely qualified to assist the City on this project within the timeframe requested.
Project Plan
The project plan provided below was developed to meet the City’s specific goals for this work.
Throughout the project, Raftelis will conduct ongoing project management and administration. The Project Director and Project Manager will plan, coordinate, monitor, and control all project tasks in concert with all other appropriate project team members. By keeping all activities coordinated, the team can adhere to the agreed upon project schedule.
Credibility is crucial for building consensus and support for implementing the recommendations of a study. The fastest way for the City to lose credibility with your stakeholders is to provide information that is incomplete or incorrect. The City must have total confidence that the information provided by the consultant is as accurate as possible.
Raftelis has developed a Quality Assurance (QA) process that consistently results in accurate d eliverables of the highest quality. Each QA process is tailored to the specific project, but there are a number of common elements such as senior -level participation, outside perspective, and involvement from project initiation. The QA process that we will implement as part of this project embodies these elements. We have found that a well-defined process ensures that our work products will be of the highest quality and meet or exceed the standards that our clients expect from Raftelis.
The success or failure of any consulting engagement is defined by the effectiveness of communications between the client and consultant and among the project team members. A cornerstone of Raftelis’ success is our commitment to regular, fully transparent, and highly effective communications with each client, as well as within our project teams. Our team members are former local government employees who understand the nuance required in the public sector, and we are skilled at communicating in a manner that achieves the project goals.
THE FOLLOWING DETAILS THE PROPOSED WORK PLAN.
Activity 1: Begin and Manage Engagement
We will begin this engagement by conducting a kick-off meeting with the City Manager and Deputy City Manager to discuss the details and expectations of this effort and to finalize the project schedule. We will also discuss the City’s interest in this study, the strengths and weaknesses of current City processes, structure, and operations, and other issues that may be relevant to our work. In addition, we will hold virtual meetings with each member of the City Council to understand their goals for this engagement, as well as to gain their perspective about levels of service.
Next, we will meet with the City’s Department Directors as a group to discuss process steps and timeline, and to begin to engage them in the process. We will ask about their perspectives on organizational strengths and opportunities with regard to staffing levels.
Our team will provide the City with a detailed document and data request for relevant background information to inform our work. We will provide a shared online drive into which City staff can easily upload documents. Such documents will include the State Auditor’s Report, City Council adopted goals, City budget, organizational charts, labor agreements, workload volume or annual reports, department work plans, City strategic plans or goals, prior customer surveys (if any), and more.
Throughout the project, we will provide the City with regular project status reports designed to maintain planned project progress and budget, identify and resolve project issues, and review project work products.
DELIVERABLES: Kick-off meeting agenda, draft and final project schedule, and document/data request
Activity 2: Understand Context
In order to understand the City’s current operating context, our team will interview key City staff in each department. We will first meet with each department’s management team to develop a general understanding of operations and, in particular, workload and staffing level concerns. We will discuss potential retirements and future initiatives or workload factors that could impact staffing levels.
Our team will evaluate the organization and its structure to assess its impacts on program operations now and in the future. We will look at both the organizational alignment of the agencies as well as how they integrate with the overall structure of your government. We will assess workflow within and across department divisions to assess workflow efficiency.
Raftelis will prepare a service level matrix which inventories the department’s core services and the current resource level provided by the City, levels of service, current staffing levels (both in-house and contracted), as well as identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges for each service.
DELIVERABLES: Service level matrix
Activity 3: Analyze Staffing
Starting with the service level matrix prepared earlier, we will review each department’s programs against its core services and operational requirements. We will assess and project the workload for each program now and into the future, and identify any gaps between desired service levels and current staffing levels. We will analyze staffing ratios, assignments, and workflows. Some of the items to be considered include:
• The use of external contracts/consultants as staff augmentation • The number of vacancies and need for the positions to be filled • Overtime usage
• Succession planning needs
• The ratio of management to non-management staff
• The ratio of administrative support to other staff
• The potential use of technology to automate manual work • Work assignments and division of work across existing staff capacity • Ability to meet performance standards and levels of customer satisfaction
These factors, among others, will be considered to determine the most efficient and effective staffing levels for each work unit in order to meet the City’s desired levels of service.
Activity 4: Prepare Preliminary Observations and
Recommendations
At this point in the project, our project team will have conducted interviews, service level matrix review, staffing level assessment, and data and document review in order to draft preliminary observations and recommendations for the City, including recommended staffing levels for each department.
We will review our preliminary observations and recommendations with department leadership and City management. Based upon feedback received, additional follow-up on issues or analysis will be conducted as needed in order to finalize our recommendations.
DELIVERABLES: Preliminary observations and recommendations Activity 5: Prepare Project Report
Once recommendations are finalized, our team will prepare a comprehensive draft report for the City. The report will include an executive summary, our methodology and approach, and a thorough description of all recommendations for each City department. The draft report will be provided to the City for review and discussion.
Based upon feedback received, we will perform any necessary follow-up work and finalize the report.
DELIVERABLES: Draft and final report