A consulting firm that has been working with the city for a year — and that helped snag a new city manager — is focused on reorganizing the Departments of Community Development and Codes and Inspection, which were reconfigured several years ago during staff cutbacks in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Representatives of Strategic Solutions of Pittsburgh spoke Monday at a City Council meeting, outlining progress they’ve made on various issues.

Council members hope that the efforts of Strategic Solutions will improve the relationship between council and the manager — and thus staff overall — based on better communications, so that things that council wants done get done in “an organized manner,” with increased employee accountability, as determined by regular performance reviews, said Councilman Ron Beatty.

Hired around the beginning of the year, Manager Christopher McGuire has “hit the ground running” and has exceeded expectations, according to Laurence Christian, government administration specialist with Strategic Solutions.

The prior reconfiguration of Community Development and Codes during COVID led to the loss of planning positions in Community Development and the shifting of some planning and zoning functions to the Department of Codes and Inspections.

Under the proposed reorganization, such functions will be restored to Community Development.

Strategic Solutions’ effort has included consultations with staff, reestablishment or initial establishment of employee positions, writing of job descriptions, workflow analyses, recruitment of workers, appointments to fill open positions and training plans.

There is ongoing analysis of planning and zoning functions, with reference to state legal requirements, creation of checklists for notice deadlines, development of application forms for zoning hearings and land development plan reviews, templates for notice letters to applicants — and acquisition of new municipal software to replace a problematic suite of programs, according to Alyssa Kelly, senior community planner for Strategic Solutions.

The plan is to create more efficient processes, Kelly said.

The financial component of the problematic software suite works well, according to Drew Dowdell, of Really Simple Limited in Pittsburgh, a sub-consultant for Strategic Solutions.

Issues for other departments include excessive tedious labor to manually enter data that could be automated; the need to transport data out of the program to nonprogram documents, followed by data reentry into the program; functions in forms that don’t match state requirements and incompatibility with the magisterial district judge courts.

Employees “need to invent workarounds to make the software work,” Dowdell said.

In working with the current suite of programs, staff sometimes is “hitting a wall,” or needs to be “digging out,” Dowdell said.

Among issues that need cleaned up are lost resident “histories,” along with history duplications, according to Dowdell.

There are 90,000 entries representing capsules of information on individual residents, but only 43,000 people living in the city, he said.

He expects to use a “decision matrix” to provide two or three program recommendations, he said.

Decision matrices aid in the systematic evaluation of options, based on a comparison of the characteristics for each of the options with a set of relevant criteria, according to online sources.

“We’ll look at the best in class,” he said.

It’s unlikely that one software suite will cover all the city’s needs, Dowdell said.

The city plans to hire a new director for the coming re-fortified version of the Department of Community Development.

That person will be starting June 15, according to city Human Resources Director Christina Notarfrancesco.

Current Director Diana White will become director of Community Development Block Grants and housing programs, within the overall department.

Former GIS and land use coordinator Sabrina Appel-McMillen, who worked in Codes and Inspections, has already become the planning and development manager in Community Development.

Current Codes and Inspection Director Rebecca Brown will remain in that position.

The city has identified an internal candidate for the post of code supervisor in Codes and Inspections, Notarfrancesco said.

The city has not yet started searching for a building and administrative manager, she said.

The city is also seeking an executive director for the Redevelopment Authority.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-381-3152.