Jurupa Valley Municipal Services

Challenge: Jurupa Valley was an unincorporated area in Riverside County, California, until voters approved a ballot measure to incorporate the area and become a city. Jurupa Valley was formed with an estimated population of 96,000 residents within a 45-square-mile area and needed City management services to support its growing community.

Solution: Jurupa Valley City Council members approved a two-part contract with HR Green to help transition county services to city services and operate the city’s departments once the transition was completed. HR Green provides an Assistant City Manager and support staff to fulfill the following municipal functions in Jurupa Valley:

1. Building Safety: Conduct plan reviews and construction inspections. Building plan reviews are checked for compliance with building codes and access requirements, as well as any adopted codes to promote sustainability.
2. Code Enforcement: Provides personnel to manage complaints, investigates potential violations, and enforces the city’s codes.
3. City Engineering: Performs plan review, NPDES, and other permitting functions, traffic engineering, and solid waste contract management.
4. Public Works: Functions as the Public Works Director responsible for street maintenance, development of a Capital Improvement Plan, and overseeing the work of contractors for street construction.
5. Economic Development: Gives leadership to the recruitment of new businesses to Jurupa Valley.

HR Green has been instrumental in processing more than 2,000 residential units and new mixed-use, commercial, and industrial development projects to spur growth.  This has involved hosting development workshops and meeting early on with developers to ensure they understand City expectations and design standards/codes so the development process is streamlined. Through this ASD relationship with HR Green, the City of Jurupa Valley is enjoying the following benefits:

From a public works standpoint, HR Green staff has managed the design and construction of capital improvement projects and worked closely with stakeholders, utilities, other agencies, property owners, and the traveling public to provide helpful communication that mitigates construction impacts. The staff has been able to advance high-priority projects of Jurupa Valley’s capital improvement program from FY 2014/15 to the current fiscal year.

HR Green could also have provided legal, finance, and city clerk services. However, due to the company’s commitment to business accountability, HR Green specifically excluded these city services from its own ASD contract, in order to build a system of checks and balances between finance and the other functions provided by the company.

Benefits: Through this alternative service delivery relationship with HR Green, the City of Jurupa Valley is enjoying the following benefits:

1. Flexibility – The City can more effectively respond to changes in the needs of its constituency. As the need for some services diminishes, the City simply decreases its assignments to HR Green. As the need for other city services rises, the City can easily fill those needs through purchase orders with HR Green.
2. Cost Savings – On the basis of service cost per capita, Jurupa Valley is one of the most efficient cities in Riverside County. Of 25 cities, Jurupa Valley ranks 24th in cost of service per capita.
3. Performance – Turnaround time on plan reviews and inspections has greatly improved in comparison to the county processes that existed prior to incorporation. Currently, HR Green provides a 10-day response for normal plan reviews and fulfills inspection requests within 24 hours.
4. Customer Satisfaction – HR Green implemented a trust deposit payment system for plan reviews and permitting. Applicants pay in advance for these services, which are conservatively estimated. After completion, applicants receive a refund check for the unused balance. This payment plan has been very popular with applicants.

The sole purpose of HR Green’s Governmental Services Business Line is to assist local governments in achieving their goals for efficiency, service delivery, infrastructure management, and sustainable development.