Client Success Stories

City of Inglewood, CA

For the past eight years, Brad Wilkes has consulted annually with the city as it evolves from a suburban area to a world-class sports and entertainment hub.

GCP is partnering on a comprehensive city-wide fee study covering recreation, police, public works, building safety, planning, code enforcement, housing, parking, and more. With the team of experts at GCP.

City of Santa Ana, CA

Brad Wilkes has collaborated closely with the City's public works and development divisions for over seven years. Recently selected to expand services, GCP now oversees Indirect Cost Rate Proposal development for public works (submitted annually to Caltrans), full cost user fee calculations, and agency-wide cost allocation to distribute administrative costs across enterprise and general funds.

City of Santa Ana, CA: Public Works User Fee Study

GCP’s analysis of this large and complex department, included both General Fund and enterprise-funded user fees. GCP grouped subject matter experts into twelve separate interview teams to ensure that all fees were expertly evaluated and that adjustments reflected all processes and tasks.

The study recommended the institution of a new technology surcharge to fund the implementation and maintenance of an Accela permit tracking system upgrade and related technologies (Bluebeam, etc.).

Deposit-based services were evaluated to determine whether hourly-rate based charges were the most appropriate charging mechanism. GCP worked with Public Works management to create the evaluation criteria. Overall, eighteen different fee categories were converted to either a flat or tiered fee structure.

Due to the size and complexity of the department, this study required a highly experienced, detail-oriented user fee consultant with strong leadership and coordination skills. With twelve distinct groups and over twenty subject matter experts involved, the study presented numerous challenges that only a team like GCP is equipped to handle.

City of Brentwood, CA: Development User Fee Study

GCP performed a thorough analysis of fees charged by the Planning, Building and Development Services (counter) departments. The project included restructuring the City’s development fees to emphasize transparency, predictability and user-friendliness.

The study resulted in a modernized building permit valuation table and included an audit of project prototypes at each tier of the valuation schedule to ensure that average, reasonable inspection costs are recovered.

All proposed new fees and fee adjustments were adopted by Council in November 2024, resulting in a projected $406,864 revenue increase.

Six-month checkup: This project included a six-month review of actual revenues generated since the study was implemented. The analysis tracked monthly statistics (# of permits, commercial valuations, residential valuations, fee revenue) for the first six-months vs the same period from 2024 (2025 vs 2024). The analysis found that while many statistics held steady, residential valuations nearly quadrupled. Actual revenue increased by 86%, compared with the 16% increase projected in the study. The overall analysis found the revenue increase to be in keeping with the study’s projections, factoring in the increase in residential construction activity.

City of Laguna Hills, CA: Development User Fee Study

GCP performed a thorough analysis of fees charged by the Planning, Building and Development Services (counter) departments. The project included restructuring the City’s development fees to emphasize transparency, predictability and user-friendliness.

The study resulted in a modernized building permit valuation table and included an audit of project prototypes at each tier of the valuation schedule to ensure that average, reasonable inspection costs are recovered.

All proposed new fees and fee adjustments were adopted by Council in November 2024, resulting in a projected $406,864 revenue increase.

Six-month checkup: This project included a six-month review of actual revenues generated since the study was implemented. The analysis tracked monthly statistics (# of permits, commercial valuations, residential valuations, fee revenue) for the first six-months vs the same period from 2024 (2025 vs 2024). The analysis found that while many statistics held steady, residential valuations nearly quadrupled. Actual revenue increased by 86%, compared with the 16% increase projected in the study. The overall analysis found the revenue increase to be in keeping with the study’s projections, factoring in the increase in residential construction activity.

City of Folsom, CA: Police Services User Fee Study

GCP analyzed Folsom’s Police user-fee schedule which had not been studied for twenty years. The study provided findings regarding current service levels and the full cost and demand for each service. The study analyzed fees within the following areas:

Once all fee-categories and fee structure decisions were finalized, GCP and the City’s subject matter experts began “process-mapping” each service and assigning time values to each subtask. New potential fees were also analyzed and the maximum the City can charge for each fee-related service. The scope called for identifying fees that are restricted by the State’s Evidence, Vehicle and Penal Codes.

Santa Barbara County: Planning and Development User Fee Study

Cindy Sconce and Jeff Wakefield worked with the County on their 2017 fee study and are currently in the process of wrapping up their 2025 fee study. Changes within the department as well as the implementation of new regulations have presented the need for some major structural changes to their fee schedule. GCP provided the County with a streamlined Building and Safety fee schedule to reduce confusion at the counter as well as updated their Planning and Petroleum fees to better align with the services being provided. The goal of the study was to provide transparency to their fees, better align the fee schedules to the services and provide guidance on fee recommendations to propose appropriate fee levels for the individual services being offered.

Santa Barbara County: Indirect Cost Rate Proposal and User Fee Study Review and Approval

Cindy Sconce has a long history with the County of Santa Barbara having performed numerous fee studies for them over the years including studies for Animal Services, Environmental Health Services, Planning and Development, and Fire.

In addition to the fee study work, she is contracted to work as an extension of the County’s Auditor-Controller’s Office and is tasked with reviewing and approving all internally developed indirect cost rates (ICR) and user fees for the departments. This work requires a keen eye for details and a firm understanding of indirect, direct and unallowable costs that meet the 2 CFR requirements for ICRs as well as a firm understanding of the laws and methodologies utilized for the user fee calculations in order to verify that calculations are correct, supported and adhere to the Prop. 218 and Prop. 26 laws.

City of Turlock, CA: Citywide Cost Allocation Plans and Engineering Indirect Cost Rate

Cindy Sconce has worked with the City of Turlock on developing their citywide annual 2 CFR, part 200 cost allocation plan and their Engineering department’s indirect cost rate for the California Department of Transportation (DOT) since 2011. She has received approval for DOT every year.

Sonoma County: CA SB 90

Cindy Sconce has worked with the County as their SB 90 claiming consultant for almost 10 years. She has worked with the County to ensure that all of their claims filed are supported by strong back up documentation and are in compliance with the State Controller’s claiming instructions.

City and County of San Francisco, CA

While at MGT of America, Jeff was hired to investigate excess fund balances within the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) enterprise fund. The study resulted in new valuation-tiers, expanding the table to a $200M threshold, and included an audit of full costs for processing and inspecting projects at each level, along with support costs from related agencies. It also featured a 10-year forecast of revenue and costs, plus qualitative and quantitative surveys on plan check turnaround times and inspection metrics.

City and County of San Francisco, CA

While at MGT of America, Jeff was hired to investigate excess fund balances within the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) enterprise fund. The study resulted in new valuation-tiers, expanding the table to a $200M threshold, and included an audit of full costs for processing and inspecting projects at each level, along with support costs from related agencies. It also featured a 10-year forecast of revenue and costs, plus qualitative and quantitative surveys on plan check turnaround times and inspection metrics.

City of San Diego, CA

Jeff led the analysis of the City’s planning, building, and engineering fees within the Development Services Department, involving significant restructuring to streamline the fee schedule and strengthen the nexus between fees and services. This consolidated the Building Division’s square-footage fees from 65 to 23 occupancy categories, restructured engineering plan check fees based on sheets reviewed, and updated the General Plan Maintenance Fee surcharge to include community plans and amortized relocation costs.

City of Laguna Hills, CA

Jeff analyzed the full cost of all development-related user fees and recommended adjustments for a modern, user-friendly, and predictable master fee schedule. This included converting square-footage building permits to a valuation-based table and streamlining electrical, mechanical, and plumbing sub-trade permit categories. Data from the City’s EtrakIT permitting system was used to corroborate staff time estimates.

City of Oakland, CA

Cindy was the Project Manager and lead consultant for the City of Oakland’s development fee study while at MGT of America. She conducted external outreach sessions with the development community, analyzed planning, technology, and general plan maintenance fees, oversaw building fee analysis, and consulted on policy issues. The study covered funds totaling approximately $56 million.

City of Santa Rosa, CA

As Project Manager and lead consultant for the City of Santa Rosa’s development fee study while at MGT of America, Cindy significantly restructured the City’s building fees, reducing them from several hundred to 138. She also analyzed planning fees, technology surcharges, and advance planning surcharge fees, conducting several external stakeholder outreach sessions to gather feedback and mitigate potential pushback. The city adopted the fee schedule in March 2024 with no objections.

City of Oakland, CA

While at MGT of America, Ruben served as the lead consultant for the City of Oakland’s comprehensive development fee study. He conducted an in-depth analysis of over 800 fees within the City’s building department, evaluating cost recovery and aligning them with service delivery. As part of the study, he performed a peer comparison to support informed fee recommendations. The project, involving approximately $56 million in funding, was successfully adopted and implemented in late summer 2024.

City of Vallejo, CA

During his time at MGT, Ruben served as a trusted advisor to the City of Vallejo, completing five user fee studies over ten years. These included a citywide study in 2016–2017, a Police Department comparison survey in 2017–2018, a Public Works user fee study in 2020, a Code Enforcement study in 2023–2024, and a Fire Department user fee study in 2024–2025. The City’s ongoing confidence highlights the consistent quality and value of his work.

County of Monterey, CA

In 2016, the County of Monterey engaged Ruben to conduct a user fee study for its Environmental Health Bureau, which was facing a financial shortfall with expenses outpacing revenues. He delivered a tailored study that enabled the County to realign revenues with actual costs. In 2022, the County reaffirmed their confidence by turning to Ruben again for an updated fee study, supporting full cost recovery.