The City
Rancho Cucamonga is a city located 40 miles east of Los Angeles in the region of Southern California in Inland Empire. Rancho Cucamonga is relatively a small city covering just over 39.87 sq. miles (103.3 km2) (Wikipedia, 2014). The city is positioned between three major highways, I-10, I-15 and I-210 and near Ontario airport which makes the city ideal for logistics and distribution businesses. The city is also a major destination for families coming from orange county and retirees for its schools and assisted living homes. The city was incorporated in 1977 (Community & Economic Profile, 2012) from agricultural communities mainly. About 168,181 people live in the city (Community & Economic Profile, 2012). The median household income is $72,713 (Eaton, 2013). The city is comprised of a mixture of races including Whites 39.8%, Hispanic/Latino 36.4%, Asians 11.3%, African American 9.1%, Native American 0.2% and others 3.2% (Eaton, 2013). The age distribution is 0-9 years (14.3%), 10-19 (14.6%), 20-24 (6.4%), 25-34 (15.0%), 35-44 (15.7%), 45-54 (16.9%) and 6.8% of city residents are 65 years or older (Community & Economic Profile, 2012). Rancho is one of the safest cities in the state of California and even in the country with just over 24.3 major crimes per 1,000 people (Community & Economic Profile, 2012). All of these attributes placed the city as 42nd in the best places to live by Money magazine in 2006 (Money, 2006).
Management Structure
The city is managed by elected and appointed officials. The Administrative Services organizational chart is presented in Figure 1. The city is governed by a council-manager form of government (“FAQ: council-manager”, n.d.). Four city council members, mayor, city clerk and city treasurer are elected by the voters of the city (“FAQ: run for office”, n.d.). Those elected officials hire a city manager to run the daily operations of the city and also they choose a city attorney. The city manager once appointed, choses an assistant city manager. The council focuses on long term planning, approving budgets and setting polices and legislations while the city manager carries out the council’s policies, supervises the city’s staff and reports the city’s status to the council (“FAQ: City Manager’s function”, n.d.). The city consists of many departments including the City Manager’s Office, Administrative Services, Animal Services, Building and Safety, City Clerk’s Office, Community Services, Engineering and Public Works, Fire Protection District, Library Services, Planning, Police Department, and Redevelopment Agency. The head of the administrative services serves as the Deputy City Manager. The administrative services department includes many divisions that serve other city departments including finance, GIS/special districts, human resources, information services (IT) and purchasing. The city has a staff of about 486 full time employees (City of Rancho Cucamonga, 2011) plus 400-500 part time employees and volunteers. The annual financial report on June 30, 2012 showed that the city’s various revenues had $235.653 million in income and $209.020 million in expenses with a $26.632 million increase in net asset compared to the previous year (Lance et al., 2012). This financial status, allows the city to carry out new innovative cutting edge technology projects along with various health initiatives and programs.
Figure 1. Administrative services organizational chart