Rafael Guzman, who has 18 years of planning, community development and municipal government experience, most recently as, Director of the Community & Economic Development Department for the City of Riverside, has been named Assistant City Manager. He started on June 11 in his new role. Guzman will oversee several departments that have a direct impact on the quality of life for Riverside residents and business owners, including the Community & Economic Development, Parks, Recreation and Community Services and Public Works. In addition, two internal serving Departments, General Services and Human Resources, will report to Guzman.
While Director of Community & Economic Development, Guzman led a multi-departmental customer service initiative called Streamline Riverside. In collaboration with all development service departments and key stakeholders in the community including the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce, Design Professionals and Developers, Streamline Riverside focused on creating greater transparency, eliminating barriers to development review and facilitating investment. Streamline Riverside has been honored eight times for best practices by local, regional and state-wide entities like California Association of Local Economic Development, California America Planning Association and the Inland Empire Economic Partnership. City representatives throughout the region, state and country have toured the One Stop Shop and studied Streamline Riverside to better understand how it was engineered, implemented and is continuously improved. Core elements of Streamline that draw the most attention include the One Shop, Expedited Plan Check Review, Uniform Plan Check Review, Online Business License processing, and data analytics measuring wait times, customer satisfaction and service times.
Under Guzman’s leadership, the City received awards in the areas of Best Practices, Climate Action, Historic Preservation, Planning, Economic Development, Adaptive Reuse of Buildings, Affordable Veteran’s Housing, Local Food Systems Management, Sustainability and Health & Nutrition.
Guzman previously worked in Bellflower for 10 years, starting as Assistant Director of Community Development and working the final three years as Planning Director. He also served as Bellflower’s Acting Assistant City Manager for five months.
Guzman received his Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Analysis and Design from the University of California, Irvine. He earned his Master of Science in Environmental Policy from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science in Syracuse.