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CPS & The CIty of Redondo Beach
When Records, IT, and the Building Department Finally Agree on
What “Address” Means
How Redondo Beach aligned governance, systems, and real-world workflows to bring structure, consistency, and usable processes to its information
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Executive Summary
The City of Redondo Beach is working through a familiar challenge in local government: modernizing records, workflows, and public access in an environment shaped by decades of uneven practices. Rather than attempting a sweeping overhaul, the City—through a partnership between City Clerk Eleanor Manzano and Director of IT Mike Cook—focused on standardizing data, aligning naming conventions, and incrementally introducing process automation using Laserfiche.
This effort revealed that the core issue was not paper, but inconsistency. Records were named, structured, and accessed differently across departments, making reliable retrieval difficult. By focusing first on structure—using GIS as a source of truth—and then scaling, the City is building a system that is not only functional, but usable and trustworthy.
The result is a shift from document storage to information flow: processes are becoming structured, records more consistent, and access more reliable for both staff and the public.
Redondo Beach’s initiative reflects a broader reality in local government. Digital transformation does not occur in a uniform environment, but across departments with varying levels of maturity, tools, and historical practices.
In Redondo Beach, this effort is being shaped by a partnership between City Clerk Eleanor Manzano and Director of IT Mike Cook. Manzano brings governance, compliance, and a public access lens. Cook brings structure, scalability, and execution. Together, they are aligning how information is structured, managed, and accessed across the City.
The partnership between Records and IT is not incidental. It is foundational. In local government, enterprise records systems only succeed when governance and execution are aligned. Records defines what must be compliant and accessible. IT ensures that it is scalable and functional. When these perspectives come together, the result is a system that works across the organization—not just in theory, but in practice.
Background
The Reality: Not One System, but Many
The City is managing a layered environment of paper records, shared drives, and legacy systems. Banker’s boxes remain in active use. Shared drives contain large volumes of documents without consistent structure. Legacy systems store records using indexing methods that no longer align with how staff or the public search for information.
In some cases, documents are scanned into a system and then printed again for physical filing.
“They scan it… and then they print it and put it in a physical file anyway.”
This is not a failure of technology. It is the result of incremental change without a unifying structure.
As the City began to consolidate records, it became clear that the core issue was inconsistency. Street names appeared in multiple formats. Directional indicators were used differently across departments. Some records were indexed by address, others by track number. Even locations such as the harbor and pier did not conform to standard addressing models.
“It sounds small, but it makes a huge difference.”
At scale, these inconsistencies prevent reliable retrieval. If data is not structured consistently, systems cannot deliver consistent results.
The Problem: Inconsistency at Scale
The Approach: Standardize Before You Scale
Rather than digitizing everything immediately, the City focused on establishing structure. GIS data was used as a source of truth for street names and locations. From there, naming conventions were standardized, variations corrected, and consistency enforced moving forward.
Working with CPS, the City translated these goals into implementation decisions. This included aligning naming conventions across departments, using GIS data as a standard reference, and establishing consistent structures within Laserfiche before expanding usage. CPS also helped guide how and when to introduce workflow automation, ensuring that processes were built around real operational needs rather than theoretical models.
This approach ensured that digitization would not amplify existing inconsistencies. Instead, it created a stable foundation for future growth.
The first visible transformation occurred in payroll processing. Previously, forms were printed from SharePoint or maintained as blank paper copies within departments. Employees completed them manually, routed them physically, and obtained wet signatures.
With Laserfiche Forms, submissions are now digital, routing is automated, and approvals occur electronically. The process is no longer dependent on physical movement or manual tracking, and staff can see where work stands in real time.
From Paper to Process
What the Workflow Actually Does
The workflow is rule-based and conditional, designed to reflect how the City actually operates rather than forcing a generic process model. At the moment of submission, the system determines the routing path based on key attributes such as department and form type. This initial decision shapes everything that follows.
For example, police-related submissions introduce an additional coordination layer, triggering notifications and approvals specific to that function, while non-police forms move directly into Finance review. Each stage—approval, rejection, or cancellation—is explicitly defined, ensuring that no step is ambiguous or skipped.
At every point in the process, actions are tracked and visible. This eliminates the uncertainty that often exists in manual systems, where forms can be delayed, misplaced, or stalled without clear ownership.
“The right people touch the form in the right order—every time.”
Once complete, outputs are automatically distributed and archived, ensuring that the process is not only efficient, but auditable. The result is a workflow that enforces consistency without adding complexity.
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Download the Whitepaper to see the workflow
Permits: The Hard Problem
Making building permits accessible revealed deeper complexity. Historical records were often indexed by track number rather than address and supported by handwritten index cards or legacy systems.
“You’re not just scanning—you’re trying to figure out how they thought about it.”
This work requires reconstruction, not just digitization.
The City adopted a pragmatic approach, working department by department and focusing on real workflows rather than abstract plans. Adoption was driven by visible benefits, including the reduction of physical storage.
“We have 165 banker’s boxes sitting on the floor.”
CPS’s role in this phase was to keep the work grounded—focusing on practical sequencing, helping departments move incrementally, and ensuring that structure and governance were not bypassed in the push to digitize.
Execution Strategy: Practical, Not Theoretical
Results: Early, Visible Progress
Records are becoming more consistent, workflows more structured, and departments more aligned. The City is shifting from managing documents to managing how information moves across the organization.
Redondo Beach’s approach highlights a set of patterns that extend beyond a single implementation. These are not theoretical recommendations—they are practical decisions made in response to real constraints, inconsistent data, and uneven department maturity. For agencies facing similar challenges, these practices offer a grounded starting point for building systems that are not only compliant, but usable.
Standardize data before digitizing. Without consistent naming and structure, digitization amplifies existing problems. Establishing a reliable source of truth ensures that systems behave predictably and that information can be found when needed.
Align Records and IT from the start. Enterprise records systems require both governance and execution. When Records and IT operate in partnership, systems are not only compliant but also usable and scalable across departments.
Design for the public, not just internal users. Records systems must support how residents search for and access information. Public usability is a critical measure of success.
Use workflow to drive adoption. Process improvements are tangible and immediate. Starting with high-friction workflows demonstrates value and encourages broader engagement.
Account for uneven department maturity. Not all departments operate at the same level of digital readiness. Successful implementations accommodate this variability and support gradual transition.
Build internal capability. Developing in-house expertise ensures long-term sustainability and reduces reliance on external resources.
Treat transformation as an ongoing program. This work does not end with implementation. It requires continuous alignment, refinement, and reinforcement over time.
Best Practices from This Project
Conclusion
Redondo Beach’s progress underscores a broader truth about digital transformation in local government: technology alone does not create a functional system. Structure, governance, and execution must move together.
What makes this effort work is not just the platform, but the alignment behind it. The partnership between the City Clerk’s office and IT ensures that records are not only compliant, but usable. Processes are not only automated, but understood. Data is not only stored, but structured in a way that supports how people actually search for and use information.
This is where many initiatives stall. Systems are implemented, but inconsistency remains. Workflows are introduced, but underlying structure is never addressed.
By focusing on standardization, practical workflows, and incremental progress—and with guidance from CPS in structuring and sequencing the work—Redondo Beach is building something more durable than a deployment. It is establishing a foundation for how information is managed, accessed, and trusted across the organization.
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