HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 02281989 - 2.2 2. 2
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
Adopted this Order on _February 28, 1989, by the following vote:
AYES: Supervisors Powers, Fanden, McPeak, Torlakson
NOES: None
ABSENT: Supervisor Schroder
ABSTAIN: None
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SUBJECT: Process for Appointment of a County Clerk-Recorder
In response to the request of the Board on February 7 , 1989,
the County Administrator presented a report on alternatives
available to the Board for the appointment of a new Clerk-Recorder.
A copy of the report is attached and included as a part of this
document.
Paul Katz, Contra Cost Employees Association, Local I, P. O.
bOX 222, Martinez, expressed support for appointing the County
Administrator to serve as the interim County Clerk pending the
election in 1990.
Mary Lou Lucas, former Mayor and City Clerk of the City of
Walnut Creek, 2651 Ross Place, Walnut Creek 94596, expressed
support for the Board to appoint an interim County Clerk-Recorder
to complete the term of the late James R. Olsson.
Supervisor Powers commented on the recruitment procedure used
in appointing the present District Attorney and expressed a desire
to utilize this same process in filling the position of County
Clerk-Recorder. He recommended utilizing the services of the
County' s Personnel DepartmEnt with the recruitment -of candidates
being limited to residents of Contra Costa County.
Supervisor McPeak concurred with Supervisor Powers
recommendation. She recommended the review of the applications by
a screening panel to evaluate and rank the top eight applications
who would be invited to be interviewed by the Board in public. She
also recommended that all applications be given to Board Members
with a Board Member having the option of adding a candidate to the
ranked list for interviewing.
Board members being in agreement, IT IS BY THE BOARD ORDERED
that the recommendations of Supervisors Powers and McPeak are
APPROVED.
I
Supervisor McPeak requested the County Administrator to
provide the Board with a timetable for the recruitment of the
County Clerk-Recorder.
Later in the day, the County Administrator provided the Board
with a copy of the recruitment schedule which is also an attachment
to this document.
I hereby certify tha9 this in a true ani?rrrr..rrlCopy of
an action taken and entered on the minutes of the
Board of Supervisors on the data shown.
cc: Personnel Director
County Administrator ATTESTc®: �- -2t
PHIL BATCHELOR, C1rk of the Beare!
A s s i's t a n t R e g i s t r a r of supervisors and Count;AdministratorAssistant County Clerk
Assistant Recorder
ASO , County Clerk ' s Office 6y `� , Deputy
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TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORSs �-
-� •°_F Contra
FROM: Phil Batchelor
nt $
Costa
County Administrator
County
DATE: February 21 , 1989 sr- �`� -
9 COUN�
SUBJECT: process for Appointment of a
County Clerk-Recorder
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATION•
Accept the report of the County Administrator on alternatives
which are available for the appointment of a new Clerk-Recorder
and provide staff direction as to what actions the Board wishes
to take in this regard.
BACKGROUND:
On February 7 , 1989, the Board of Supervisors received a report
from the County Administrator and requested further information
before determining what process should be followed to appoint a
new County Clerk-Recorder to serve out the remainder of Jim
Olsson' s term of office. The County Administrator was asked to
report back on February 28, 1989 .
This report addresses the possible transfer of the Court-related
functions of the Clerk' s Office to the Superior Court. It also
identifies several alternatives for addressing the vacancy in the
position of County Clerk-Recorder. The report also identifies
several recruitment alternatives the Board may wish to consider.
I. POTENTIAL TRANSFER OF CLERIC'S COURT-RELATED DUTIES TO THE
COURT
As was indicated to the Board on February 7, 1989, there is a
case pending in the California Supreme Court which seeks to
determine whether the Superior Court has the authority to
transfer from the County Clerk to the Court those court-related
functions which currently are the responsibility of the County
Clerk. These functions include the courtroom clerks themselves
/
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: —X_YES SIGNATURE: ` ) )( N
XRECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
APPROVE OTHER
SIGNATURE(S):
A ON OF BOARD ON February 28, 1989 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
I HEREBY CER Y THAT THIS IS A TRUE
UNANIMOUS(ABSENT AND CORRECT COP F AN ACTION TAKEN
AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MI ES OF THE BOARD
ABSENT: ABSTAI OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE WN.
County Administrator
CC: County Counsel ATTESTED
Personnel Dir or PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOAR
Assistant gistrar SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMIN ISTRATOR
Assist County Clerk
As • tant Recorder
M382 10/88) ASO, County Clerk' s Office BY DEPUTY
I �
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and those additional clerical staff who are primarily responsible
for the filing and flow of court documents.
We have discussed this matter with Judges Dolgin and Spellberg.
Judge Spellberg has responded in writing that the Court will do
nothing until the Supreme Court renders a final decision. Once
such a decision is final, Judge Spellberg indicates that "were
the newly appointed County Clerk to seriously devote his or her
energies to modify the functioning of that office as it pertains
to the court' s operation, it may be that we would take a wait and
see attitude before exercising our, rights under the statute. "
(Judge Spellberg' s letter is attached to this report)
Since it is unlikely that the Supreme Court' s decision will be
issued until late summer or early fall of 1989, the Board will
have to make whatever decisions are going to be made without
knowing what the Supreme Court will do or what the Superior Court
would do following a Supreme Court decision in their favor. It
appears that some 67 positions would be subject to transfer to .
the Court , if such . an option were made available and were
exercised by the Superior Court. This represents about 500 of
the entire Clerk-Recorder' s Department. If the transfer were to
occur, there would be only 8 of the total of 75 permanent,
full-time positions in the County Clerk' s Office remaining under
the supervision of the County Clerk, including marriage licenses,
notary services, fictitious business names, and passport and
naturalization services.
II. ALTERNATIVES FOR ADDRESSING THE CURRENT VACANCY
A. The Board can decide to take no further action than to
leave the existing management staff in charge with no one
designated as an "acting" department head._ After the election,
whether in June or November, the Board . could then appoint the
successful candidate to fill out the remainder of the term of
office.
This alternative recognizes the very different
and specialized nature of the functions in the
office and leaves each division head to operate ,
his or her division on a co-equal basis. This
alternative avoids providing any advantage of
incumbency to any of the management staff in the
department who may be interested in seeking election
to the position next year. However, all of the senior
management staff of the department are in agreement
that they oppose this alternative. They believe one
of them should at: least be designated as the "acting"
department head.
B. ;The Board of Supervisors could designate one of the
managers in the department as "acting" department head, primarily
to provide a single point of contact between the public and the
department and between other county departments and the
Clerk-Recorder's Office. However, no appointment would be made
formally to the position of Clerk-Recorder until after the
election, whether in June or November 1990. The Board could then
appoint the successful candidate to fill out the remainder of the
term of office.
This alternative puts experienced management in place
who would serve until after the election and solves the
biggest drawback with the first alternative in that someone
is designated as "acting" . This may carry some sense
of incumbency which might advantage the "acting"
department head if he or she were to run for election
next year. This alternative leaves each of the division
heads with the responsibility to legally operate their
divisions with the "acting" department head operating as
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more of a coordinator and facilitator among the management
staff. While the management staff of the department have
been asked whether they could agree on who should be
designated as "acting" department head, there is no
consensus on this point since both Mr. Delevati and
Mr. Bock have expressed� an interest in running for
election next year.
C. The Board of Supervisors can appoint one of the existing
managers in the department as Clerk-Recorder without any further
recruitment.
This alternative provides the chosen individual
with a clear advantage in the election next year
since he or she can run as the incumbent. It does
not, however, rule . out the possibility that any
number of .other candidates may run for the office
as well. This alternative can be implemented quickly
and without the delay necessitated by an outside
recruitment process by appointing someone from among
the current knowledgeable management staff of the
office. It does, however, eliminate all outside
candidates, many of whom no doubt feel qualified for
the position.
.D. one suggestion made was the possibility of appointing a
non-elected official to the position of Clerk-Recorder until
after the election.
County Counsel indicates that the Board may not
consolidate an elective county office with an
appointive county office. Therefore, this does
not appear to be a viable alternative.
E. 'The Board can undertake one of a variety of recruitment
processes as outlined below before making an appointment.
This alternative allows all potential candidates
to be given an equal chance to be considered for
the position. The. individual who is appointed
after such a process probably has a substantial
advantage in the election next year since he or she
was selected following a, thorough screening process
and was chosen by the Board from among all available
candidates.
We have identified six alternative processes that the Board can
use if the Board decides to recruit outside of county government
for candidates.
1. Recruit only within the County; use a confidential
screening panel of outstanding authorities in the field to rank
the candidates, with the Board interviewing the top eight
candidates publicly.
This alternative helps 'to insure that individuals
familiar with the County and its unique character
are given preference in the interviewing. This does
not -preclude the Board of Supervisors from later
considering candidates from outside the County.
A confidential panel of recognized authorities
would be asked to screen the applications and rank them,
with the Board interviewing the top eight applicants.
Page 4
2. Recruit Bay Area wide; use a confidential screening
panel of outstanding authorities in the field to rank the
candidates, with the Board interviewing the top eight candidates
publicly.
This alternative provides a broader base of
potential candidates, but does not require the
Board of Supervisors to interview all of the
candidates. This has the advantage of providing
the Board with the professional judgment of several
leaders in the field as to who the most qualified
candidates are.
3. Recruit only within the County, with the Board Members
receiving all applications and indicating confidentially to the
County Administrator which candidates each would like to
interview. All candidates identified by any Board Member would
then be interviewed publicly by the full Board.
This alternative allows each Board Member to review
all of the applications. The candidates who would be
interviewed would be those whom .any Member of the
Board indicated should be interviewed. This eliminates
the need for an outside screening panel, but may
require more work on the part of the Board Members,
particularly if there are a large number of applicants.
4. Recruit Bay Area wide, with the Board Members receiving
all applications and indicating confidentially to the County
Administrator which candidates each would like to interview. All
candidates ' identified by any Board Member would then be
interviewed publicly by the full Board.
This alternative allows each Board Member to review
all of the applications. The candidates who would be
interviewed would be those whom any Member of the
Board indicated should be interviewed. This eliminates
the need for an outside screening panel, but may
require more work on the part of the Board Members,
particularly with a Bay Area wide recruitment which
may produce a very large number of applicants whom
Board Members wish to interview.
5. Using a County-only recruitment, the Board could ask to
review all applications in public and identify those. applicants
whom a majority of the Board wished to interview.
This alternative makes the entire process public,
with . no screening done except that which the Board
of Supervisors may choose to do in public. This
may result in the Board choosing to publicly
interview all candidates, rather than choosing to
publicly refuse to interview some candidates. In
this case, this could be a very lengthy process of
interviews.
6. Using a Bay Area wide recruitment, the Board could ask
to review all applications in public and identify those
applicants which a -majority of the Board wished to interview.
This alternative also makes the entire process
public, with no screening done except. that which
the Board of Supervisors may choose to do in public.
This may result in the Board choosing to publicly
interview all candidates, rather than choosing to
publicly refuse to interview some candidates. In
this case, this could be a very lengthy process of
interviews, particularly with the entire Bay Area
as a recruitment area.
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PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR RECRUITN1ENT
OF COUNTY CLERK-RECORDER
Open Application Period March 6, 1989
Deadline for Applications March 24, 1989
Processsing of Applications thru April 7, 1989
Board begins Interviews of
Applicants April 18, 1989