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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 01141992 - IO.2 r yI .O.-2 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS s ` _ Contra FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE `' Costa n; s County DATE: January 6, 1992 � « SUBJECT: REPORT RECOMMENDING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A TELECOMMUTING COMMITTEE TO PREPARE GUIDELINES FOR A TELECOMMUTING POLICY FOR COUNTY EMPLOYEES SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Establish a County Telecommuting Committee consisting of the following, or their designees: Phil Batchelor, County Administrator Val Alexeeff, Director, GMEDA Stephen L. Weir, County Clerk-Recorder Harvey Bragdon, Community Development Director Harry Cisterman, Director of Personnel J. Michael Walford, Public Works Director Barton J. Gilbert, Director of General Services James A. Rydingsword, Social Services Director Mark Finucane, Health Services Director Kiri Torre, Municipal Court Administrator Marinelle Thompson, Director of Data Processing Services 2 . Charge the County Telecommuting Committee with addressing the following issues and providing a report and recommendations to the Internal Operations Committee by July 1, 1992 : Receive and critically review presentations by Telecommuting Experts(s) . Review a staff prepared work program and approve or amend and approve it. Identify which employees or types of jobs are most feasible to be approved for telecommuting. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINI R RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OT qq�� SIGNATURE(S): S SUNNE WRIGHT MC PEAK ACTION OF BOARD ON Januar , 19N APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. CC: ATTESTED 'JAN 14 1992 County Administrator PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF Director, GMEDA SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR County Counsel Director of Personnel Other Committee appointees (Via CAO B .LP DEPUTY M382 (10/88) I .O. -2 -2- Develop an employee agreement which the County and an employee would execute spelling out the responsibilities and rights of both parties . Develop criteria and guidelines for the use of County equipment at home. Outline a pilot program which would test the feasibility of a Telecommuting Program and would identify problems and opportunities before such a program is considered for expansion to all departments . Identify and explore the equipping of satellite facilities in outlying areas of the County which might be used by employees who live nearby. Develop an evaluation methodology for the pilot program which will provide an opportunity for objective evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of a Telecommuting Program. Include in the development, design and evaluation of the pilot program, the following issues : * What is the social impact on an employee from Telecommuting when the employee may have his or her contact with other employees severely restricted? * What is the purpose of a Telecommuting Program in terms of reducing air pollution, reducing automobile trips, saving time, etc. and insure that the evaluation of the program determines whether the purpose of the Program is achieved. * What is the overall affect of the Telecommuting Pilot Program on the day-to-day operations of the affected departments in terms of positive and negative features . 3 . Request the Community Development Director to provide sufficient staff resources to staff the Committee and complete the Committee' s work and prepare the final report to our Committee by July 1, 1992 . 4 . Request the Director, GMEDA, to convene the first meeting of the Committee and thereafter to assume primary responsibility for insuring that the work of the Committee remains on schedule and that an individual is identified to chair subsequent meetings of the Committee. 5 . Request staff to the Committee to advise the members of the Board' s Transportation Committee of each meeting of the Committee so they can attend the meetings of the Committee if they are available and choose to join the Committee' s deliberations . 6 . Remove this item as a referral to the 1991 Internal Operations Committee and instead refer it to the 1992 Internal Operations Committee for the purpose of receiving and reviewing the report from the Committee during the month of July, 1992 and providing the Committee' s recommendations to the Board of Supervisors by August 1, 1992 . BACKGROUND: On November 19, 1991, the Board of Supervisors provided conceptual approval to the development of a telecommuting policy for County employees and asked the Internal Operations Committee to develop the guidelines for implementation of such a program. I .O. -2 -3- Attached is a copy of the report which the Director, GMEDA provided to our Committee on January 6, 1992 and which we discussed with Mr. Ernie Vovakis from the Community Development Department. While our Committee endorses the need to develop and test such a Telecommuting Program, Supervisor Schroder emphasized that he is not necessarily committed to the actual implementation of such a program until many of the questions which he raised and which are included in the above recommendations are answered. In particular, Supervisor Schroder raised the question about the impact on employees of the relative social isolation of working at home and only rarely seeing one's fellow employees . In addition, he has asked that the Telecommuting Committee define carefully what the objective of a Telecommuting Policy is and whether the evaluation of a pilot program is able to test the achievement of that objective. Finally, Supervisor Schroder emphasized his concern about the need for affected department heads to identify carefully the positive and negative aspects of a Telecommuting Policy and to determine whether achievement of the program' s objective is worth the potential negative aspects of the program. Our Committee has agreed to recommend the above actions based on our discussion of this subject. CONTRA COSTA COUNTY GROWTH MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY DATE: December 23, 1991 TO: Internal Operations Committee FROM: Val Alexeeffirector, GMEDA SUBJECT: Board Order on Telecommuting On November 19., the Board approved in concept the development of a telecommuting policy for County employees and requested the Internal Operations Committee to establish a County Telecommuting Committee to develop the guidelines for implementation. A copy of the Board Order is attached. I recommend that the following department heads, or their designees, be appointed to this committee: Phil Batchelor, County Administrator Val Alexeeff, Growth Management and Economic Dev. Harvey Bragdon, Community Development Harry Cisterman, Personnel Marinelle Thompson, Data Processing Services Mike Walford, Public Works Barton Gilbert, General Services James Rydingsword, Social Services Mark Finucane, Health Services This committee would meet periodically over the next 3-5 months to discuss policy options and give direction to staff, who will develop the guidelines of the program. Following this, an implementation plan will be presented to the Board of Supervisors for adoption. The major issues which the committee will address are as follows: Presentation by Telecommuting Expert Review of Work Program Eligibility Criteria Employee Agreement Use of County Equipment at Home Design of Pilot Program Identification of Satellite Facilities Equipping satellite facilities SEC'Ei Vi D Pilot Program Evaluation DFG - .{ 19911 Office of cc: Phil Batchelor