HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 11011994 - I0.1 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
5 Contra
INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE ,�. W.
FROM j Costa
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October 24, 1994 County
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DATE: `r�•2`6Gr+r'
SUBJECT: PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF U.C. BERKELEY COOPERATIVE EXTENSION
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1 . ACCEPT the attached report from the Director,. U.C. Berkeley
Cooperative Extension, reflecting the response by her
Department to our Committee' s request for data which will
allow us to evaluate the performance of Cooperative Extension.
2 . EXPRESS the Board's appreciation for the important, valuable,
quantified data which was presented by the Director, U.C.,
Berkeley Cooperative Extension, which clearly seems to point
out that Cooperative Extension is performing at a high- level
of competence, is providing a valuable service to the people
of Contra Costa County and is an incredible bargain in view of
the minimal amount of County General Fund money which is
provided to Cooperative Extension.
BACKGROUND:
On June 28, 1994 , the Board of Supervisors referred to the Internal
Operations Committee a request to develop a procedure which would
allow -the Internal Operations Committee to meet with each
Department Head during the year and report on the Department ' s
activities .
On October 24, 1994 , our Committee met with Susan Laughlin, Ph.D. ,
Director U.C. Berkeley Cooperative Extension and with Shelley
Murdock, the Youth Development Advisor, who will be filling in for
Dr. Laughlin which she is on a sabbatical for the 1994-95 school
year. Dr. Laughlin had supplied the attached report to our
Committee in advance so that we had an opportunity to , review it
before the meeting.
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE:
RECOMMENDATION4CUNTY NIST ATO RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
-APPROVE
SIGNATURE(S):
ACTION OF BOARD ON November 1 , 1994. — 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 TTHHE,DATE SHOWN. ' 1
ATTESTED
Contact: PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF
cc: County Administrator SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
Susan Laughlin, Ph.D. , Director
_ t
U.C. Berkeley Cooperative Exte�CS1_1
av DEPUTY
Cooperative Extension is the first of the departments we have met
with which is in that category of departments over which the Board
of Supervisors has limited control and for which the Board of
Supervisors does not appoint the Director. The County provides the
clerical staff for Cooperative Extension, a critical support to the
University staff, but otherwise provides no direct financial
support for the programs themselves . We appreciate the information
which was supplied, and the fact that the presentation covers each
of the important areas we had outlined for these departmental
evaluations . It is important to recognize that the total budget
for Cooperative Extension is nearly $2 million, less than $100,000
of which comes from the County. The balance is State and Federal
money, along with grants and gifts and the value of the volunteer
labor which is provided for the 4-H and Master Gardener programs .
Dr. Laughlin emphasized that Cooperative Extension is the only
public service arm of the University of California which is
available in every county in California and is open to all members
of the community, regardless of ability to pay.
Cooperative Extension is no longer solely an agricultural program,
as it started out to be. It now includes a substantial family
education program and the 4-H Program, which has grown beyond its
agricultural beginnings .
We were impressed with the breadth of programs which are operated
by Cooperative Extension and with the extent to which their
programs, like the family education program and closely coordinated
with many of the supplemental food programs operated by the County,
including the homeless shelters .
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Report to Internal Operations Committee
October 24, 1994
Overview
Cooperative Extension is a partnership between the University of California, the
Federal government, and each county in this state. Its mission is to bring the
knowledge and research findings of our Land-Grant institution to the tax payers of the
state of California. Cooperative Extension is the primary public service arm of the
University of California. But, it not only extends University services to the public, it also
shapes the activities of the University by bringing to the attention of faculty researchers
the critical questions facing local communities. Cooperative Extension is part of the
research continuum that reaches from fundamental research to research designed to
adapt and apply knowledge to a specific problem. It is the public's conduit both to and
from the halls of the University where knowledge is built. We offer non-formal
educational services at low or no cost to the citizens of Contra Costa County in the
areas of agriculture, urban horticulture, youth development, and family education.
The University of California pays for and allocates the academic resources to each
county office. In addition, part of our program is supported by earmarked Federal
funds for a low-income nutrition education program. The County provides support for
our secretarial staff and for our basic operational costs, such as building, supplies,
transportation. The Cooperative Extension staff augment the value of the funds
provided by managing large volunteer systems that expand our outreach and by
successfully competing for grants and gifts. The existence of the Cooperative
Extension program is dependent upon each party providing its share of support.
Fund Sources (FY 93-94)
Contra Costa County
2.9 Secretaries
Building
Telephone
Trave I
Total County Budget ...............................$99,673
University of California
Direct Support
1
1
7
6 academic salaries
Indirect Support
campus-based specialists
research stations
administration
Total University Support ......................$825,215
Federal (USDA)
Direct Support
.2 program assistants
1'secretary
Indirect Support
campus-based specialists
research
administration
Total USDA Support ............................$423,913
Grants and Gifts
Total..........................................................$146,220
Value of Volunteer Services
4-H Adult Leaders (value: $440,000)
Master Gardener Volunteers
(value: $131 ,250)
Total.........................................................$571,250
SUMMARY'
Contra Costa County..........................$99,673
All Other Sources..........................$1,966,598
'For every dollar provided by Contra Costa County government,
Cooperative Extension brings over $19 worth of service to the
residents of Contra Costa.
.Affirmative Action
The University of California Cooperative Extension program is committed to high
standards of achievement in both personnel and programmatic affirmative action.
In the hiring of personnel we follow strict guidelines that assure attention to the issue.
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Search committees are provided with data on ethnic categories that are
underrepresented for the job in question. Committees are expected to advertise in
publications that reach diverse audiences and to have evidence of personal contacts
with potential candidates from underrepresented groups. Before we can interview our
candidate pool is screened for diversity. We are prohibited from conducting interviews
if we have too little diversity within our pool and have not exerted all reasonable effort
to attract a diverse pool. Candidate selections are also scrutinized by the Affirmative
Action Office. Justifications for hiring must meet standards of objectivity and attention to
diversity.
In our programmatic affirmative action efforts we strive for both parity and equity.
Primary clientele groups are approved by the County Director and base line
demographic data are recorded at the beginning of the year. We are expected to keep
contact data throughout the year, coded by ethnic and gender category whenever
possible. We must prove that we have either achieved parity in our contacts or have
extended all reasonable effort to do so through outreach techniques such as mailings
to community groups, personal contacts, mass media, etc. We are also asked to justify
the content and method of delivery of our programs to insure that we have attempted to
make programs attractive to all members of our primary clientele and have delivered
the program in equivalent form to all clientele.
Automation
Each of our staff members have computers at their desks. We have state-of- the-art
printers, a FAX machine, and mailing equipment (including a bar-coder, a label/tabber,
a collator, and a folder). All of this equipment, except for one rather ancient computer,
was purchased with University or Federal funds.
With the generous support of the County we have, over the past three months, turned
our attention to networking and upgrading our computers. We are in the process of
installing a LAN system that„will eventually connect us to the County mainframe and
provide each academic staff-member withaccess to the UC Davis Internet system. Our
academic staff members will be able to access all library resources, colleagues
throughout the nation, and a variety of agricultural data bases (including pesticide
information, climate information, economic studies, research findings, etc.). As an .
academic service'to this county, such linkage is increasingly essential to assure up-to-
date information.
Challenges
The primary challenge is and always has been keeping our service level up in the face
of diminishing funding. We received a slight, but extremely useful, increase from the
County for 1994795. It has helped us restore our secretaries to the percent time we
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need and allowed us to return to a 40 hour-a-week operation. The University must
continuously assess where its own resources are best used. Counties in which
funding is ever-diminishing are not prime candidates for increased University
resources, such as new academic FTEs. The University of California cannot operate a
Cooperative Extension service or provide services of any kind in a county that cannot
meet its basic funding obligations.
Future
Our office will be relying more and more completely on technology both for research
and extension of information. With the installation of the LAN system and our
connection with the University's Internet all academics will be able to do much of their
library work at their desks in Contra Costa. We also take every opportunity to utilize
new technologies for education. We have an active University unit working to expand
the number of down-link sites for video workshops and conferencing. Contra Costa will
no doubt see this type of "distance learning" in the very near future.
We will also be creating new contracts with neighboring counties for sharing resources.
I was instrumental in planning and implementing a regional approach to horticultural
extension in the 5 Bay Area counties. The next area we will work on is regionalizing
the services of the Livestock Advisors who reside in the North Bay and valley counties.
Contra Costa ranchers are at great disadvantage without a local Advisor. We will also
be lobbying for more Advisor attention to the issues of public land management,
especially as concerns grazing. Ranchers in both Contra Costa and Alameda
Counties have serious and unresolved concerns about the direction of public park
management policies.
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AGRICULTURE PROGRAM
The Staff
Janet Caprile, M.S., Farm Advisor
Mike Wanless, M.S., Field Assistant
University of California faculty and Cooperative Extension specialists from
Departments of Entomology, Plant Pathology, Pomology, and Vegetable Crops
at UC Davis and UC Berkeley
.40 County-paid secretary
The Program
The Farm Advisor covers every major crop in Contra Costa County. Such crops are
defined as bringing in over $1 ,000,000 in annual revenue or having a significant .
number of producers (40 or more). Please see chart below:
CROPS NO. OF ACRES VALUE
FARMS
Orchard Crops 313 6,700 13,191 ,100
Apples 15 1,180 6,826,000
Apricots 49 932 1,641,000
Cherries 48 542 551,000
Grapes,wine 38 980 966,000
Stone fruits 58 263 621,700
Walnuts 151 1,440 1,415,000•
Vegetable. Crops 34 7,856 16,067,500
Asparagus 3 1,390 3,490,000
Sweet Corn 10 1,920 4,330,000
Tomatoes 14 3,837 7,036,200
Field Crops 133 12,620 6,547,600
Hay and Silage 107 6,164 2,370,800
Field Corn 26 6,770 2,550,000
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The Farm Advisor conducts a program of extension of knowledge and of research. To
extend the knowledge of the.;University she writes a scientific newsletter, she provides
on-site consultations, and she organizes workshops and field days. Her research is
devoted to high priority issues in this county, most particularly the rural-urban interface.
In predominantly urban counties such as ours the use of pesticides become an issue of
concern for some families who live in drift zones. The Farm Advisor devotes most of
her research to studying organic production methods that are acceptable in urban
environments.
The Farm Advisor helps to keep all growers in Contra Costa County competitive by
providing them with the latest research findings, information on new rules and
regulations governing their business, and announcements of scientific meetings and
field days. Production agriculture cannot survive, much less succeed without staying in
touch with scientific and regulatory developments. This is the Farm Advisor's job.
The Clientele
According to the latest agricultural census (1987) there are 840 farms in Contra Costa
County. Of these, 78% are "small farms" making less than $25,000 per year, 12% are
moderate sized farms making $25,000-100,000 per year, and 9% are large farms
making more than $100,000 per year. The Farm Advisor directs her program to all
owners, operators, and managers of these farms.
In addition to this primary clientele, the Farm Advisor also extends information to the
general public through her work on the Community Exposure to Pesticides Task Force,
and through the Ag in the Classroom project sponsored by Farm Bureau. She
provides a pesticide workshop in Spanish each year for Spanish-speaking farm
workers who operate pesticide equipment.
Performance Indicators
1 . Number of persons reached.
Individual consultations 189
Meetings and field days 1317
Newsletter 1056
Total 2562
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2. Research projects
Project Grower Cooperators
Organic apple production study 3
Project funded by UC Sustainable Ag Program,
USDA Sustainable Ag Program, Abbot Laboratories,
and Consep
Pheromone confusion for codling moth control 5
Project funded by Consep
Early season processing tomato variety trial 2
Project funded by California Tomato Research
Institute
IPM for processing tomato evaluation 4 ,
Project funded by US-Environmental Protection Agency
Walnut rootstock sensitivity to Boron 1
Internal funding
IPM for orchard worm pests (Tree Pest Updates). 33
Internal funding
CIMIS weather station maintenance 2
Funded by grower donations
Cherry Buckskin survey 38
Funded by grower donations
Total 88
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YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
The Staff
Shelley Murdock, M.S., Youth,Development Advisor
Melida Manjarrez, M.S., Youth Assistant
350 adult volunteers
University faculty and Cooperative Extension specialists from the Department of
Applied Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis
.60 County-paid secretary
.10 University-paid secretary
The Program .
The Youth Development Advisor's program is designed to increase the clientele's
knowledge of the,developmental needs of children, especially children at risk, and to
enhance the clientele's ability to select and conduct developmentally.and
educationally appropriate activities for the youth with whom they work. Her methods
include training sessions for adult and teen leaders, educational workshops and
forums, newsletter articles, manuals, and videos.
The Advisor is in charge of the 4-H program,.one of our primary vehicles for youth
development. She supervises and trains adult volunteers and assures that the projects
and activities offered by them are of consistent quality. She provides up-to-date,
research-based information on how to work with youth of many cultures and ethnic
origins.
In addition to working with 4-H .volunteer leaders, the Advisor delivers information to
youth-serving professionals and educators. Good examples include the Bay Area-
wide leadership conference we sponsor which is held at UC Berkeley and attracts
several hundred youth-serving professionals annually, and the nutrition education we
provided to elementary school teachers in the West Contra Costa Unified School
District.
The Clientele
The Youth Development Advisor targets all youth ages 9-19 and youth-serving
professionals.
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Performance Indicators
Number of Persons Reached
4-H leaders 350
4-H club members 878
4-H special interest clubs 95
Special interest groups, daycamps, etc. 6611
Youth-serving professionals .252
Total 8186
Research, evaluation, and creative activity
"Ethnographic Evaluation of an After-school 4-H'Writing Program for 9-12 Year-
olds", Master's thesis submitted by Shelley Murdock, Youth Development
Advisor, June 1994
"Resiliency Youth Development", literature review written and disseminated by
Shelley Murdock, Youth Development Advisor
"The Effects of Extrinsic Awards on Youth", literature review written and
disseminated by Shelley Murdock, Youth Development Advisor
Nutricise with Melanie and Buster an exercise and nutrition video for 6-8 year
olds; project partially funded by CHDP and CCTV; received finalist award from
Bay Area Cable Excellence Award
Energize with Nutricise! Two; an exercise and nutrition video for 9-12 year olds;
project partially funded by CCTV; received Best Children's Video award from
Bay Area Cable Excellence.
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FAMILY EDUCATION
The Staff
Mary Lavender Fujii, M.S., Nutrition Advisor
Jeet Johal, Ph.D., Family Resource Management Advisor
Isabel Balazs, M.S., Nutrition Program Assistant
Janet Jue, M.S.; Nutrition Program Assistant
University faculty and Cooperative Extension specialists from the Departments
of Nutrition at UC Davis and UC Berkeley, and from the Agricultural Economic
Department and the Applied Behavioral Sciences Department, UC Davis.
.30 County-paid secretary
.60 University-paid secretary
The Program
The two foci for our family education program are nutrition education and family
resource management education. Both programs target low-income audiences since
with limited resources we want to reach those who are most vulnerable to health or
economic insecurity.
The nutrition program has both an educational and a policy focus. The education
program is funded by USDA. It is called the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education
Program (EFNEP). This program has worked in partnership with WIC, Food Stamps,
DSS, Head Start, and many other community agencies to bring basic nutrition
education to groups with which we can make the biggest impact. With a specially
tailored curriculum we have provided education to every program in this county that
assists pregnant and parenting minors. We also work with ESL classes to help recent
immigrants adjust to altered food availability and new lifestyles while incorporating the
healthful food habits of their homelands. We serve all of the residential treatment
centers in the County for women in recovery. We serve parents and children enrolled in
the home-based Head start program. Finally, our nutrition program is disseminated via
video in DSS waiting rooms. Monitors are installed and maintained in the six Social
Service waiting rooms and a waiting room in the judicial complex in Antioch.
The Nutrition Advisor has recently expanded her educational program to include a
food-science focus. She is working with the Contra Costa Food Bank and the
administration of the soup kitchen organization to provide food sanitation training for
.the volunteer staff that oversees the production of meals. These volunteers need to
know how to judge the safety of dented cans or "bruised" packages, how to handle
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incoming already prepared foods, how to repackage and store large quantities of
staple foods, and how to keep the food preparation areas safe and clean.
The Nutrition Advisor also has her hand in a number of nutrition policy issues: the
hunger survey conducted twice in Contra Costa County; the County Food Policy ratified
by the Board of Supervisors and recognized by a'national Cancer Society award; and
the nutrition policies of the Medical Advisory Planning Commission.
The family resource management program has been delivered to some of the same
audiences as the nutrition education program, notably pregnant and parenting teens
and women in recovery. Its special target, however, is homeless shelters where our
Advisor works with service directors to help families recover from and then prevent
future homelessness. Another primary target of this program is low-income and middle-
income seniors who are often the victims of scams and frauds and who are vulnerable
to irreversible economic set-backs due to poor financial management practices.
The Clientele
Pregnant and parenting teens
Women in recovery programs
Recent immigrants
Head start parents and children
DSS recipients
Residents of homeless shelters
Low-income seniors
Middle-income seniors
Performance Indicators
Number of persons reached
Low-income families with children 1935
Unspecified adult residents 1275
Low-income seniors 161
Middle-income seniors 707
Waiting room viewers 22,863 (est.)
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Research, evaluation, creative activity
24 Hour Food Recall of EFNEP Clientele
(shows 97% improvement among program graduates; improvement
primarily in consumption of fruits and vegetables)
Hunger Surveys (1987 and 1992); 1992 project partially funded by Unitarian-
Universalist Church
Evaluation of nutrition education via video; project funded by USDA
Production of Infovision video tapes; project partially funded by CCTV
Production of 3 nutrition education videos; project funded by Division of
Agriculture and Natural Resources Opportunity Grants
Production of 10 parent education videos; project funded by State Critical
Applied Research Grant and CCTV
Study of resource management decisions by Contra Costa.residents; project
funded by State Critical Applied Research Grant
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URBAN HORTICULTURE
The Staff
Greg Vogel, M.S., Urban Horticulture Advisor
350 Master Gardener Volunteers
Horticulture Advisors in landscape, floriculture, and turf through agreementwith
neighboring Bay Area counties
University of California faculty and Cooperative Extension specialists from the
Departments of Entomology, Plant Pathology, Environmental Horticulture, and
Forestry and Resource Management on the UC Davis and UC Berkeley
campuses
60 County-paid secretary
The Program
The purpose of this program is to disseminate scientific information of critical
importance to the gardeners, landscapers, public parks and landscape managers, and
nurserymen. The focus of education for all of these groups generally falls into four
categories: reduction of pesticides and other landscape chemicals likely to affect the
safety of our ground water and environment; selection of plant materials and irrigation
practices to conserve water; reduction of green waste particularly from home gardens.
In low-income areas the focus is on back yard or container production of food and
selection of reliable, low-cost ornamental plants for home and institutional
beautification.
The program is vastly enhanced by training and utilizing the volunteer services of
Master Gardeners. These community members receive a minimum of 50 hours of
training in exchange for staffing a horticulture hot-line, disseminating information at
Richmond and other farmers' markets, providing educational services at Heather
Farms and John Muir historical park, putting on plant clinics and staffing information
booths for the general public. We have trained 350 Master Gardeners over the course
of 10 years, many of whom are still actively volunteering their services.
Through an agreement with neighboring Bay Area Cooperative Extension services we
have the services of three area specialists who address commercial horticultural
interests: landscape, floriculture, and turf. The Turf.Advisor is especially active in this
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county, consulting to public and private golf club managers, parks managers, and large
residential communities, such as Rossmoor. The Landscape Horticulturist has
delivered workshops in our county on public tree selection and management. Our own
Horticulture Advisor teams with the Advisor from Alameda County in educational
programs for the local nurserymen.
The Clientele
General Public
Public parks and landscape managers
Wholesale and retail nursery managers and staff
Turf managers
Performance Indicators
Number of persons reached
Hot line inquires 2854
Information booths at public events 2791
Farmers' markets 959
Educational events for the public 470
Consultations for the public 1236
Educational events for horticulture professionals 222
Consultations for horticulture professionals 300
Total 8832
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