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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 11281995 - SD6 OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CONTRA COSTA COUNTY Administration Building 651 Pine Street, 11th Floor Martinez, CA 94553 DATE: November 9, 1995 TO: FAMILY AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier Supervisor Jeff Smith FROM: Phil Batchelorounty Administrator SUBJECT: PROCESS FOR COORDINATING POLICY ADVICE TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS FROM ADVISORY BOARDS, COUNTY STAFF AND PRIVATE NON-PROFIT CONTRACT AGENCIES RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. AGREE that there needs to be an organized method for family and children's services contract agencies to provide policy advice and raise operational concerns with the County. 2. AGREE that there needs to be an organized method for advisory boards addressing family and children's services to more closely coordinate their policy advice with each other while still providing direct advice to the department(s) with which they work most closely. 3. AGREE that any effort to coordinate the provision of policy advice to the Board of Supervisors in the area of family and children's services must include the input of the affected County Departments. 4. AGREE that the primary County Departments which provide family and children's services to the residents of the County need to have a structured forum through which they can: ❑ Better inform each other of their activities; ❑ Share information with each other about available resources; -2- ❑ Identify, discuss and resolve issues which affect more than one Department, including the need to leverage resources, to work together on common outcomes for children and families, and to streamline systems for proven efficiency and effectiveness. ❑ Discuss those problems and issues the Departments share in common with private non-profit agencies. ❑ Receive and discuss input from the various advisory boards in the family and children's services area; ❑ Discuss with the "customer" recipients of services provided, their perspective regarding services they receive; ❑ Meet with representatives from the advisory boards, private non-profit agencies, customers and other appropriate parties to discuss common issues, challenges, problems, opportunities, resources, and priorities and formulate advice on these issues which can be presented to the Board of Supervisors through the Family and Human Services Committee. ❑ Appoint sub-committees to address specifically identified issues which need additional detailed staff research. Discuss those issues with advisory boards, contract agencies, customers and others in the community, research those issues, and identify solutions which can be formulated and presented for input by all interested and affected parties before recommendations are made to the Board of Supervisors. 5. AGREE that each County Department providing family and children's services has a defined role to perform and needs to have the flexibility to continue to provide its services and conduct day-to-day business without having to have every issue or decision subject to interdepartmental decision-making when the issue does not have interdepartmental implications. 6. In view of the above, ESTABLISH a Family and Children's Services Policy Council consisting of the following: 1. The County Administrator, who will chair the Policy Council 2. The Health Services Director 3. The Social Service Director 4. The County Probation Officer 5. The Community Services Director 6. The Executive Director, Private Industry Council 7. The Juvenile Court Judge -3- 8. The Sheriff-Coroner 9. A representative of the Education community. 10. A representative from a consortium of private, non-profit, community-based agencies which contract with the County, to be designated by that consortium. 11. A representative from a consortium of the advisory boards which have as a significant role providing advice concerning services which are provided to families and children by the County, to be designated by that consortium. 12-14.Three youth leaders, representing East, Central and West County. 15. A representative of the Policy Academy (to be renamed the Family and Children's Services Advisory Policy Forum). 16. A child advocate who is not a County employee and not an employee or board member of a community-based organization having a contract with the County but who is recognized in the community as an advocate for children's issues, to be appointed by the Board of Supervisors. 7. RECOMMEND that a consortium be formed for the purpose of selecting a representative of those private, non-profit, community-based agencies which contract with the County to provide family and children's services in the County. 8. RECOMMEND that a consortium be formed for the purpose of selecting a representative of those advisory bodies which have as a significant role the oversight of services which are provided to families and children by the County. 9. AUTHORIZE the Family and Children's Services Policy Council to establish Operational Sub-committees on a subject matter, ad hoc basis as need indicates in order to study issues, identify operational problems, explore opportunities, prepare grant applications for funds, and otherwise focus for the Policy Council issues, alternatives and options which the Policy Council should consider. 10. DIRECT the County Administrator, as the Chair of the Family and Children's Services Policy Council, to report regularly to the Family and Human Services Committee of the Board of Supervisors on issues on which the Board of Supervisors should act or which should be brought to the attention of the Board of Supervisors. 11. In view of the establishment of the above structure for coordinating the interdepartmental activities of those County Departments that provide family and children's services, for coordinating the policy advice the Board of Supervisors receives from its advisory boards and for coordinating the input received from private, non-profit, community-based agencies, RESTRUCTURE the Policy Academy to be consistent with this structure, and ABOLISH the Youth Services Board and Expanded Youth Services Board effective December 1, 1995. -4- INTRODUCTION: On August 1 , 1995, the Board of Supervisors approved a report from your Committee which, among other things, recommended the following: 1. DIRECT the following Department Heads to meet with the Family and Human Services Committee and members of the Policy Academy on a quarterly basis, beginning on September 25, 1995, in an effort to develop and maintain closer coordination among County Departments, the Family and Human Services Committee, the Policy Academy and the advisory boards, committees and commissions in the family and children's services area: The County Administrator The Social Service Director The Health Services Director The Community Services Director The County Probation Officer Invite the County Superintendent of Schools or his designee to attend these meetings. 4. AUTHORIZE the Family and Human Services Committee to discuss with the members of the Policy Academy, the affected Department Heads and the affected advisory boards, committees and commissions the implications of setting as goals for the Policy Academy: ❑ Responsibility to design a policy blueprint for family and children's needs in Contra Costa County and how to fill them. ❑ Recommending funding priorities for family and children's services in Contra Costa County. ❑ Coordinating departmental and advisory committee input on family and children's services to the Board of Supervisors. 5. AUTHORIZE the Family and Human Services Committee to discuss with the members of the Policy Academy, the affected Department Heads and the affected advisory boards, committees and commissions the implications of having advisory boards, committees and commissions in the family and children's services area coordinate their policy input to the Board of Supervisors through the Policy Academy, possibly by having the Chair or another designated member from each identified advisory group attend meetings of the Policy Academy. Staff from the County Administrator's Office, the Health Services Department, the Social Service Department, the Community Services Department and the Probation Department have met to consider how best to respond to these directions from the Board of Supervisors and your Committee. The Superintendent of Schools was invited to join us for these meetings. As a result of these meetings, and in light of the additional explanation which is provided below, staff is now making the recommendations which appear above. -5- BACKGROUND: It is clear to staff that the Family and Human Services Committee is frustrated with the uncoordinated volume of policy advice the Board of Supervisors receives from advisory boards. It is also clear to staff that the Family and Human Services Committee is frustrated with the individual lobbying which takes place by various agencies seeking funding from the County for their agency. It is also clear to staff that the Family and Human Services Committee is concerned with the apparent lack of coordination, education, and information sharing among County Departments in areas in which one would think there ought to be better coordination. In view of this frustration, staff has tried to look at what is wrong with the present system and what actions staff could suggest to resolve the identified problems with the current system. There seems to be general agreement on the following points,some of which are clearly administrative issues which can be addressed by staff without the need for action by the Board of Supervisors: ADVISORY BODIES: ✓ Advisory boards have an important role to play in the provision of family and children's services, but that role must be spelled out by the Board of Supervisors in writing and each advisory board must be held accountable for performing its role. ✓ Advisory boards function very differently, with some operating quite independent of the related Department and reporting directly to the Board of Supervisors,while other advisory bodies work closely with Department staff and in support of Department programs and goals. Some advisory boards are not tied to a particular department and advise the Board of Supervisors directly. ✓ Advisory Boards work most effectively when they are appointed by the Board of Supervisors but relate on a day-to-day basis with the Department whose programs they oversee and monitor. In this way, advisory boards become knowledgeable about program directions and choices, provide direct advice to departments and are in a position to report directly to the Board of Supervisors on many issues as well. ✓ The number of advisory boards and special interest groups has proliferated in this County over the years without an appropriate mechanism to focus their efforts and energies. ✓ It is important to recognize that State and Federal funding requirements often dictate the need for an advisory body which represents the particular interests of a specific program and which often cannot be met by assigning that advisory role to another existing advisory body. -6- When advisory boards are established they should have a sunset date, at which time the Board of Supervisors should review the functioning and accomplishments of the advisory body and determine whether the advisory body should continue. ✓ It is important for County Departments and the Board of Supervisors to have in place some organized mechanism for receiving input from the "customers" who are the recipients of the services which are provided in the community. It is also important for each County Department to clearly define whom it considers to be its customers and for the Board of Supervisors, as appropriate, to endorse that definition. ✓ The Policy Academy is an important and valuable entity. However, it has become too large for effective decision-making. Its mode of operating by consensus, which builds mutual understanding over time; is a difficult process to use when hard choices must be made expeditiously. In addition, Policy Academies in other counties in California include Department Head level staff. It is often difficult for our Policy Academy to address issues in the same manner as do other Policy Academies and to accomplish the same level of coordination as do other Policy Academies. These problems prevent it from serving as an effective vehicle to review and recommend policy for the County's family and children's services programs. ✓ In order to preserve the independence and objectivity of advisory bodies, it is important that the Board of Supervisors carefully consider the wisdom of appointing individuals who are County employees or who are board members or employees of community-based agencies which are contracting with the County, unless other factors clearly outweigh the concerns which arise from such real or perceived conflict of interest. ✓ It is essential in designing a policy coordination and formulation system to include substantial input from those County Departments which are charged by the Board of Supervisors and by State and Federal law with carrying out those policy directives. CONTRACT AGENCIES: ✓ Various County Departments enter into service contracts with the same private, non-profit, community-based organizations with very little coordination or sharing of information regarding problems the agency may be having in providing services for another County Department. [This is one of the issues which might be addressed administratively]. ✓ There are not adequate standardized procedures for contracting with private, non- profit, community-based organizations which specify when a request for proposals (RFP) will be used, what evaluation of the effectiveness of services will be required -7- of the agency, and what level of administrative support will be available to the agency from the County. [This is another concern that might be addressed administratively]. ✓ Some community-based agencies are so small and short of funds that it is very difficult for them to maintain the financial and program records which the County as a public agency must be able to obtain from its contract agencies and have available for public inspection. This may raise a question as to whether these agencies should be receiving money from the County. In view of the general agreement on these points, staff recommends that the Policy Academy, Youth Services Board and Expanded Youth Services Board be restructured to better serve the overall needs of the community. The Youth Services Board was created by the Board of Supervisors several years ago. It consisted of the County Administrator and the principal department heads whose departments provided services to families and children, as well as the Superintendent of Schools and the Juvenile Court Judge. The Youth Services Board also had an Operations Committee of staff below the Department Head level which worked on interdepartmental issues, operational problems and implementation procedures as assigned by the Youth Services Board. There was also an Expanded Youth Services Board which included the Youth Services Board members augmented by community representatives and children's services advocates. There have also been, at various times, efforts to convene the Chairs of the various advisory boards in the human services area to share information with each others and look beyond the program confines of their own advisory body to take a more comprehensive look at all human services for which the County was responsible. There have also been coalitions of contract agencies, most notably in the area of mental health services, which have come together to define common problems and seek common solutions from the County. We believe that it is possible to build on the best of these past efforts and address the concerns of the Family and Human Services Committee as we understand them. We are proposing a structure which would look something like the following: Z0 �� o�o 00 ° c O .a � N Z cOn AlI m -Ir- 7 m mQ om N ° N 0 cmn � m Z r t!N 2 m -130 v t m� o v°� o Z Z m -9- This structure has several advantages over what has been tried in the past, including the following: O It includes "customers" in the highest level of policy development, the Family and Children's Services Policy Council. O It includes input from both contract agencies and advisory boards on the Family and Children's Services Policy Council. O It provides a structured mechanism by which all contract agencies in the family and children's services area can come together, discuss common concerns and issues and have policy and operational input to the Policy Council through their representative, who must represent the interests of all contract agencies. O It provides a structured mechanism by which all advisory bodies in the family and children's services area can come together, discuss common concerns and issues and have policy and operational input to the Policy Council through their representative, who must represent the interests of all advisory boards. O It does not directly affect the current structure of any of the existing advisory bodies, other than the necessary restructuring of the Policy Academy, Youth Services Board and Expanded Youth Services Board, and strengthens the role of the advisory bodies in relation to the department with which they work most closely. O It does not interfere with the ability or right of any advisory body or contract agency to individually lobby for its own interests with the Board of Supervisors. It does, however, provide the Board of Supervisors with a structured mechanism for getting a broader view of some of the issues which may be brought to the Board by individual agencies or advisory bodies. O It permits individual departments to continue to provide their separate services to the community where those services do not impinge on the work of other departments, while providing a forum in which interdepartmental programs and issues can be discussed and, hopefully, resolved. O It provides a comprehensive structure which the Family and Human Services Committee of the Board of Supervisors can work with on a regular basis to which issues and complaints can be referred and from which the Committee can receive the best overall advice from staff, advisory boards, contract agencies and customers. -10- 4 It builds on the experience of the Policy Academy which has pioneered the effort to bring different voices together, and it creates a clearer path and clearer roles for the provision of policy advice. O It provides a mechanism to establish focused working groups which would develop solutions to identify problems based on broad input. PB:amb FHS-Dept.Ppr. cc: Social Service Director Health Services Director County Probation Officer Community Services Director Juvenile Court Judge Sheriff-Coroner Executive Director, Private Industry Council Superintendent of Schools