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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 03291988 - IO.1 i O• TO. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS FROM: ContraINTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE C^�n DATE: March 21, 1988 CO^ SUBJECT: Status Report on Various Child Care Issues SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATIONS) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Recognize the Contra Costa Child Care Council as the Child Care Coordinating Body for Contra Costa County. The mission of this coordinating role, as spelled out in the original Child Care Task Force report in 1985, should be to: " . . .assist in the development and the retention of licensed child care facilities in the County to meet the . demand brought about by economic growth and the increase of the single parent family. It will address such areas as availability, affordability, . and quality of care. It will, strive to assist all concerned entities by .monitoring the overall effectiveness of this industry and will maintain open lines of communication with all participating cities. It will have no jurisdictional authority, but rather will focus on the needs of this industry and will affect change as it pertains to availability, affordability, and quality of care. " In its role as the Child Care Coordinating Body for Contra Costa Countythe primary purpose of the organization: " . ..will be to increase and direct resources from all parts of the community to the development of child care services. It is intended to support and expand existing direct or indirect. services, not to duplicate them. The organization will work closely with child care agencies and funders to achieve the goals as described in the Child' Care Task Force Report. " 2. Authorize the Internal Operations Committee to designate a committee of child care experts ' to work with the County Administrator' s Office to report to our Committee June 20, 1988 on the following: a) . What is the current federal and state law regarding income tax credits for child care expenses? CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT. X YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE_ _ APPROVE OTHER �� SIGNATURE(Sl: Sunne W. McPeak p Tom Torlakson ACTION OF BOARD ON March 29, 1988 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER X APPROVED Recommendations #1 through 8 and #10 through 17; AMENDED Recommendation #9 to agree in concept to the establishment of a child care affordability fund, to REFER the question of criteria for child care assistance back to the Internal Operations Committee for a more detailed report, and to REFER the issue of the dedication of sales tax revenues from the Pleasant Hill BART Station area and Buchanan Field to the Finance Committee for further review. VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS (ABSENT III 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: Listed on Page 5 ATTESTED _ � "-9 /98.8 r -- PHIL BATCHELOR, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR BY ,DEPUTY M382/7-83 — Page 2 b) . What is the current federal and state law regarding the availability of employee deferred compensation programs whereby employees can forego up to $5000 of their income and ask the employer to use the funds for child care? c) . What is considered the most advantageous combination of these programs in terms of assisting working parents at various income levels with their child care expenses? 3 . Request the County Administrator to furnish our Committee on June 20 with a copy of and an analysis of the Act for Better Child Care, proposed federal legislation which would provide $2 . 5 billion to assist in providing more and better child care nationally. 4. Request the County Administrator to furnish our Committee on June 20 with copies of and an analysis of all child care legislation currently pending in the California Legislature and the status of each bill. 5 . Agree to explore interim funding for approximately three years for the Child Care Council in their coordinating role from grants from foundations. Request the Director of Community Development to prepare and present to our Committee on May 23 appropriate grant applications. Request that the Director of Community Development advise our Committee immediately if his staff is unable to prepare the necessary grant applications in a timely manner so we can consider the use of an outside consultant for this purpose. 6 . Indicate the Board' s intent to continue funding for the Child Care Council' s Coordinating role from the Transient Occupancy Tax from any hotel built within the Pleasant Hill-BART Station redevelopment project area. 7 . Request the Child Care Council to prepare and submit to the Community Development Department for their review and submission to our Committee on June 20 a proposal whereby the Child Care Council would assist the Community Development Department in the development of criteria for the child care needs assessment which must be prepared by developers pursuant to Ordinance Code Section 82-22. 806; would review the needs assessment for adequacy, and would facilitate a dialogue between the County and the developer in regard to compliance with ordinance 88-1. 8 . Pending the completion, approval, and implementation of the agreement noted in recommendation #7 above, encourage the Director of Community Development to use members of the Board of Directors of the Child Care Council to perform an informal review of the developer ' s needs assessment and offer their comments and recommendations to the Director of Community Development. 9 . Agree in concept to the establishment of a child care affordability fund to assist parents whose child care expenses exceed 10-20% of their gross income. Approve dedication of 50% of sales tax revenues from the Pleasant Hill BART Station area and Buchanan Field to the child care affordability fund. 10. Request the Director of Community Development to determine how much the Transient Occupancy Tax is expected to generate once the Embassy Suites Hotel in the Pleasant Hill-BART Station Redevelopment Project area is operational. i Page 3 11 . Request the Director of Community Development, Auditor-Controller and Public Works Director to determine how much additional sales tax revenue can reasonably be expected to be generated from planned development in the Pleasant Hill-BART Station Redevelopment Project area and at Buchanan Field Airport, and report their conclusions to our Committee on June 20 , 1988. 12 . Approve in concept the implementation of the pre-tax deferral of income by County employees for the purpose of paying for child care expenses effective July 1, 1988 referenced in recommendation 2 b. above, and request the Director of Personnel to report to our Committee in more detail on June 20 on the planned implementation of the program for County employees. 13 . Request the Director of Personnel to determine the feasibility of the County' s making its computer program, and other implementation plans for the pre-tax deferral of income for child care, available to private employers in the County and report to our Committee on his conclusions and recommendations at our meeting on June 20, 1988 . 14. Request the Director of Personnel to provide a status report to our Committee on June 20 on plans to develop a sick child care program for County employees based on his report to our Committee dated March 15, 1988. 15. Request the Social Services Director to provide our Committee a further status report on June 20, 1988 on plans to insure the provision of child care to GAIN recipients, based on the Department' s memorandum to the County Administrator' s Office dated March 16, 1988. 161. Request the County Administrator to identify for our Committee on June 20 surplus County-owned land which might be suitable for one or another of a variety of entertainment projects which the County might enter into on a private-public sector project basis to provide revenue for child care programs. 17 . Leave this item on referral to our Committee and authorize our Committee to hold a special meeting June 20 , 1988 on this subject, as outlined above. BACKGROUND: On January 26 , 1988, the Board of Supervisors approved recommendations of various Board Members, as follows: 1) that the Internal Operations Committee meet with the Child Care Task Force on the implementation of Ordinance 88-1 throughout 1988; 2) that the Internal Operations Committee is requested to review the issue of sick child care; 3 ) that the Internal Operations Committee is requested to review the provision of child care for GAIN participants. In addition, the Board of Supervisors, on February 23 , 1988 referred to the Internal Operations Committee several child care affordability proposals and issues to review with the Child Care Task Force. Page 4 On March 21, 1988, the Internal Operations Committee held a special meeting to review these referrals. Present were representatives from the Child Care Council, the Child Care Task Force, the Social Services Department, Personnel Department, Community Development Department, County Counsel' s Office, and County Administrator' s Office. Our Committee reviewed the recommendations of the Child Care Task Force and written reports from the Social Service Department and Personnel Department. Copies of these latter reports are attached. In terms of the implementation of the Child Care Ordinance, Ordinance 88-1, the Community Development Department has development applications on file which need to be reviewed in terms of the adequacy of their child care needs assessments. We do not yet have in place criteria on which to measure the completeness or adequacy of these assessments. These need to be developed. In addition, the Board of Supervisors needs to designate a body to perform the coordinating role outlined in the Child Care Task Force Report. We believe that the Child Care Council should be designated as this coordinating body, and that they should develop the criteria and definitions of a child care needs assessment which are required in order to properly evaluate development applications. In the meantime, we believe the Community Development ,Department should utilize the Council to review pending development applications and work with the Community Development Department and developers to negotiate adequate needs assessments. In order to finance the Council' s work in this regard, we believe that the Transient Occupancy Tax .(TOT) from the hotels being developed at the Pleasant Hill-BART Station should be used. In the meantime, we believe grant applications should be submitted to a number of foundations which we believe are interested in funding this type of innovative child care program. The Child Care Task Force report also expressed concern about the affordability of child care. It was noted that the cost of child care for two children in California currently is $6000 a year while the average income for a woman working outside the home is $12, 500 per year. In order to address this problem, our Committee wants to take a look at current laws which provide either income tax deductions for child care, or which allow an employer to withhold a , designated amount of salary from an employee to be used to pay for child care. The amount--up to a maximum of $5000 per year--is not taxed by the federal government, and is not available to the employee in case child care needs cease to exist. We want to explore the advantages and disadvantages of these various tax incentive programs and determine which are most appropriate at various income levels. There is also pending federal and state legislation we would like to review and on which we may want to recommend that the Board take a position. In order to address the issue of affordability at the local level, we. want to explore the possibility of a surcharge on the TOT from the Pleasant Hill-BART Station, the use of increased sales tax revenue from new development at the Pleasant Hill-BART Station and Buchanan Field Airport, and possibly a surcharge on the TOT at the Pleasant Hill-BART Station hotel. Page 5 The Personnel Department has plans to implement the pre=tax child care fund for County employees as of July 1, 1988. We want to approve and encourage the implementation of this program on July 1, 1988. We also want to help private industry in the County, particularly small businesses, to- make use of this pre-tax benefit. We believe that the County' s program may be transferrable to private sector businesses and want to explore that option. The Director of Personnel also has developed plans for a sick child care program as is outlined in the attached report. We want to encourage this effort and continue to receive progress reports on its development. The Social Service Department outlined the problems which are likely to occur with GAIN participants who participate in the program and gain employment. While their full child care costs are paid during training and for three months thereafter, there are inadequate provisions made for subsidized child care thereafter: This lends all the more urgency to the need for a child care affordability fund. We want to continue to follow this issue very closely and continue to receive progress reports from the Social Services Department. Another innovative private-public sector venture we want to explore is the possibility of establishing an amusement and/or recreation project for children and young people which could meet the twin goals of giving young people something to do in terms of recreational activity and also make money for the child care affordability fund. As a result, we want to Took at all available surplus County property which might be made available for this purpose. As a result of . this very productive discussion, we have formulated the above recommendations which we urge the Board of Supervisors to approve. cc: County Administrator Community Development Director Personnel Director Social Services Director Child Care Council Public Works Director County Counsel ,