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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 07111989 - 1.114 100114 TO: Board of Supervisors FROM: Phil Batchelor, County Administrator eon DATE: July 6, 1989 srA'�o SUBJECT: PROPOSED RESPONSE TO THE 1988-89 GRAND JURY'S REPORT ON STRATEGIC PLANNING Specific Request(s) or Recommendations(s) & Background & Justification RECOMMENDATION: Refer this proposed response to the Grand Jury's report on Strategic Planning to the Internal Operations Committee for their review and subsequent report to the Board of Supervisors. BACKGROUND: Webster defines "strategy"as a careful plan or method for achieving an end. "Strategic"is the adjective form of "strategy". Strategic planning then is a careful method for achieving a desired goal or end. Does Contra Costa County do strategic planning? Of course it does! Any time a department carefully defines a goal and then devises a structured way to achieve that goal, strategic planning is going on. Every time the Board of Supervisors makes a major policy decision and then directs staff to come up with a timetable and method for moving the County in the direction of that policy decision;strategic planning is going on. Among recent examples where such strategic planning has taken place are the following: a The installation of a state-of-the-art telephone system for County services which has improved service and saved the taxpayers $2 million a year for at least the next 10 years. The refinancing of all outstanding debt of the County in order to lower interest charges and improve the County's credit rating. a The implementation of a work alternative program in conjunction with the Sheriff, which allows prisoners to provide hundreds of thousands of hours of productive work. A similar program has been implemented for welfare recipients, which helps them obtain training and productive jobs. Continued on attachment: YES Signature:�� X' Recommendation of County Administrator Recommendation of Board Committee >(' Approve �/� Other: Signature(s):2/4& - Action of Board on: July 11 1989 Approved as Recommended X Other Vote of Supervisors I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN X Unanimous (Absent ) AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE Ayes: Noes: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON DATE SHOWN. Absent: Abstain: JUL 11 1969 Attested Phil Batchelor, Clerk of the Board cc: County Administrator �0of Supervisors and County Administrator Foreman, 1988-89 Grand Jury By Ci /f�t� Deputy Clerk SMH:a(eh)(f�chbo) PROPOSED RESPONSE TO THE 1988-89 GRAND JURY'S REPORT ON STRATEGIC PLANNING July 6, 1989 Page -2- The installation of sophisticated computerized dispatching equipment in the Sheriff's new communications center to insure a prompt and accurate response to any citizen who places a call to 911. The installation of a computerized fingerprint identification program, which is making it possible to apprehend more criminals and solve some as-yet-unsolved cases. 4 The complete renovation and expansion of the Emergency Operations Center to handle all types of emergencies, including the inevitable "big"earthquake. The construction of a new courthouse annex in Martinez. The construction and recent dedication of a new Sheriff's Patrol and Investigation Center. Each of these achievements was the result of long, carefully thought-out planning involving a number of County departments. Several instances have been pointed to recently which were attributed to a lack of planning on the part of the County. In most cases, these problems are due, not to a lack of planning, but a lack of money with which to carry out the planning which has been done. Planning does not produce money to build a new County Hospital,although the County is continuing to do the planning, knowing that the money will be available one way or the other at some point in the future. Planning does not produce the resources to staff and operate the new West County Detention Center,although' the County went ahead with planning the construction of the Center,knowing that it had to be done and that the money would have to be made available when the time came to open the Center. 4 Planning does not finance the replacement of an old sewer system at the Marsh Creek jail. In each of these cases there was plenty of planning. Everyone knew what was needed and what was to be accomplished. But what was lacking was money, not planning. If the County were to wait until the money was identified to construct a new County hospital,the current one would fall down around us. We must undertake several years of planning first so we will be in a position to move quickly when funding becomes available. If we had not undertaken the planning and construction of a new West County Detention Center until we knew where the money was going to come from to operate it, the Courts would in all likelihood have taken the decision away from the County and simply ordered the construction of a new jail. It required several years of planning to construct the West County Detention Center,during which time we were fully aware of what it would take to staff and operate it. The jail will open on time and will be properly staffed. Much inter-departmental planning also goes on. Each of the projects and accomplishments mentioned above required the cooperation and input from many staff in several departments in order to accomplish the project successfully and on time. In the human services area, the Board of Supervisors recognized the interdependence of many health and human services several years ago and established the Youth Services Board,which does planning and problem-solving in the Mental Health, Social Service, Probation and Education areas. The Board of Supervisors also recognized the inter-relationship of many human service programs in 1977 when the Human Services Advisory Commission was created to look at the possibility of setting priorities across program lines in the human services area. While much planning has been done in this area,the various state,federal and local funding streams which support our human service programs cannot, generally, be mixed or diverted from one program priority to another. The Board of Supervisors cannot,for instance,divert federal money from the Private Industry Council to support drug abuse programs for teenagers simply because the Board might feel that drug abuse programs area higher priority. In many instances the program priorities are set in Sacramento or Washington,D.C. - not in Martinez. However, within these constraints the Board of Supervisors has taken a leadership role in the innovative use of funds. PROPOSED RESPONSE TO THE 1988-89 GRAND JURY'S REPORT ON STRATEGIC PLANNING July 6, 1989 Page -3- Currently working its way through the State Legislature is AB 899 (Campbell), which will create a more flexible financing mechanism for Contra Costa County so that the skills of social service, mental health, probation and education staff can be brought to bear on a family to avoid the need to place children in out-of-home care. This legislation,which has been carefully planned by an interdepartmental group of staff,and is sponsored by the Board of Supervisors, will allow the inter-disciplinary Family Preservation Program to be implemented county-wide. Despite all of the planning which is going on, there is probably always room for more planning. If we had some likelihood of being able to predict the future such additional planning would,no doubt,be extremely valuable. The major problem in this regard is being able to predict what actions the state and federal governments will take. Who could have predicted the availability of the Trial Court Block Grant Program a few years ago or when and at what level it would be funded? Who could have predicted the passage of Propositions 98 and 99 two or three years ago? Who today can predict exactly how much money the County will receive from Proposition 99 in the current fiscal year and for what purposes it will be dedicated? Perhaps the best local government can do is to forecast need without being able to forecast resources with any degree of precision. However,there appearsto be littlevalue in simply being able to forecast needs since the 1989-90 County Budget already has some $128 million in unmet and largely justified needs identified. The issue before the Board of Supervisors is whether hiring additional staff to undertake additional planning of this type is a higher priority that providing drug and alcohol abuse prevention services to our young people, providing more adequate child abuse prevention services or arresting and prosecuting criminals. It would appear to be difficult to justify such priority setting. After the issue has been reviewed with the Internal Operations Committee it may be that the Board of Supervisors will want to refer the proposal to increase our planning capabilities to the Budget Committee to consider as the Board considers the 1989-90 Budget for the County.