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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 07171990 - 2.1 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Contra CostaFROM: •;_ .• Phil Batchelor, County Administrator . _ - ;a 4° County DATE: July 12, 1990 SUBJECT: APPLICATIONS FOR CSAC CHALLENGE AWARDS PROGRAMS SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECONIlK MATIONS: Approve and authorize the Chair to sign on behalf of the Board of Supervisors and authorize the County Administrator to submit on behalf of the Board of Supervisors six applications to the County Supervisors ' Association of California for the CSAC Challenge Awards Program. BACKGROUND: The County Supervisors ' Association of California is sponsoring the CSAC Challenge Award Program this year. The purpose of the awards program is to demonstrate and document how counties are meeting the challenges of today and tomorrow. The awards will honor those projects and programs which best serve county residents and provide information to Californians about outstanding, innovative programs. CSAC has designated six categories in which awards will be granted. These are: * Administration of Justice * Agriculture and Natural Resources * Government Finance and Operations * Health and Human Services * Housing, Land Use and Transportation * Public/Private Partnerships. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENTYeUS YES SIGNATURE: Y� 4 RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE(S): cidp&' X" ACTION OF BOARD ON JLly 17 , 1990 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED X. OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS 1 HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS(ABSENT 1, IV ) 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 7 IV90 PH BATCH OR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF Please See Page 4 . SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR BY DEPUTY M382 (10/88) ~ _ -2- CSAC will award one Grand Prize and two Special Recognition Awards in each category. The awards will be made at the CSAC Annual Meeting in Orange County on November 29, 1990. The County Administrator' s Office has reviewed a number of recommendations from departments for programs which might be nominated. We . have selected the following for the Board's consideration. If the Board approves these six nominations, applications will be. submitted to CSAC by their deadline of July 20, 1990. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE: Our nomination in this category is the Municipal Court' s "Auto-Cite Program". This program, alternately referred to as the paperless parking ticket program, allows a police officer to issue a citation for a parking violation and allows the Municipal Court to process the citation without ever, handling a piece of paper, other than the copy of the citation which is left for the vehicle owner. The police officer uses a hand-held computer terminal which is pre-programmed with the officer' s name and the general area in which the officer issues citations. When a vehicle is identified which has violated a parking law, the officer enters the necessary identifying information into the hand-held computer terminal, which issues a citation. The terminal also has had downloaded into it information on all unpaid citations. If a vehicle is spotted which has at least five unpaid citations, the officer can verify that fact on, the spot and have the vehicle towed. At the end of the day the information from the officer' s computer is transferred into the Municipal Court' s computer without any actual paper being processed. The vehicle owner pays his or her ticket by mail and the citation is cleared on the computer. If the ticket is not paid on time, the computer automatically issues a notice to the vehicle owner. Currently only the Walnut Creek Police Department is using this system, but plans are being made to add the BART police to the system in the near future. The Walnut Creek Judicial District processes 100,000 parking citations a year, 70,000 of which are from the Walnut Creek Police Department. The implementation of this system has improved accuracy, reduced staffing needs in the court, eliminated the processing of tens of thousands of pieces of paper each year and made the entire operation much more efficient. AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES: Our nomination in this category is the "COMET Program" , a cooperative effort by the County, the City of Richmond and the citizens of North Richmond. The effort is designed to make one of the poorer areas of the County a better place to live. The program includes 20 separate components, including the planting of 1000 trees; neighborhood landscaping and beautification projects.; a paper, bottle and can recycling program; and creek and shoreline restoration projects. GOVERNMENT FINANCE AND OPERATIONS: Our nomination in this category is the "Productivity Investment Fund" , an innovative effort to fund projects which actually save money and make the County more efficient. The Productivity Investment Fund is a revolving loan program. All County departments may apply for funding of one-time investments which will have hard dollar savings for the on-going operations of departments. The Fund was established in 1986 by the Board of Supervisors as a cost savings incentive program. Initially the Board of Supervisors made $100,000 available to capitalize the program. Additional funding has been committed each year since. An average of $29,000 per project has been loaned to date to -3- stimulate innovation and improve processes that . do not need sustained funding. Each project must generate hard dollar savings, and the participating department must pay back the loan within a two year period. Upon payback of the loan, the department is able to . retain the savings in its budget year after year to offset operating costs. If savings . are not realized, the department must anteup the loan repayment from its own departmental funds. The Productivity Investment Fund is administered by the County Administrator's Office and is governed by a five member board. The board evaluates the appropriateness of the proposed projects and makes funding recommendations. Final approval of projects is given by the Board of Supervisors. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Our nomination in this category is the "Interagency Family Preservation Program" . This program, which is administered by the Social Services Department with cooperation from the Probation Department, Mental Health Division of the Health Services Department and Office of the County Superintendent of Schools, is designed to test the theory that keeping a family together rather than placing a child in foster care is better for the family, less expensive for the County and is feasible if intensified services are provided to an at-risk family over a short period of time. The project, which is currently funded with private foundation funds, is the subject of legislation sponsored by the Board of Supervisors (AB 2939 Campbell) . The program carefully selects families where a child is about to be placed in foster care because of neglect or abuse in the family. An intensive team effort from the departments involved is directed at the family to assist in stabilizing the family and eliminating the problems which led to the conclusion that the child had to be placed outside of the home. The project currently operates in the East County area but will be expanded countywide if AB 2939 is passed and signed by the Governor. Savings in foster care funds will be used . to finance the intense team effort necessary to keep the family together. The evidence thus far is that this effort more than pays for itself and actually reduces the need to place a child in out-of-home care or reduce the time alchild must be in placement. HOUSING, LAND USEiAND TRANSPORTATION: i Our nomination !in this category is the County's "Growth Management Program" . This unique program requires that as a condition of receiving funds from the 'voter approved 1/2 cent sales tax measure, a jurisdiction must approve a growth management element in its General Plan. This includes a requirement that the jurisdiction adopt traffic level of service standards outlined in the growth management program and apply them to development applications. The jurisdiction must also adopt a five year capital improvement program which outlines capital projects necessary to meet and/or maintain the Traffic Service standards which are adopted. The program must also include performance standards for fire, police, parks, sanitary facilities, water and flood control which are maintained through capital projects. ! The performance standards are to be included in each jurisdiction' s General Plan. The program must also contain a development mitigation program to ensure that new growth is paying) its share of the costs associated with the growth generated ] by the development. The program must also contain a transportation systems management ordinance or alternative mechanism to promote carpools, vanpools and park and ride lots. PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: Our nomination in this category is the County' s "Private/Public Executive Council', . The Board of Supervisors directed the County I I ti i Administrator. to establish a forum in which the County could receive advice and consultation from. private sector firms in the County. The County Administrator meets on a quarterly basis with private sector managers. In addition, the County Administrator has. formed a Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) which includes representative department heads from throughout the County. The PAC meets several times a year with private sector officials in an effort to learn more about how the private sector manages and what the County can learn from the private sector which can be applied in managing the public sector. The Private/Public Executive Council has addressed the issue of automation in government, has assisted the County in developing the "Efficiency and Economy" Report, has jointly sponsored the production of "Raising Parents - Nine Powerful Principles" and has advised the County in numerous other areas. The Policy Advisory Committee has met with representatives from Chevron, Pacific Bell, Dow Chemical, Shell Oil, Lesher Communications, Bank of America, Automotive Machinists Union Local 1173 and other major employers in the County. The County department heads have learned more about the training resources available from the private sector, how the private sector addresses labor-management issues, how the private sector handles reductions in funding and how the private sector sees its responsibility to relate to the community in which it lives. cc: County Administrator Municipal Court Administrator John Gregory, CAO's Office Tony Enea, Deputy County Administrator Social Services Director Public Works Director Community Development Director Dean Lucas, Deputy County Administrator