Marin County is going to spend $500,000 for some expert advice on whether it needs a makeover and, if it does, what needs changing.
County supervisors voted unanimously to approve the expenditure Tuesday at the recommendation of Derek Johnson, who started work as the county executive at the end of April. Johnson was previously city manager of San Luis Obispo.
“From my perspective, we’re going to have to peel back all layers of the onion, so to speak,” Johnson told supervisors.
“We’re facing challenges unlike we’ve ever faced before, whether it’s sea-level rise, homelessness or housing,” he said. “The way we’ve done things before may work, but they likely need to be adjusted into the future.”
The plan approved Tuesday calls for hiring a consultant to do the analysis. The organizational and operational assessment will initially focus on the Marin County Community Development Agency, the Department of Public Works and the Marin Housing Authority.
“We will be asking vendors to provide us a plan and a scope of work that could be applied to all departments on a case-by-case basis,” Josh Swedberg, the county’s budget director, told supervisors.
The consultant will be asked to examine the organizational structures of the housing agency and the two county departments to assess the clarity of employee roles and accountability for decisions. Their portfolio of programs will also be examined to determine whether they align with county supervisors’ priorities.
“We want to provide recommendations on how to effectively use limited resources,” Swedberg said. “We can’t do everything.”
As an example of possible structural changes, Johnson said that having county purchasing, hazardous waste response and search and rescue overseen by the public works department, as Marin County does, is unusual.
In June, the Marin County Civil Grand Jury issued a report recommending that responsibility for overseeing a county-issued credit card used by nearly 300 employees be transferred to the county’s Department of Finance. It is overseen jointly by the public works and finance departments.
“There is no system in place that adequately documents, tracks and remedies CAL-Card violations,” the report stated.
Another key area for the operational assessment is staff retention and training. As of September, 9% of the county’s more than 2,000 positions were unfilled, said Christina Cramer, the employment director. That’s an improvement from January, when 10.8% of positions were unfilled.
Some departments are feeling the pinch more than others. The vacancy rate was more than 24% in the probation department in September; more than 15% in cultural services and child support services; 14% in the Community Development Agency; and 13.4% in public works.
Johnson said that over the last two years the county has experienced 42% turnover of its employees.
“We have to rethink how we onboard people and how we train them,” he said.
Johnson said evaluating the possibilities for digitizing services and harnessing artificial intelligence will be part of the assessment.
Supervisor Katie Rice asked Johnson to elaborate on why he is including the Marin Housing Authority in the assessment.
The housing agency is a public corporation that is separate from county government, even though its seven-member board includes the five county supervisors.
Johnson said he envisions the county partnering with the housing authority to provide more resources for the organization to “deliver its mission.” This would include assistance with finance, human resources and information technology.
“At the end of the day, we all recognize that the Marin Housing Authority is the key mechanism by which the county delivers affordable housing,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he has had preliminary conversations with the county counsel on developing a memorandum of understanding between the county and the authority. He said the agreement would “encapsulate potential initiatives that may require county investments to move forward some strategic initiatives that the authority has related to the disposition and status of certain housing projects.”
The housing authority, which relies on limited federal funding, has been laboring for years to complete the rehabilitation of Golden Gate Village, the Marin City public housing project it oversees. Johnson said he discussed the decision to include the housing authority in the assessment with its director, Kimberly Carroll, and she was supportive.
Another key area in the assessment will is service delivery. In addition to ensuring that services are being provided in an efficient and equitable way, the assessment will determine if there is a need for more coordination of programs and services both within and across departments.
“There needs to be a strong synergy and collaboration between community development and public works,” Johnson said.
He said the assessment will evaluate recent complaints from planning commissioners that county planners have been overly deferential to state housing officials when dealing with new mandates to approve housing projects.
“I think we want to look at how we are engaging the public,” Johnson said. “Are we using the Planning Commission in an effective way? Are we centering their voice in policy discussions?”
He said the assessment would also likely evaluate a new streamside conservation area ordinance in San Geronimo Valley, which has come under fire lately for being overly strict.
