To: Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): County Administrator’s Office
Staff Name and Phone Number: Marcie Woychik 707-565-2241
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Agenda Coordination Improvements
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
A) Adopt resolution adding Department Analyst to the County Administrator’s Office Clerk of the Board Division to establish resource dedicated to daily Agenda Coordination to serve as administrator of agenda systems.
B) Adopt resolution adjusting the FY 2020-21 adopted budget to program additional staffing costs for the County’s Agenda Coordination program. (4/5th Vote Required)
end
Executive Summary:
The County Administrator’s Office seeks to add one full-time department analyst to the Clerk of the Board division. The working title would be Agenda Coordinator. The Clerk of the Board division provides many essential, mandated services including providing public access to Board of Supervisors meetings and content. Increased demand in technological access and meeting volume necessitates a dedicated position of agenda coordinator. The item request adding one full time position Department Analyst and increasing the County Administrator’s Clerk of the Board’s budget for increased staffing costs financed with existing General Fund appropriations.
Note: During FY 20/21 budget hearings the Board provided 3-years of PG&E funds to restore a communications position within the CAO/BOS department. The communications position was 1 of 18.5 positions throughout the organization funded with 3-years of PG&E funds by the Board. The proposed new position within the CAO/BOS department will be funded this fiscal year with existing appropriations made available as a result of using Cable Franchise Fees to replace general fund dollars for the Constituent Engagement System for which we are currently reviewing vendor responses. Although the addition of the new Agenda Coordinator (Department Analyst) will require increased general fund dollars in future budgets, the new position is critical to support the needs of the Board of Supervisor meetings and therefore is being recommended for funding notwithstanding that the Department will need to find additional funding support in the future for the communications position when the 3-year funding expires on June 30, 2023.
Discussion:
Throughout the past decade, Board of Supervisors meetings have changed significantly. A variety software suites have been made available to improve mandated services, public access, and meeting content. Since 2017, a pattern of shifting environmental and social and factors have stressed the demand for immediate meeting facilitation. Additionally, the volume of meetings have steadily increased further pressing the Clerk of the Board workload.
The Clerk of the Board division uses a variety of available software suites to modernize public access. These include Granicus products such as Legistar, InSite, Media Manager, Live Manager, and GovDelivery. Each product contributes to the process in providing public access to meetings and content. Expertise is required in order to properly utilize these services. A dedicated individual is needed to execute procedures, ensure training and continuity of operations, and to ensure consistent high-quality service is provided to public recipients.
The demand to hold Board meetings and address urgent community needs has steadily increased since 2017. Each subsequent year the Clerk of the Board division has swiftly and with precision held special and emergency meetings with little available time over a variety of formats and locations. This became more evident throughout the ongoing COVID-19 emergency. The Clerk of the Board was tasked with developing meeting procedures, agenda instructions, and meeting content for a format never utilized in Brown Act meetings. This dynamic structure has increased Clerk of the Board workload and requires a dedicated staff member to ensure that mandated deadlines and public access is achieved.
The number of Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meetings has nearly doubled over the past 10 years. The years 2019 and 2020 represented the largest number of meetings with a total of 57 and 60 meetings respectively. Throughout this duration, the Clerk of the Board division has not had a change to its position allocation list. Each meeting has a significant amount of staff time associated with it. Existing staff capacity is stretched to meet the demands of the current volume of meetings. The agenda coordinator addition will ensure that adequate staffing is dedicated exclusively to managing the cycle of Board meeting content and publishing for public access.
The Agenda Coordinator will be responsible for the agenda management cycle. This includes:
• Administrative management of agenda content within Legistar
• Coordination of meeting calendar and content with the Chair of the Board and the County Administrator
• Providing draft agendas and upcoming calendar information to department personnel
• Updating the public InSite calendar
• Programming all administrative components in Legistar
• Managing meeting content in Media Manager
• Posting Notices to GovDelivery
• Publishing agendas and content to the public website (InSite)
• Revising and maintaining current software user manuals for county users
• Developing new public facing resources for meeting access
• Creating training modules for the county learning management software
The addition of an Agenda Coordinator in the Clerk of the Board Division is critical in order to effectively execute mandated services and provide exceptional public service. The proposed addition uses existing General Fund appropriations within the Non-Departmental budget intended to finance the exploration and procurement of a constituent engagement and education system. Given the Public, Educational, and Governmental access nature of the constituent engagement project, staff recommends instead to use accumulated PEG funds to support that project, and release existing General Fund appropriation to finance the new Agenda Coordinator position. Ongoing operational cost will be included as part of the annual budgets.
As a related note, CAO staff is continuing to review opportunities for the use of PEG funds to support other communication needs including translation services. The CAO’s office has been coordinating with the Equity Officer who is in the process of developing a draft translation policy for the Board to consider at the beginning of 2021.
Prior Board Actions:
June 11, 2020 Resolution Adopting the FY 2020-21 Budget
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 20-21 Adopted |
FY21-22 Projected |
FY 22-23 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
|
$167,811 |
$172,845 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
$106,417 |
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$106,417 |
$167,811 |
$172,845 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund |
$106,417 |
$167,811 |
$172,845 |
|
State/Federal |
|
|
|
|
Fees/Other |
|
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
|
|
|
|
Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$106,417 |
$167,811 |
$172,845 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
Existing General Fund appropriations within the Non-Departmental budget intended to finance the exploration and procurement of a constituent engagement and education system are available to be redirected for this request. Given the Public, Educational, and Governmental access nature of the project currently being financed with General Fund, staff recommends instead to use accumulated PEG funds to support the project, and release existing General Fund appropriation to finance the new Agenda Coordinator position cost. Ongoing operational cost will be included as part of the annual budgets. The estimated FY 20-21 is prorated for a partial year assuming an 11/10/2020 effective date; the projected annual costs in FY 21-22 and FY 22-23 assumes an average 3% annual salary and benefits annual adjustments.
|
Staffing Impacts: |
|
|
|
|
Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
|
Department Analyst |
$5,694 - $7,248 |
1.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
None
Attachments:
Resolution amending CAO department allocation
Resolution adjusting the CAO’s FY 2020-21 Adopted Budget
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None