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C. 27
To: Board of Supervisors
From: David Twa, County Administrator
Date: June  20, 2017
The Seal of Contra Costa County, CA
Contra
Costa
County
Subject: 2017 CSAC Challenge Awards
APPROVE OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
Action of Board On:   06/20/2017
APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:
John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Diane Burgis, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor
Contact: B. Riveira, 925-335-1018
I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED:     June  20, 2017
David Twa,
 
BY: , Deputy

 

RECOMMENDATION(S):

AUTHORIZE a letter of authorization from the Chair of the Board for the submission of applications to the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) 2017 Challenge Awards.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The entry fee is $75 for each application. The total entry fee for the nine applications is $675. The entry fee is paid out of the County Administrator Office’s budget.

BACKGROUND:

In April, the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) invited counties to enter their 2017 Challenge Awards competition. The program is intended to recognize the innovative and creative spirit of county governments, who seek to find unique, replicable, effective and cost saving ways of providing programs and services to their citizens. The deadline for entry is a postmark of June 23, 2017.  
  
BACKGROUND: (CONT'D)
    CSAC recognizes counties in three population categories -- rural, urban (representing counties like Contra Costa), and suburban -- and five issue areas:

    1. Administration of Justice & Public Safety – Includes programs associated with local law enforcement and public safety, adult and juvenile detention, and probation.
    1. Agriculture, Environment & Natural Resources – Includes programs associated with agriculture, the environment, air quality, water, flood control, energy, parks and recreation, public lands, forestry, mining, endangered species, solid waste, and hazardous waste.
    2. Government Finance, Administration & Technology – Includes programs associated with internal operations, employee training and wellness, workers’ compensation, public records, technology, economic development, elections, libraries, food safety, and disaster planning/response.
    3. Health & Human Services – Includes programs associated with health care, mental health, homelessness, foster care, child welfare services, adult protective services, IHSS, general assistance, aging, CalWORKs, county hospitals, the indigent, and veterans.
    4. Housing, Land Use & Infrastructure – Includes programs associated with housing, land use, growth, planning, transportation, infrastructure, tribal gaming issues.
    Awards may be presented in three population categories for each of the five issue areas. Two levels of awards will be presented in each category of population: Challenge Awards and Merit Awards. The judges have the flexibility to offer an optional top-level award: The California Counties Innovation Award. Judges will also consider all entries for special awards that are open to all population categories.   
      
    Challenge Award-winning programs receive state and national exposure, are highlighted in county best practices videos, and recognized at Boards of Supervisors meetings. Challenge Awards will be presented in person in the recipient’s county. Merit Awards will be mailed. Award recipients will also be featured on CSAC’s Web site at www.csac.counties.org. This is a great way to let colleagues across the state and nation know about the innovative work we are doing.  
      
    Contra Costa County departments propose to submit the following applications for the 2017 CSAC Challenge Awards:   
      
    1. Contra Costa Fire Public/Private Pre-Hospital Care Program: The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District created a public-private relationship with American Medical Response medical transport to provide a consolidated pre-hospital care system. The efficiency of being able to send the correct resources to an incident and reduce redundancy also reduced costs and added capacity back to the fire system by reducing the number of incidents in which fire trucks respond. The dispatch centers have been consolidated, and a response time reduction of 51 seconds has been realized.   
      
    2. Misdemeanor Early Representation Program (ERP): The Public Defender's Office implemented the ERP to provide immediate representation for persons cited for misdemeanors, before charges are filed, to avoid costly and devastating arrests and jail time. Failure to appear (FTA) rates have dropped dramatically for those served. By tracking court appearance data and trends, ERP has been able to identify factors that contribute to FTA rates and are working with all Justice partners to improve the justice system.  
      
    3. Creek Channel Safety Awareness Program: The Contra Costa County Public Works Flood Control District implemented this program to promote community education and safety in creeks and channels throughout the county to reduce drowning risk. This program gets the safety message out to multiple arenas on an annual basis. There have been neither deaths nor a need to rescue people in any of our creeks or channels since the program began in 2011.  
      
    4. Rain Map App: The Contra Costa Public Works Flood Control District application is an initiative allowing the community to monitor rainfall and potential flooding of creeks and channels within Contra Costa County. The Rain Map App uses Doppler radar data so that the community can view rain coverage and intensity in real time in their specified location. The Rain Map has been instrumental in raising community awareness of potential flooding.  
      
    5. Giving the Natives a Chance (GNC): The Contra Costa County Public Works Flood Control District has initiated an annual community-based planting project that restores native plants to flood control channels. The GNC restoration project showcases the benefits of re-establishing native plant communities along local streams.  
      
    6. Inter-County Business Intelligence Partnership: The Employment and Human Services Department (EHSD) implemented a data warehouse-based dashboard to simplify access to social services program data. This business intelligence has created a strategic advantage, and both Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties are reaping the benefits.  
      
    7. Customer Experience Improvement Project: EHSD improved its call center queuing priorities, preventing callers from sitting in queue for long periods of time until higher priority calls can be answered. This showed an immediate improvement in call distribution, and reduced call abandons and queue times.  
      
    8. Parent Partner Program of Contra Costa County: EHSD implemented this program to match parents in the foster care system with Parent Partners who successfully overcame their own struggles and reunified with their children. Parents who had Parent Partners are about 50 percent more likely to be reunified with their children and 50 percent less likely to experience recidivism.  
      
    9. Recruiting Millennial Poll Workers Program: The Clerk-Recorder created this program to aggressively recruit younger poll workers by making the first contact immediate and simple and by appealing to their natural idealism. Contra Costa County Elections Division's current group of volunteers is aging; in 2012, 60 percent were 61 and older. As a result of the shift in recruitment, almost 40 percent of our 2,526 poll workers in the November election were 40 years or younger.

    CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

    Without a letter of authorization to submit an entry, a department will not be able to compete for a CSAC Challenge Award.

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