Title
Receive a preliminary analysis report in response to Board Referral No. 2025.03 (Askew) seeking to encourage broad diverse applicant pools with transparent outreach.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
a. Receive a preliminary analysis report in response to Board Referral No. 2025.03 (Askew);
b. Receive a demonstration on the new Boards, Commissions, and Committees Application and Administration Portal; and:
1) Direct that staff proceed with completion of referral based on description in this report; or,
2) Direct that staff:
i. Proceed with completion of referral based on modifications by the Board; or,
ii. Return to Board with a more comprehensive analysis of referral and anticipated effort for completion; or,
iii. Rescind referral.
b. Provide further direction, as appropriate.
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS:
Referral Summary & Background:
On April 15, 2025, Supervisor Wendy Root Askew submitted Board Referral No. 2025.03. The referral seeks to ensure compliance with the Maddy Act. The Maddy Act Government Code 54972 requires local agencies to post a list of upcoming board and commission vacancies. The goal of this referral is to increase the transparency of outreach and encourage broad and diverse applicant pools for County Board, Committees, and Commissions (BCCs), and Special Districts.
To achieve this goal and to comply with the Maddy Act the Clerk of the Board's Office, in partnership with the Information Technology Department, developed a new and improved web application to help manage all Boards, Commissions, and Committees in October 2023.
This new application displays accurate meeting information, board legislative references, a list of current appointments, unscheduled vacancies and vacancies for the current year and the upcoming year and automatically calculates vacancies based on the current memberships and appointments to the different Boards, Commissions and Committees. This enables compliance with the Maddy Act and is expected to greatly streamline our current manual process by eliminating duplication of edits to keep the information up to date. Since the application was developed there have been two more implementations. In March 2024, the Administration for Supervisorial staff and Clerk was implemented and in June 2024, the public website American with Disabilities Act and mobile friendly updates were implemented which are both in use. Although, the application has been developed there is still further work that needs to be done by the Clerk of the Board's office, however, this endeavor may not come to fruition due to the lack of resources.
Our IT Department will provide a demonstration of the new application on Tuesday, May 13, 2025.
When the new application was developed, data was migrated from the existing system. However, the original application included only a partial list of the Boards, Commissions, and Committees, not the full set. It is essential that the new application is fully populated with all Boards, Commissions, and Committees to ensure transparency and provide access for those interested in volunteering. Completing this data entry is a crucial step in achieving the goals outlined in this referral, as it will enable the successful execution of items 1 through 4 listed below.
Project Description:
This referral directs the addition of a standing item to the "Appointments" section of the Board’s meeting agendas, including a report outlining the following items for all BCCs and Special Districts to which the Board is the appointing authority:
1. Immediate/unscheduled, overdue/term-expired, and upcoming/term-expiring vacancies;
2. Name of incumbent or last known appointee, date of initial appointment, date the current term expires, and nominating Supervisor/Board/District.
3. Active hyperlink to relevant webpage with BCC or Special District bylaws and information on necessary qualifications for the position, or attachment if information is not available on a webpage; and,
4. An attachment of each of the newspaper advertisements and social media posts placed by the County in the preceding month for upcoming term vacancies/expirations.
Estimated Project Cost: Total projected cost to complete this request is approximately $145,000 annually. The total amount accounts for additional staffing ($125,000) and advertising costs ($20,000).
Staffing Level Estimate: It is anticipated that one additional full-time employee (FTE) would be needed within the department to advance this effort. This position would be tasked with building out and maintaining the new Boards, Commissions and Committees application, including the review and maintenance of appointments and reappointments in compliance with the Maddy Act. Additional support will be provided by the CAO-Communications team as it relates to advertising vacancies on the County’s webpage and social media outlets.
Departmental Challenges: The Clerk of the Board supports the goals of increasing public awareness and diversifying applicant pools. However, at the present time, the department does not have sufficient staffing and budgetary resources to fully implement the proposed actions. Additional resources are needed as referenced in the projected cost section of this report.
Proposed Response Date: To be determined pending Board direction.
Prepared by: Valerie Ralph, Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, Ext. 5428
Approved by: Susan Blitch, County Counsel, Ext. 5161; Nick Chiulos, Assistant County Administrative Officer, Ext. 5145
Attachments:
Board Report - Preliminary Analysis Report
Board Referral No. 2025.03