Title
Adopt a Resolution in response to Board of Supervisors Referral 2013.20 establishing a Monterey County Board Policy Manual to be a central repository for non-codified County policies.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors approve a resolution in response to Board of Supervisors Referral 2013.20 establishing a Monterey County Board Policy Manual to be a central repository for non-codified County policies.
SUMMARY:
Board of Supervisors Referral 2013.20 identified the need to create a central repository for non-codified policies and/or guidelines that relate to the conduct of the public’s business. Staff have been gathering and reviewing relevant policies and/or guidelines, and it is now appropriate for the Board to take action to establish the Policy Manual and give further direction regarding its maintenance, oversight and updating. A funding stream to maintain and revise the Board Policy Manual has not yet been determined. The CAO-Intergovernmental & Legislative Affairs Division will temporarily manage the Policy Manual until permanent oversight has been assigned by the CAO.
DISCUSSION:
In late 2013, the Board of Supervisors established referral 2013.20 that called for the creation of a central repository for non-codified policies and/or guidelines that relate to the conduct of the public’s business. The referral was assigned to the CAO, Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs (IGLA) Division to work with County Counsel on this project.
The Monterey County Board Policy Manual, the short title of which will be the County Policy Manual, has been created using a Content Management System (CMS). Staff have worked with County departments since March 2014 to collect all non-codified policies and/or department guidelines. The collected documents have been stored in the CMS and will be reviewed by County Counsel staff to insure the documents are appropriate for the manual. At this time, the manual is an internal draft. The next step in the process is for a review of each document by the CAO’s office and County Counsel’s office.
The process to collect and upload these County and department documents has taken significant time. Some policies are outdated and some are obsolete, such as the County Dress Code Policy. CAO-IGLA staff will make recommendations to review, refine and in some cases, rewrite specific policies and/or guidelines as appropriate. Once the Board Policy Manual has undergone internal review, it will be presented to the Board of Supervisors for approval
The CAO-IGLA Division absorbed the costs to create the Board Policy Manual. The unbudgeted cost for this project to date is $3,289. There is significant staff time that the CAO_IGLA and other departments have absorbed to accomplish the tasks to date. To complete and prepare the Board Policy Manual for the Board of Supervisors presentation, staff estimates that an additional $3,000 will be needed in this fiscal year. Similar funding will be needed each year a review and update is conducted. As follows, future costs have been identified by Information Technology:
• Adding a new document to an existing CMS department = 2 hours @$121/hour
• Revising an existing document = 0.25 hours @ $121/hour
Staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors direct all County Departments to work with CAO-IGLA staff to insure department documents have been submitted for review. Once the Board Policy Manual has been completed and published on the County of Monterey webpage, staff recommends the CAO assign permanent oversight to maintain and work with departments to update.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
All County Departments received a request to forward relevant policies and/or department guidelines to staff for inclusion in the Board Policy Manual.
FINANCING:
The initial project cost for the Board Policy Manual was absorbed the County Administrative Office - Department 1050, Intergovernmental & Legislative Affairs (IGLA) Division - Unit 8054. No funding was budgeted in FY 2016-14 for this project. It is estimated that project costs for FY 2016-17 will be $3,000 and will be absorbed in the County Administrative Office - Department 105, IGLA Division - Unit 8054. Future years’ costs for maintaining the Board Policy Manual will have to be budgeted within the permanently assigned department.
Prepared by: Joann Iwamoto, Management Analyst, x3017
Approved by: Nicholas E. Chiulos, Assistant CAO, x5145
Attachments
Board Policy Manual Resolution