Agenda - 06-19-2018 8-a - Minutes

Browse Search

22 information with a presentation at a Board meeting, an Information Item included on a regular 1 meeting agenda, and/or via email. 2 3 Members of the Board may also individually, or in conjunction with other members of the Board, 4 be in contact with County staff outside of Board meetings and make requests to staff for 5 information, reports to be developed, letters to be written, etc. Staff members move forward to 6 address those requests and subsequently report back to the Board member(s) with 7 conclusions, outcomes, or other information. Staff sharing the results sometimes occurs with a 8 presentation at a Board meeting, an Information Item including on a regular meeting agenda, 9 and/or via email. It also sometimes occurs only with the individual Board member or those 10 members who joined in the request. 11 12 In both instances above, the petitions and requests have an impact on staff responsibilities, 13 priorities, and time. To address this concern, the Board of Commissioners adopted the attached 14 “Guidelines for Commissioner Requests for Information from County Staff” in 2002. The 15 Guidelines provide a framework to assess requests and a review process, especially as it 16 relates to established priorities and duties and the staff time required to address a request. The 17 process entails the Manager and the Board Chair reviewing the request and addressing any 18 concerns identified. 19 20 This item gives the Board the opportunity to discuss the Board’s process for addressing 21 petitions made by Board members at regular meetings and requests that individual Board 22 members may make to staff for reports, research data and/or information outside of regular 23 Board meetings. The Board likely also needs to review the attached Guidelines for any updates 24 or revisions. 25 26 Chair Dorosin said he petitioned for this item, as he had some questions. He used 27 Commissioner McKee as an example, since Commissioner McKee had asked if staff would look 28 at other locations for a detention center, and how much staff time would be needed to do so. 29 Chair Dorosin referred to a policy that addressed this issue, which was adopted in 2002, 30 and provided delineation between less than 2 hours worth of work, and more than 2 hours 31 worth of work. He asked if there is a formula for determining how long work will take. 32 Bonnie Hammersley said if there is a request that is going to take a lot of time, then a 33 department head will contact her to discuss it further, but that has not happened since she has 34 been employed at the County. She said most Commissioners check with her before contacting 35 staff. 36 Commissioner Jacobs agreed, and said requests should include the Board Chair in the 37 conversation. He said this policy came about due to Commissioners wanting to edit documents 38 line by line, and staff waiting at the fax machine for the Commissioners’ final draft to come in. 39 He said it would take hours. He said the policy took Commissioner personalities out of the 40 process, and directed requests through the Manager and the Board Chair. 41 Chair Dorosin said he is comfortable with that process, and did not know there was an 42 existing policy when he first raised the petition. He said he has not received any requests, but if 43 he did, he would bring the request to the full Board for input. 44 Commissioner Rich referred to the example of Commissioner McKee wanting to look at 45 other locations, noting that an email had been sent out at the staff level, but the rest of the 46 board had not weighed in on the request. She asked if there is a process to handle this. 47 Chair Dorosin said staff could produce two hours of work, and pass on any results to the 48 Board. 49