Title
Chief Administrative Office recommending the Board:
1) Receive an update on the County's Strategic Planning efforts;
2) Approve the current Vision Statement, Mission Statement, and Core Values;
3) Approve the current five Strategic Plan goals of Public Safety, Good Governance, Infrastructure, Economic Development, and Healthy Communities;
4) Discuss and approve recommended changes and additions to the specific priorities and themes relative to each of the five goals; and
5) Direct all Department Heads to incorporate the County's Strategic Plan goals and priorities into their departmental short, middle, and long term goals.
FUNDING: N/A
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
In 2014 the County began the process of developing a Countywide Strategic Plan which was subsequently completed in 2016. During that process, the County engaged in extensive community outreach, which included a 'Citizen Engagement Survey.' As a result of those efforts, the Strategic Plan included five overarching goals: (1) Public Safety, (2) Infrastructure, (3) Good Governance, (4) Economic Development, and (5) Healthy Communities. Normal practice is to develop a strategic plan for an anticipated period of three to five years and to make necessary updates during that time frame. Consistent with that practice, from 2016 to 2019 the Board periodically received updates on the progress being made relative to each goal.
Subsequently, in 2019 the County conducted a major update of the Strategic Plan that included obtaining feedback from many other partners and stakeholders, including County Department Heads and management staff, County Commissions/Committees, fire districts and residents of El Dorado County. While the Mission, Vision, Core Values and Goals remained the same, the County shifted from having very specific tasks and timelines to be completed to a more strategic process of identifying themes and priorities with the intent that departments will focus their internal priorities around the County's overall Strategic Plan.
In 2020 the entire world was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and this resulted in the County having to manage a variety of challenges and priorities that distracted from working on strategic plan priorities. In this regard, all County staff should be commended for their efforts, including all staff that directly assisted with responding to the emergency but also all those staff who ensured other essential county operations and services continued to be provided to our community. Even in light of the COVID pandemic, the County made significant progress in accomplishing the goals of the Strategic Plan over the last year.
Attached are presentations relative to each goal which identify a few of the accomplishments that have been made since the last update in 2019. Based on this information, and considering that much of the past year has been focused on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board should be proud of how all levels of the County continue to work the strategic plan.
Considering the County is now entering year three of the current strategic plan, the Board's executive leadership team of department heads agreed there was no need to conduct a major update of the plan; that the Mission, Vision, Values and Goals should remain the same; and to only make minor adjustments to the priorities and objectives within each goal.
The following is a summary of the priorities, objectives and themes within each goal and any recommended changes:
Public Safety
1) Improved Communication and Coordination between public safety and other agencies and the public.
a) Effective Interagency Emergency Communications
b) Effective non-emergency coordination of communication and data sharing between agencies to improve public safety.
c) Improved External Communications with the public during emergencies.
d) Effective Emergency Preparedness Activities
2) Support Fire District's Reorganization and Consolidation when requested.
3) Support for the mentally ill, homeless and those with substance abuse disorders where Public Safety issues are present.
4) Prevention and Early Intervention Services for Youth.
5) Encourage and support through policy and resources the pursuit of local, state and federal private and public funding opportunities to support the Public Safety Mission in prevention and intervention.
Staff is not recommending any changes to the Public Safety priorities, objectives and themes.
Good Governance
1) Implement systems that improve system-wide process, data sharing and departmental collaboration.
2) Approach large, complex and/or system-wide matters as on organization - Departments will collaborate on projects and efforts that have cross-departmental impacts.
3) Promote the development of resources to identify and pursue additional revenue including local, state, federal and private funding for new and existing projects.
4) Incorporate benchmarks (to other agencies) and best practices to provide context to decisions, using data to inform discussions while promoting efforts to creatively address service delivery.
5) Evaluate requests and recommendations based on complete assessment of the best available information, with the goal of reaching well informed decisions.
6) Create and maintain a supportive culture for all employees through staff engagement in policy and process decisions and through strong labor relations.
Staff is not recommending any changes to the Public Safety priorities, objectives and themes.
Infrastructure
1) Broadband/Technological Connectivity considering into County projects.
a) As County projects come on line, broadband connectivity should be considered and financial feasibility determined.
2) Improve Road Maintenance
3) Analyze need, coordinate and plan for County facilities, parks and trails including ongoing maintenance, operations and replacement.
a) Includes review of County General Plan and Parks Master Plan
4) Encourage and support through policy and resources the pursuit of local, state, and federal, private, and public funding opportunities to support the County's infrastructure.
Staff is recommending the existing priorities, objectives and themes remain unchanged. In addition, based on input received from staff, individual Board members and other partners, the Board should consider adding the following:
5) Work collaboratively with the El Dorado County Transportation Commission, City of Placerville, City of South Lake Tahoe, CalTrans and other stakeholders as necessary to develop short, intermediate and long-term plans to address traffic issues and concerns due to the volume of traffic that travels to and from Apple Hill and the Tahoe Basin.
Healthy Communities
1) Achieve sufficient and attainable housing for all El Dorado County residents.
2) Partnering with all stakeholders, continue to prepare to meet the needs of our growing older adult population.
3) Implement solutions to address and reduce homelessness in El Dorado County.
4) Achieve better outcomes for children, young adults and families in the areas of mental illness and substance abuse prevention.
5) Encourage and support through policy and resources the pursuit of local, state and federal, private and public funding opportunities to support and promote healthy communities.
Staff is recommending the existing priorities, objectives and themes remain unchanged. In addition, based on input received from staff, individual Board members and other partners, the Board should consider adding the following:
6) Develop a climate sustainability plan, with an emphasis on forest health and sustainability.
Economic Development
1) Retain, develop and attract businesses that provide job economic sustainability and quality job creation.
a. Continue business attraction and retention incentive efforts to retain, expand and import businesses to El Dorado County.
- Reach out to targeted business sectors for relocation to the County.
- Reach out to local business for expansion incentives.
- Develop business clusters and Geographically-Targeted Economic Development Areas if deemed feasible.
b. Deploy a small business/entrepreneurial development strategy.
c. Implement strategy to promote occupation and telecommuting jobs.
d. Identify what businesses have left the County in the last five years and why.
e. Continue to monitor appropriate and competitive fee levels.
f. Promote and expand agriculture, recreation and tourism (e.g., geotourism and agriculture tourism) and their related businesses.
g. Increase retail opportunities.
2) Increase employment opportunities by improving workforce development skills.
a. Identify current workforce gaps and assets.
b. Identify labor skills gaps and assets.
- Conduct survey with the business community to determine labor skills gap.
- Conduct survey with economic development recruiters and regional economic development organizations to determine labor skills gap.
- Identify skills the County's workforce has in abundance for business attraction.
c. Collaborating with the local school systems, community colleges, and County departments on how to create workforce development classes desired by the market.
- Start workforce round table with business community, education partners and local governments.
3) Invest in infrastructure needs to improve and maintain competitiveness.
a. Conduct a comprehensive land use, water/sewer, gas, electricity, multi-modal transportation, etc. infrastructure needs study to identify potential economic development zones or clusters.
b. Explore Community Choice Aggregation Feasibility(Completed)
c. Encourage development of high speed internet services (broadband and/or WiFi).
d. Explore the use of special financing districts such as Business Improvement Districts, Tourism Improvement Districts, Agriculture Improvement Districts, Tax Increment Financing, etc.
e. Survey the local business community, regional economic development agencies and economic development recruiters on what infrastructure the County lacks.
4) Nurture the County and Community's business friendly environment.
a. Continue to evaluate opportunities to improve County processes that are identified as onerous for the business sector.
b. Actively participate with local, Regional and National organizations to strengthen the County's economic development advantages.
c. Continue to provide expert assistance and guidance to help navigate regulatory requirements in support of business development.
5) Provide attainable housing options - balance jobs with housing.
a. Conduct a gap analysis on what housing options the County is lacking.
b. Research what housing options are needed to support desired business sectors.
c. Determine appropriate mix of housing alternatives for all types of housing including transitional housing, very-low, low, moderate, and above-moderate income housing.
d. Complete a study of housing incentives used by peer counties or cities/towns.
e. Recognize the impact of homelessness of Economic Development and identify methods to assist the chronically homeless with mental illness.
Staff is recommending the existing priorities, objectives and themes remain unchanged with the exception of:
- Theme 2, which states "Increase employment opportunities by improving workforce development skills." Specifically, staff is recommending all sub-categories associated with this theme/priority be removed as Economic Development staff rely on HHSA and Golden Sierra Job Training Agency for their expertise on workforce development.
- Theme 3, which state “Invest in infrastructure needs to improve and maintain competitiveness.” Specifically, staff is recommending the removal of “Explore Community Choice Aggregation Feasibility” as this task has been completed.
In addition, based on input received from staff, individual Board members and other partners, the Board should consider adding the following:
6) Retain, develop and attract businesses that provide job economic sustainability and quality job creation.
a. Develop guiding economic principles to leverage the County's Airports and their ability to become an economic driver for small businesses and tourism.
7) Provide attainable housing options - balance jobs with housing.
a. Analyze if mobile home rental costs are impacting the availability of sufficient and attainable housing for El Dorado County residents.
8) Explore the feasibility of biomass and cogeneration plants
ALTERNATIVES
The Board can choose to make any changes to the Mission, Vision, Values, Goals and objectives/priorities.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
Legistar Number 14-1322 (see multiple versions associated with this item) - Development of the Strategic Plan
Legistar Number 19-0085 - Update to Strategic Plan on June 11, 2019
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
All County Departments
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There are no costs or financial impacts associated with this recommendation.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
N/A
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Public Safety, Good Governance, Economic Development, Infrastructure and Healthy Communities
CONTACT
Don Ashton, MPA
Chief Administrative Officer