Title
Community Development Agency recommending the Board receive and file a status update on the Community Development Agency Fiscal Year 2014/15 Business Plan. (Est. Time: 30 Min.)
Funding: N/A
Body
Fiscal Impact/Change to Net County Cost
There is no Fiscal Impact or change to Net County Cost associated with a a report on the Community Development Agency Business Plan.
Background
On August 25, 2014, staff presented the Community Development Agency (CDA) Fiscal Year (FY) 2014/15 Business Plan to the Board. The plan represents the CDA priorities, goals, work plan and performance measures for the current FY as derived by the CDA Leadership Team.
As an organizational tool, the CDA Business Plan is used to guide the direction, activities, and resource allocations of the Agency. The purpose of this plan is to:
· Outline the highest priority goals and objectives for the next year;
· Identify effective allocation of resources to meet priority goals and objectives;
· Propose an implementation plan, including milestones for each goal;
· Set performance measures to track effectiveness of Agency activities; and
· Report accomplishments for the past year.
Today's hearing is to update the status of the Business Plan halfway through FY14/15.
"Laying the Foundation"
Given that CDA is a relatively new organization, many of the top priorities for FY14/15 focus on building the foundation for a high performance organization. Several of the priorities relate to making improvements internal to CDA and/or how CDA is perceived by its customers.
· Communication: providing better information both to customers and internally to CDA staff. This includes using internet and intranet tools to make information more widely available, better marketing of CDA services and information, etc.
· Improved Processes: creating/revising internal processes that increase efficiency and cost effectiveness agency-wide, and where appropriate utilizing online tools to improve processes and communication. Among the processes being improved are hiring, contracting, and project management.
· Staffing and Training: hiring quality staff, providing leadership training to the leadership team, and providing technical training agency-wide.
· Partnership/Integration of Divisions: creating a common vision for all CDA staff and integrating the various divisions into a single, focused agency.
· Customer Service: setting minimum customer service standards that all CDA staff is expected to provide to our customers.
While internal improvements are ongoing, the everyday business of CDA must continue. Many significant programs/projects are underway which focus on building a foundation for El Dorado County communities and the quality of services that CDA provides. Below is a brief list of these projects (by no means exhaustive).
· Targeted General Plan Amendment/Zoning Ordinance Update (TGPA/ZOU): a combination of several proposed policy changes limited to addressing only the "targeted" areas of the El Dorado County General Plan thought to be inhibiting development of moderate income housing, creation of jobs, loss of sales tax revenues, and promotion/protection of agriculture and natural resource industries.
· General Plan Biological Resource Policy Update (Bio Policy): review and update biological resource policies, after conducting public outreach and environmental review.
· Community Visioning: creating a Community Planning Guide that provides the process and framework for community planning.
· Permit Processing: implementing recommendations from an audit of the current permit processing processes. Significant improvements will include providing better information to customers, upgrading the current electronic building permit system, and creating online building permit and plan submittal capabilities.
· Development Review Turnaround Times: staff turnaround times for development review are being established and tracked to measure performance.
· Solid Waste Franchise Agreements: establishing new agreements for five franchise areas incorporating rate setting policies and procedures and various solid waste strategies as identified in the Solid Waste Management Plan.
· Award Major Capital Improvement Project (CIP)/Transportation Impact Mitigation (TIM) Fee Update consultant contract: work on the five-year updates for the CIP and TIM fees will proceed throughout FY14/15, with final results anticipated in FY15/16.
· Capital Improvement Program: continue to plan, design, construct and maintain the County's infrastructure.
· Transportation Benchmarking:
- Transportation Engineering will review construction project cost data and benchmark "soft costs" versus standards set by the California Multi-Agency CIP Benchmarking Study, and adjust processes as appropriate.
- Transportation Maintenance & Operations will track cost data for various maintenance activities and determine performance standards goals for future years.
Reason for Recommendation
Overall, Business Plan goals are generally being met, with delays in some areas (most notably in delivery of transportation construction projects due to unforeseen loss of engineering staff). Of significance:
· Internal Priorities
- CDA website was created but needs significant improvement.
- Internal communication improved through variety of leadership and staff meetings, and periodic staff updates.
- Internal processes have improved in many areas through reduced timelines (hiring; contracting) and completion of specific projects (project management).
- Other internal process improvements have met interim goals (permit processing improvements; electronic plan checking Request for Proposal issued).
- A project to replace the Land Management Information System is being expedited in conjunction with the Assessor, County Surveyor, and Information Technology. CDA has identified funding within the agency for the project (subject to Board approval and bid prices).
- Customer service standards have been established for CDA staff.
· External Priorities
- Several "foundational" goals are moving forward, generally on schedule (TGPA/ZOU; Bio Policy update; Community Planning Guide; Sign Ordinance; CIP/TIM fee update study; Solid Waste franchise fees; West Slope Stormwater Ordinance).
- The Meyers Area Plan has been delayed temporarily.
- Monthly meetings have been established with stakeholders to improve permit processing to better meet customer's needs (plan check review timelines have been established, contracting processes updated, etc.).
- Meyers Landfill remediation work has been completed.
- Ongoing Environmental Management and stormwater quality inspections and reporting deadlines are being met.
- The well, solid waste and demolition ordinance adoptions are behind schedule.
- There are 75 Transportation projects in some state of study, design, or construction during FY 14/15.
§ Three projects delayed one construction season due to right-of-way issues.
§ Several projects are behind schedule (but not losing a construction season) due primarily to the loss, promotion, and/or refilling of eight engineer positions in the past few months. In fact, nearly all Senior and Associate Civil Engineer positions were vacant at some point during the past year.
- Maintenance and operations are on track for completion of listed projects/goals, including the additional $2.5 million of tribal funding for road maintenance.
- Benchmarking of Transportation soft costs and maintenance activities is underway.
Clerk of the Board Follow Up Actions
Receive and file the status update to the CDA FY14/15 Business Plan.
Contact
Steven M. Pedretti, Director
Community Development Agency