Grand Jury

MARIN COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY REPORT SUMMARY 15 MARIN COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY 2014-2015 • AUGUST 2015 Report issue date: June 30, 2015 SUMMARY As shown in this summary, the 2014-2015 Civil Grand Jury issued nine (9) formal reports on subjects concerning the governance of the County and various cities, towns and special districts of Marin. In addition to fi ndings and recommendations, each report includes a request for a response as required by the California Penal Code. e responses, when received, are added to their corresponding report on the Marin County Civil Grand Jury website; interested parties can access this information at http:// www.marincounty.org/depts/gj/ reports-and-responses. It should be noted that Penal Code §933 states that the governing body of the public agency shall respond to the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court within 90 days, and that an elected county offi cer or agency head shall respond to the Presiding Judge within 60 days. Because the responses to each of the 2014-2015 reports were due a er the conclusion of the 2014- 2015 jury term (June 30, 2015), the new 2015-2016 Grand Jury will review and evaluate the responses pursuant to the requirements of the California Penal Code §933.05. As of this printing, not all of the responses to the 2014-2015 Grand Jury reports have been received. All should be posted by the end of September unless an extension of time has been granted, in which case the extension will be for no more than 6 months from the stated date of the report. EVALUATION OF RESPONSES TO THE 2014-2015 MARIN COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY REPORTS R1. e Marin County Board of Supervisors strengthens the Managing for Results Program with meaningful goals and measurements that emphasize major outcomes or eliminates the MFR Program. R2. e Marin County Board of Supervisors designates a County executive to be responsible for the MFR Program including the following: • Build new goals and outcomes. • Develop a dashboard to publicly display Community group and department level metrics. • Develop an MFR training program ranging from basic orientation to advanced certifi cations. • Develop cross- department teams to defi ne community goals and implement improvement initiatives using established problem solving techniques. • Conduct resident and business surveys to provide insight into how County services are viewed by the consumers of those services. Results continued from page 14 an effi cient county government, program goals and desired outcomes must be revised to create relevant measurements. Most managers interviewed are dismissive of the program, describing it as an administrative burden. In addition, the MFR annual reports posted on the County website off er little meaningful information for taxpayers. e Grand Jury recommends designation of a Marin County government executive to be responsible for the MFR program. at executive would be accountable for building new goals and outcomes, developing a website "dashboard" 2 to publicly display and provide access to data, training of all personnel, and employing resident and business surveys to solicit Marin public opinion. e Grand Jury also recommends use of cross-department teams to assist in goal setting and to facilitate the process of continuous performance improvement. FINDINGS F1. e Marin County government's MFR program is not an integral part of the strategic planning process. F2. e current quantitative measurements of the MFR program are not aligned with the important goals of the Communities described in the strategic plan. F3. e Board of Supervisors has not utilized the MFR program to improve Marin County services. F4. Department managers are not using MFR metrics as an integral part of a continuous improvement activity; a majority of department metrics show little or no history of improvement. F5. e County fails to portray its data in a modern multimedia form to transmit information to its employees and the public, e.g., it does not use a dashboard or similar displays of data. F6. MFR reports do not com- pare benchmark results of other similar government entities as a tool for evalua- tion. F7. e Marin County govern- ment has not conducted a resident survey in six years, and the Grand Jury found no evidence of business surveys being conducted, thereby missing the opportunity to gather critical feedback to guide County eff orts. RECOMMENDATIONS 2 A user interface or Web page that gives a current summary, usually in graphic, easy-to-read form, of key information relating to progress and performance, especially of a business or website. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dashboard. Application and Contact Information: For more information or a grand jury application, please write, Marin County Civil Grand Jury c/o 3501 Civic Center Drive, Rm. 275 San Rafael, CA 94903 or call Patti Church, Aide to the Grand Jury, Phone: (415) 473-6132; TTY: (415) 473-2226 or email: PChurch@marincounty.org

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