Marin County administration embraces panel’s critique of management program

Top county officials intend to tighten a Civic Center management program that the Marin County Civil Grand Jury concluded had misfired, generating paperwork that did little to measure efficiency.

The county administration, embracing recommendations by the grand jury, indicated that one of the panel’s recommendations has been put to work, and the other will be as officials “reboot” a “managing for results” program.

The jury found that department goals “do not align with community priorities” that are supposed to drive administrative strategy. At the Civic Center, most managers the jury talked to were “dismissive of the program, describing it as an administrative burden.” Reports on results posted on the county website offer “little meaningful information to taxpayers,” the jury said.

The administration, in a response that will be discussed by county supervisors on Tuesday morning, indicated the program will be launched anew and strengthened in coordination with next fiscal year’s two-year budget cycle.

“We will be asking departments to review their mission, align with the five-year business plan, and to develop a few high-level measures that are meaningful to their operation,” the administration reported.

The jury’s other key recommendation has already been implemented with the appointment of a top manager to coordinate program improvements. Budget Manager Bret Uppendahl will head a “reboot (that) will include many of the proposals suggested by the grand jury,” the administration reported.

The program’s intent has great merit, the jury noted in “Managing for Results: A Fine Tool in Need of Sharpening,” because executed correctly it can communicate an organization’s direction, monitor progress toward goals, help invest resources strategically and provide accountability for results.

The panel recommended the county solicit public opinion, train personnel and provide a website display that provides meaningful information as part of a revamped program. Although website plans remain up in the air, a training program aimed at making the management program more relevant is in the works, and a survey of residents will be conducted next year, the administration said.

The jury found that the best practices management program should allow employees to “establish goals that measure progress toward achievement of their strategic priorities and thereby use these results to improve performance,” but said Marin’s program failed to walk its talk.

The panel blamed its failure on the county’s “silo” departmental structure, lack of management commitment, lack of resident and business advice and an insistence on superficial goals.

“As it currently exists, managing for results measures routine activities but does not measure effectiveness,” no audit is conducted and training is optional, the jury reported. Local residents, as the consumers of government services, have not been surveyed in six years to provide information critical to the process, jurors added.

September 13, 2015

Marin Independent Journal

By News Johnson