In November 2015, the Board approved the Yolo County 2016-2019 Strategic Plan and Priority Focus Areas. The Strategic Plan (Attachment A) includes four primary goals: Thriving Residents, Safe Communities, Sustainable Environment and Flourishing Agriculture, which are supported by principles of Operational Excellence. Within each broad Strategic Plan Goal are a number of Priority Focus Areas.
Working groups were established for each of the Priority Focus Areas and have been underway in implementing action plans. While the efforts of these working groups are ongoing, accomplishments regarding the Priority Focus Areas for 2017-18 are provided below, as well as upcoming plans.
Board Strategic Planning Session
On October 2, 2018, the Board of Supervisors will hold a Strategic Planning Session. This is an opportunity for the Board to review and assess efforts related to the Strategic Plan. For this year’s session, the Board will receive an update on plans for countywide performance management implementation, highlights from each strategic plan goal and an overview of the development plan for the 2019-2022 Strategic Plan.
Strategic Plan Updates
Thriving Residents
Implement Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP)
The 2017 Community Health Improvement Plan Annual Report (Attachment B) was published which summarizes the activities of the CHIP workgroups over the last year. During the accreditation process by the Public Health Accreditation Board, the CHIP was noted as one of the top three strengths. The CHIP is meant to be continuously perfected and improved. Over the past six months, the number of performance measures being reported by the community and HHSA in the CHIP dashboard doubled. Additionally, new targets for health outcomes were identified for measures in which Yolo County was outperforming the state.
Staff are currently in the process of sharing and disseminating the 2017 CHIP Annual Report and continue to do outreach to increase awareness and participation in the CHIP. Over the course of this year, a new Community Health Assessment will be conducted in collaboration with Sutter, Dignity, Winters Healthcare and Communicare to help determine priority areas for the next CHIP.
Develop and implement strategies to reduce homelessness
Yolo County’s Homeless Services System has continued to expand and improve, meeting key objectives in each of the Goal areas during the past 6 months:
Strategy 1: Grow funding for homeless services
- A system has been developed for collecting donations through the County website
- The HHSA Homeless Services Team applied for over $2M in new funding sources
Strategy 2: Develop a robust Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and coordinated entry system
- HHSA implemented HMIS and a street outreach assessment, Vulnerability Index-Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT), with County homeless programs
- A contract was established with Sacramento Steps Forward to conduct system-building for HMIS
- Coordinated Entry has been initiated across the continuum of County homeless service providers
- All homeless contracts now include HMIS and VI-SPDAT
Strategy 3: Establish a full continuum of housing and services for the homeless using Housing First best Practices
- HHSA assisted the City of Woodland to develop a ‘Bridge to Housing 2.0’ proposal
- Homeless case coordination meetings have been re-established in West Sacramento, Woodland and Davis
- A home for probationers without stable housing was purchased using Intergovernmental Transfer (IGT) funds
Over the upcoming months, the work group seeks to continue goal progress by targeting multiple objectives. The objectives under strategy 1 focus on pursuing new funds, preserving existing funds and supporting providers to obtain independent funding. Under strategy 2, the group plans to refine the HMIS and Coordinated Entry systems, develop systems for routine monitoring of data quality and program performance as established in contracts and include new programs in HMIS as developed. For strategy 3, the objectives include developing projects between City and County programs, addressing improvement in service delivery, engaging landlords and individuals/families in development efforts for those living homeless, and establishing collaborative efforts in planning for expenditure of the No Place Like Home technical assistance funds.
Expand best practices in programs benefiting children
Under this focus area, the work group developed 5 strategies to address key child outcomes in the domains of safety, income security, health and education. To assist in implementation of these strategies, subcommittees were developed to leverage existing partnerships. These subcommittee members were trained in the results based accountability (RBA) model, are utilizing RBA measures for each strategy and have set timelines for deliverables and milestones. Some accomplishments for the Child Welfare Services (CWS) strategy thus far include the addition of three supervised visitation contracts, implementation of child and family teams, continuous quality improvement case reviews conducted for family maintenance cases, training initiated on safety framework and safety planning with family maintenance cases, and improved tracking for all entries into the CWS to ensure all children removed from their home are screened for bypass of reunification services when this legal provision serves the child’s best interest.
Moving forward the subcommittees are continuing to implement the identified strategies and monitoring progress to see if their activities are improving their outcome measures in 2018-19. Additionally, some short term goals include the provision of integrated Child and Family Team training for CWS, Probation, Caregivers and Schools by July 2018 and to have case consultations in place 45 days prior to court hearings by October 2018 to increase safety and ensure recommendations are supported by documented behavior.
Safe Communities
Develop coordinated continuum of care ranging from prevention through intensive services
Over the course of 2017, the Criminal Justice Continuum of Care Work Group (CJCC) conducted a mapping of the criminal justice system to identify gaps and needs in services. This work was conducted in conjunction with the Stepping Up Initiative, which is a national initiative to reduce the number of individuals with mental illness in jails. A stakeholder group was formed in 2015 through the Sheriff's Office to assist in addressing this issue and has since been incorporated into the CJCC. For the mapping effort, the criminal justice system was broken down into six different sections (called “intercepts”) with a subcommittee formed for each intercept. These subcommittees were made up of representatives from County Departments and community based organizations with experience in the intercept topic. These groups met over the course of approximately six months to identify gaps and needs for the criminal justice population with a focus on adults with mental illness or substance use disorders. Taken collectively the subcommittees identified over 50 gaps and needs of which sixteen were identified as highest priority needs.
The CJCC has incorporated those sixteen items into their action plan for 2018-19 and are in the process of either implementing solutions, researching solutions or identifying funding sources for each of the priority items. Through grant coordination and writing assistance from the District Attorney’s office, two grant applications have already been submitted to implement solutions for some of the high priority needs.
Implement practice, coordinated code enforcement effort
The Code Enforcement Task Force, which currently operates primarily as the “Cannabis Task Force,” saw many changes over the last six months, including the addition of staff for a total of three new Code Enforcement Officers and one promotional Supervising Code Enforcement Officer, as well as the assignment of a permanent Task Force Manager and two dedicated Sheriff’s Officers. Although the primary focus of the Task Force is to enforce the County’s Interim Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance, its duties have served to extend beyond regulating cannabis-only operations.
While reviewing applications for the 2017 licenses, it was discovered that several of the properties had pre-existing code enforcement issues (unrelated to cannabis) that had never been resolved. Task Force staff were able to successfully facilitate the closure of at least three code enforcement cases by working with the applicants on obtaining necessary permits, cleaning up junk or removing unpermitted structures.
Over the next six months, the Task Force will be able to hire one additional Code Enforcement Officer with the hopes of finding an individual with building inspection experience. Once fully staffed, the Task Force will be well positioned to continue addressing non-cannabis related code enforcement issues; but such ongoing efforts will require training and educational opportunities for code enforcement staff.
The Task Force will also develop an “Operational Plan” outlining policies and procedures for standards of operations. Much of the work that will be done in the next several months will be dependent on code revisions that will provide the Task Force with the necessary tools of enforcement.
Ensure robust disaster emergency management program
The Office of Emergency Services (OES) has been working hard to ensure a robust disaster emergency management program in its four focus areas of prevention-mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Prevention-Mitigation
- Over half of the mitigation projects outlined in the 2013 mitigation plan were completed and the 2018 Mitigation Plan revision is on its way to FEMA for approval.
Preparedness
- OES (through departmental meetings, Rotary, Kiwanis & community meetings) has provided several workshops for staff and residents in topics such as evacuation, personal preparedness and wild land fire preparedness. In addition to training County staff, OES have also been guest instructors in the counties of Lake, Solano, Sutter, Sacramento and Placer; chair the California Emergency Services (CESA) training and education subcommittee; sit on the Standardized Emergency Management (SEMS) training subcommittee; and assist with curricula development for the California Specialized Training Institute.
Response
- OES has responded to many real-world events in the last year including the January storm season, wine country fires, Oroville Dam failure and Santa Barbara mudslides. In several instances, local Emergency Operation Centers (EOC) have been opened and EOC responders have been sent out of county on Mutual Aid to other jurisdictions.
Recovery
- OES ensured that all local response partners were eligible to apply for FEMA recovery dollars from the January storms and Oroville Dam failure incidents. A new damage assessment suite of applications was created in GIS to provide more efficiency to future responses that include damage assessment and debris removal (this suite has already been implemented by Solano County and several other partners – Sonoma, Santa Rosa and San Jose – are looking at implementation as well).
Upcoming work for OES includes beginning the process of drafting the Emergency Management Strategic Plan, perfecting department Continuity of Operations Plans and continuing trainings for staff in EOC procedures and protocols.
Identify and address service delivery and critical infrastructure needs in unincorporated communities
The focus area to improve service delivery and critical infrastructure for unincorporated communities, seeks to make substantial advances in CSA administration, improved road maintenance, broadband service and flood protection. In 2017-18, through the Rural Community Investment Program, 20 projects in rural communities were approved for funding by the Board of Supervisors, using both General Fund and the one-time 2017 Tribal Funds Intergovernmental Agreement. Broadband was also provided to the community of Knights Landing through WAVE and the efforts of the County’s Broadband Work Group.
Over the next fiscal year, staff will continue to work on a partnership between the County and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation regarding the Rural Community Investment Program. New potential broadband projects are currently under exploration by the Broadband Work Group and a technical memo for National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) relief is awaiting federal consideration. NFIP relief will also be explored for Clarksburg as part of their flood risk reduction feasibility study.
Sustainable Environment
Ensure water reliability
The focus area for water reliability seeks to implement the Groundwater Sustainability Act (GSA) of 2014 resulting in comprehensive adaptive management of the region’s water supply. During 2017-18, the Yolo Groundwater Sustainability Agency organized its administrative functions including: conflict of interest code; Fair Political Practices Commission compliance; budget detail and reporting; selecting an environmental representative to the Board; Brown Act training; etc. The organization was awarded a $1M grant for the development of a Sustainable Groundwater Management Plan (GSP).
The next 6 months will be spent developing the draft GSP, growing the County’s groundwater monitoring well network and updating the Water Resources Information Database.
Identify and implement sustainable parks system model
Over 2017-18 the Parks Division steadily implemented the Action Plan priorities to increase the physical and financial sustainability of the parks system. The full-time Associate Parks Planner position was officially filled in November 2017. Also in November 2017, the Board approved an agreement with the Yolo Bowmen Archery Club for concession and management of the archery range located at Grasslands Regional Park. In addition to increased annual rent, the Bowmen will provide general maintenance services to reduce the operational costs of the Parks Division at Grasslands Regional Park. The Parks Marketing Plan was completed in March 2018, which will guide efforts to increase Parks visibility within the region, improve visitor satisfaction, increase number of parks users and develop community and agency partnerships. Staff also received training on the new automated pay stations deployed at Elkhorn and Knights Landing boat launches in June 2018.
Over the next six months, Parks Division staff will be devoting considerable effort to: implementing the Parks Marketing Plan and increasing its social media presence; construction of the Grasslands Trail Project; developing performance measures and metrics; updating the campground reservation system and upgrading the Parks website to enable sale of annual boat launch and parks passes; working with California Department of Fish and Wildlife to modify lease agreements to Putah Creek Fishing Access Sites and the Clarksburg Boat Launch to allow the County to charge fees at these locations; and creating a long-term capital improvement plan for parks facilities and amenities.
Identify countywide waste reduction strategies
The County, through the Integrated Waste Management Division of the Community Services Department, has sought to further waste reduction. Over 2017-18, County staff prepared plans, specifications and bid documents for the Anaerobic Composter and released it for bid. These bids were taken to the Board of Supervisors and the project was awarded for construction. Construction will be completed by end of the year.
Over the next 6 months, staff plan to finish the construction of the Anaerobic Composter project as well as complete plans, specifications and bid documents for the Anaerobic Composter Leachate Pump Station 3 & 4, release it for bidding and award the bid for construction. Additionally, they plan to finish the design for phase I of the Liquid Digester and prepare plans, specifications and bid documents to release for bidding.
Update and implement Climate Action Plan
The County Administrator’s office has worked to analyze the primary measures of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) to determine status of its completion. Some measures were achieved, such as the elimination of methyl bromide application practices and the generation of 1MW of renewable energy on farms. However, others did not have the information available to track or are no longer applicable. In accordance with the CAP requirements, the County recently hired a consultant to update the County on the current amount of greenhouse gases in the County. This number will inform the County if our efforts are working or are on track, once it is compared to the 2008 baseline inventory. This work is expected to be completed in August 2018.
In addition, the Community Choice Energy program, one of the main recommendations in the CAP, officially launched as of June 1, 2018 with Valley Clean Energy (VCE). Collaborative efforts from Yolo County, the City of Davis and the City of Woodland have shaped the foundation of the program VCE. Numerous outreach sessions and mailings, newspaper inserts and booths at local events were conducted to inform the residents of Yolo County prior to the launch of VCE. Additionally, efforts of one-on-one dialogue with Yolo residents and key account holders, as well as the provision of support for staffing VCE, have been a priority for staff. As VCE increases in momentum, they have caught the interest of the City of Winters and the City of West Sacramento to join efforts. Future plans include meeting with the City Managers to discuss joining options.
Staff has also been developing an update for the Board on the progress of the PACE program, from implementation to today. A collaborative effort between the cities of Winters, Davis, Woodland and West Sacramento is being guided by staff to determine the best recommendations for the Board regarding a vision for the future of the PACE Program.
Flourishing Agriculture
Ag land preservation
The purpose of this focus area was to develop a comprehensive agriculture land preservation strategy with clear mitigation measures for projects impacting agriculture. On June 6, 2017, staff presented the findings of an evaluation of Yolo County’s agricultural land preservation efforts as compared to other agriculturally centered counties in California. In the comparative analysis, five other counties were studied regarding their agricultural land preservation policies: San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Sonoma, Stanislaus and San Joaquin.
The agricultural land preservation policies, programs and strategies were researched for each of the selected counties and then compared to Yolo County. Ultimately, it was found that of the selected counties, only Sonoma had a more robust policy toolkit to preserve agricultural lands, as Sonoma County had a designated revenue stream for their County Agriculture and Open Space District. This dedicated revenue stream allows the district to pursue projects designed to preserve open space and agricultural lands, create management plans, create innovative projects on preserved land and create connections between various stakeholders and community members towards further open space and agricultural development. Yolo County could similarly seek a designated source of revenue for the Agricultural Economic Development Fund. The fund has already been established and has a list of projects to pursue, but currently lacks the funding to move forward.
Facilitate connections between growers and buyers
This Priority Focus Area seeks to connect growers and buyers through events that facilitate connections and by increasing farmers’ access to regional institutional buyers. In 2017-18, three buyer connection days were coordinated including a Cannabis Buyers Connection Day. This event, hosted by the Yolo Cannabis Coalition in February 2018, was an opportunity for licensed distributors, manufacturers and dispensaries to network with Yolo County cultivators.
Develop strategies, including a concierge approach, to nurture new ag/ag tech businesses
This Priority Focus Area seeks to develop strategies to nurture new agricultural and agricultural tech businesses. Initial work went into identifying and evaluating the needs of the agricultural businesses. Surveys were conducted of the agriculture stakeholders with an overwhelming response of needing more advisors and labor contractors. The Yolo County Library expanded their resources to include additional information on entrepreneurship.
Due to the level of activity surrounding the creation and maintenance of the cannabis ordinance, staff efforts have been diverted and further efforts related to this focus area have been put on hold.
Align workforce development efforts with ag and food system employer needs
This Priority Focus Area seeks to align workforce development with agricultural and food system employer needs. Employment Services has focused over the last year on creative approaches to stimulating employment activity in the Agricultural and Food Production and creating a trained and viable workforce for this sector through 5 main projects:
Strategy: Developing Ag Based Startups and Providing Resources to Local Farmers:
- A Farm Based Business Incubator through AgTech: AgTech was awarded $71,875 and expended $58,395.58 through a Slingshot Employment Grant. With this funding the vendor was able to create a Woodland based AgTech incubator, display, meeting space and outreach program. AgTech was able to support 267 entrepreneurs’ start-up businesses. A 2018 Grower Tech Exchange occurred on March 29 and a large AgTech showcase event on January 11. There is also a professional mentorship network of 30 individuals. Through this contract period, modules on “Business Basics” were designed and implemented to help startup companies develop necessary skillsets for success. Five workshops were conducted.
- A non-profit based Farm Academy to help local farmers grow their existing businesses. The Center for Land Based Learning was awarded $87,252 in funding to help expand and grow the California Farm Academy (CFA) farm business incubator program. The program provides support services and physical resources to establish farm start-ups in a low-risk environment. The program was very successful and was able to recruit 20 farmers into the program which was their goal.
Strategy: Developing Training Programs to create a Viable Workforce:
- West Sacramento Adult School Culinary Program. Over the past 6 months staff have assisted the West Sacramento Adult School in certifying their training program on the State of California Eligible Training Provider List. This list allows them to be reimbursed by State and Federal Training funds and become a preferred training provider for our local employment programs.
- Yolo County’s World of Work (WOW) Employment Trainee program. Yolo County Employment Services just launched its first 16 week World of Work (WOW) County internship trainee program. In this course, 10 trainees will be paid to take 10 weeks of job readiness and soft skills training. This class is the first pilot class and will only be offered to County departments. Employment Services plans on running 4 of these classes a year if the pilot goes well and trainee/interns will be offered to local major employers including those in Agricultural and Food sector.
Strategy: Partnering with Local Non-Profits to Get Yolo Residents Back to Work:
- Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act contracts with RISE and Yolo County Children’s Alliance. Employment Services continue their very fruitful partnership with RISE Inc. to serve the youth in the Winters and Esparto region. This includes job readiness, subsidized wages and career counseling for jobs in the Agricultural and Food Sector. This year, the Yolo County Children’s Alliance was also brought on to handle the same programming in West Sacramento and Davis.
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