At the April 26, 2016 Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board received a staff report outlining the Local Innovation Subaccount fund. This account is a new feature in fiscal year 2016-2017 of the Public Safety Realignment of 2011. The Local Innovation Subaccount is funded by a reallocation of 10% of the annual allocation of four growth accounts created in the 2011 package. The use of the Local Innovation Subaccount is at the discretion of the Board and not subject to the customary Community Corrections Partnership process. The Board may direct the fund’s use within any of the permissible uses of any one of the four funding growth accounts. The funding growth accounts of the Local Innovation Subaccount are: the Trial Court Security Growth Special Account, the Community Corrections Growth Special Account, the District Attorney and Public Defender Growth Special Account, and the Juvenile Justice Growth Special Account.

The Board directed staff to return with a policy for the use of Local Innovation Subaccount funds that would allow departments or community-based organizations to innovate annually, given that the annual allocation to the Local Innovation Subaccount is neither static nor guaranteed. The Board also expressed a priority interest in funding a project in this fiscal year that would also provide additional or enhanced mental health service.

Given that the Board’s preference for priority focus areas for use of this account may change over time due to a variety of factors, including Strategic Planning, community needs, or underfunding of new initiatives, staff has crafted a policy that will allow Yolo County departments, interdisciplinary staff teams or community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide services to the justice-involved population to submit a grant-like application for use of the funds annually. Within the scoring matrix, consideration will be given to those project applications that also meet the priority focus area for the subaccount, as indicated by the Board.

Staff will request an annual “focus area” from the Community Corrections Partnership Subcommittee of the Board and publish the application period for these funds to CBOs and County departments. This process will occur over the summer of each year so that the chosen project may be brought to the Board with Adopted Budget in September. For the inaugural application period, fiscal year 2016-2017, the priority focus area will be “Mental Health Services,” as was expressed at the April 2016 Board meeting that considered the different policy options for the subaccount.

Staff recommends the Board review and approve the policy (Attachment A) for use of the Local Innovation Subaccount. Upon approval of the policy for this account, an announcement will be released to initiate the application period for the inaugural issuance.