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2005 Challenge Award Recipients
Recipients Merit Awards Honorable Mentions
CHALLENGE AWARD RECIPIENTS:
Alameda County
Foster Care Automated Tracking System
Contact:
Don R. Edwards
Interim Administration and Information Systems Director
Alameda County Social Services Agency
1106 Madison Street
Oakland, CA 94607
Phone:
510/645-9350
E-mail: Butte County Contact: Phone: E-mail: Contra Costa County Contact: Phone: E-mail: Los Angeles County Contact: Phone: E-mail: Madera County Phone: Riverside County Contact: Phone: E-mail: Riverside County Phone: E-mail: San Diego County Phone: E-mail: San Mateo County Phone: E-mail: Santa Clara County Phone: E-mail:
don.edwards@acgov.org
In 2004, the Alameda County Social Services Agency discovered it had overpaid foster care providers more than $17 millionmore than $17 million for services during the previous seven years, due mainly to inefficient tracking of payment procedures. To correct the problem, the county put into place a first-of-its-kind automated voice response system that communicates directly with the agency’s computer system and prevents overpayments. The new system requires all child care workers and providers to report on each child monthly before a check is issued. Workers communicate a child’s changed status using the telephone keypad and voice-recording system, and foster care providers use the system and its Web interface to report a child’s status for the previous month in order to receive payment. So successful was the system that overpayments were reduced by $1.7 million in the first two years, easily justifying its $157,620 cost. Monthly overpayments have dropped from a high of $242,000 in 2001 to just $7,500 in May 2005. Moreover, foster care providers now receive faster payments.
Soaking Up the Sun
Paul McIntosh
Chief Administrative Officer
Butte County
25 County Center Drive
Oroville, CA 95965
530/538-7224
pmcintosh@buttecounty.net
Butte County is well ahead of the curve on energy-consumption and cost-saving power solutions. In 1995, the county began an energy management program that first included retrofitting heating, air conditioning and lighting systems. From 2002 to 2004, the county strategically installed a series of roof-mounted photovoltaic panels on various buildings, earning credits for the use of solar power while achieving optimal energy costs savings, maintenance reduction and environmental friendliness. Last year, construction was completed on a 1.18-megawatt solar plant that now serves the county’s administration building as well as several jail facilities. Funded through a combination of state and federal energy credits, the plant has resulted in the county saving $317,000 annually in energy costs. The project was built entirely by workers recruited within the Butte County labor force, steel structures for the system were fabricated in Butte County, and at the time of completion, the county was in the unique position of having completed the only known all-American-made solar energy system of this scale. Due to the success of the project, Butte County is planning for construction of a second solar plant later this year.
ILSP Speakers Bureau
Linda Canan
Division Manager
Contra Costa County Administrator’s Office
40 Douglas Drive
Martinez, CA 94553
925/335-7100
lcanan@cws.state.ca.us
Growing up in foster care can present serious obstacles to children. But who better to share struggles, obstacles and solutions than youth who have gone through the system? Contra Costa County formed a speakers bureau that includes current and former foster youth who give an invaluable perspective to newer youths in the system, helping others successfully transition to adulthood. With less than $1,000 to get the program off the ground, the county hired a speech coach, and in just one year the Speakers Bureau has made more than 40 presentations to inform community members on foster youth issues and to rally support for care and transitioning. Included were two trips to Washington, D.C., to testify before child welfare redesign committees. Some of the presentations’ results are a yearly $1,500 scholarship for college-bound foster youth, a $12,000 donation for a resource binder for graduating youth, thousands of dollars in donations of goods and the recruitment of new foster and adoptive parents. The Speakers Bureau has given participants an extraordinary experience, telling the story of growing up in foster care as only someone who has lived the life can.
Library Self Service Pilot
Nancy Mahr
Public Information Officer
Los Angeles County Public Library
7400 East Imperial Highway
Downey, CA 90242
562/940-8415
nancym@colapl.org
Los Angeles County’s popular new Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library highlighted a problem also occurring at other facilities: There wasn’t enough staff for all the different librarian duties, and there wasn’t funding to hire more. Automating librarians’ circulation duties was the answer. With a county grant of $178,000, the library staff bought self-checkout machines and implemented self-service pick-up requests, self-sorting returns, customer-placed Internet reservations and expanded display areas to encourage browsing. Not only did these steps increase customer convenience, but also freed staff from such routine clerical circulation duties as checking out materials, allowing them to provide greatly increased reference and other customer assistance services. Eighty-one percent of customers surveyed found their experience at the revamped library to be “excellent” — an 11-percent increase from the previous system — plus enhanced staff assistance and reduced waiting times were praised. The project not only met the challenge of the Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library, but also gave insight and experience in the use of self-service tools to offer staffing and service answers for the county’s 84 other libraries.
Lost & Found
Contact:
John P. Anderson
Sheriff
Madera County Sheriff’s Department
14143 Road 28
Madera, CA 93638
559/657-7770
The Madera County Sheriff’s Department averages between six and 10 searches of lost hikers, boaters and developmentally or medically disabled individuals per year, with searches for the developmentally or medically disabled the most frequent. Failure to locate a person quickly could result in tragedy, as happened in 2003, when an elderly woman with dementia wandered away from her home and died despite the help of hundreds of searchers and a $100,000 search cost. To help prevent tragedies like this one, the department researched the purchase of tracking devices, worn on the wrist like a bracelet, to track a person’s whereabouts from one to three miles. Financed entirely through private donations, 28 tracking bracelets were provided to people in need, and a publicity campaign let families know that bracelets were available even to those who could not afford them. Users’ wandering incidents are down, and the program has resulted in deputies being contacted first in the event of someone getting lost. Neighboring Mariposa County has since initiated a similar program.
Creating Livable Communities — The Public Health Partnership
Sandra J. Jackson
Public Health Program Coordinator
Riverside County
Department of Public Health
P.O. Box 7600
Riverside, CA 92513
951/358-7171
swales@co.riverside.ca.us
Riverside County’s continuing population and building boom is expected to add 1 million new residents by 2025. Traffic congestion and low utilization of mass transit as well as cardiovascular disease and obesity are major concerns of county staff who need to find ways to accommodate new and existing residents. These environmental and health issues prompted the Riverside County Department of Public Health to create more livable communities within its long-term Strategic Plan. The solution involved forging a wide range of partnerships with key local public health agencies and advocacy groups. Workshops were held. Staff worked with developers on how designs of future communities can best benefit the population. Funded through four different grants, the strategy is showing early results. Pedestrian safety and design standards have been included into Riverside’s General Plan. Thirty-five safe-walking routes have been identified in every city neighborhood. A Web site — www.rivco-buildhealth.org — now offers listings of events and information on incorporating healthy habits into everydayactivities. Creating Livable Communities is helping to lead the way toward smart growth and better health in one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation.
Youth Accountability Team
Contact:
Grover Trask
District Attorney
Riverside County District Attorney’s Office
4075 Main Street
Riverside, CA 92501
951/955-5515
gtrask@co.riverside.ca.us
Studies show that a comprehensive, community-based approach through early intervention is the most effective means of ensuring that at-risk youth are steered away from a life of crime. Faced with the challenge of combating juvenile crime, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office created the Youth Accountability Team — comprised of local police agencies, probation departments, schools and the District Attorney’s Office — to provide children and their families with services and tools to prevent juvenile criminal behavior. Funding is provided through the county’s Probation Department under the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act, at a cost of about $700,000 for six deputy district attorneys to support the program full time. In addition, reduced crime, law enforcement and court costs have meant big savings for county taxpayers. Today, the original two Youth Accountability Teams created in 1997 have multiplied into 17 teams serving school districts throughout the county. In Riverside County, 86 percent of children participating on a Youth Accountability Team stayed out of trouble and redirected their energies in more productive ways. This program has become a model for other state and national communities.
Amazon Wish List Project
Contact:
Betty Waznis
San Diego County Library
5555 Overland Avenue, Suite 15
San Diego, CA 92123
858/694-3786
betty.waznis@sdcounty.ca.gov
Even with loyal, hard-working Friends of the Library groups to assist, the San Diego County Library still needs more books than it can afford. The library looked to Amazon.com for help in soliciting donations. The retailer’s site includes a “wish list” feature — much like an online version of a gift registry at a department store — which the library adapted for its own use. Staff compiled wish lists for different branches, composed library profiles, and learned how to update and monitor lists and reply to donors. Library staff got the word out to potential donors through such means as eye-catching fliers and bookmarks customized for each branch, news releases created with the help of the county’s Department of Media and Public Relations, and an icon on branch Web pages. The Amazon program is free; publicity cost only $250. In just nine months, the library received 107 donations valued at more than $2,000.
One-e-App — One-Stop Health Insurance Application and Enrollment
Contact:
Toby Douglas
Interim Deputy Director
San Mateo County
Health Department
225 37th Avenue
San Mateo, CA 94403
650/573-2095
tjdouglas@co.sanmateo.ca.us
Providing health insurance to underserved segments of the population is one of the greatest challenges San Mateo and other counties face today — a challenge made more difficult when individuals, families and staff are faced with a bureaucratic maze of applications, contacts and eligibility rules. By joining with local health agencies, the San Mateo County Health Department used $550,000 in federal and state grants to develop the One-e-App system. This system creates a user-friendly, one-stop-shop approach to health care assistance by enabling individuals and families to be screened and enrolled into all publicly funded health programs through a single Web-based tool. One-e-App eliminates the need for meetings with multiple types of workers from an assortment of agencies to complete various applications. As a result, applications are completed more accurately, savings are realized, customer and staff satisfaction is up, and San Mateo County has set a benchmark for streamlining health insurance enrollment, with the One-e-App system now being implemented by other counties as well.
Sheriff’s Office Tactical Medical Team
Contact:
Lindley Zink
Captain
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office
55 West Younger
San Jose, CA 95110
408/808-4823
lindley.zink@sho.co.scl.ca.us
In 1999, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office developed the volunteer Tactical Medical Team to respond to crucial police incidents throughout the county to which traditional paramedics have difficulty responding, such as hostage negotiations or exposures to chemical and biological agents. The county put together a group of volunteer physicians, nurses and paramedics with an interest in law enforcement that today has become an integral part of the sheriff’s overall emergency response strategy. Volunteers are trained monthly through reserve officer training programs, becoming familiar with the department’s tactical officers and procedures. Costs for the volunteer team’s medical equipment are covered by asset seizure funds, and replacement of non-durable medical and pharmaceutical supplies equates to only about $1,000 a year. A key benefit: lowered risk of liability claims in high-risk situations that could potentially devastate a community. Moreover, the team has been used on a number of tactical incidents by other local police departments, and has been emulated by other law enforcement agencies throughout the country.
Mailing Address: 1100 K Street, Ste. 101, Sacramento, CA 95814 - Phone: 916-327-7500
