Memorandum
Date: September 1, 2020
To: The Honorable Moke Simon, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Carol J. Huchingson, County Administrative Officer
Subject: (a) Consideration of Recommendation to Rescind Lake County Personnel Rules Section Eleven 28. County Employee Scholarship to Marymount California University for Professional Growth and Educational Development, and (b) Consideration of Recommendation to add a new section to Lake County Personnel Rules Section Eleven 28. Disaster Service Worker Policy
Executive Summary: (include fiscal and staffing impact narrative):
Your Board may be aware of an outdated policy designed a number of years back to encourage Lake County employees to enroll at Marymount College in Lucerne, Ca. However, Marymount College left Lake County quite some time ago and the old policy was never rescinded. Staff now recommends rescinding said policy and replacing it with a new policy needed to clarify the duty of Lake County employees to serve as Disaster Service Workers pursuant to Government Code Section 3100.
With the rescission of the Employee Scholarship policy for Marymount, the long-standing Reimbursement Program for Professional Growth and Develop of Employees, which is not specific to a particular institution, will remain in place and is attached for your reference.
The proposed new Disaster Service Worker (DSW) policy is intended to raise the awareness and facilitate a more structured training for County employees with respect to their duty to serve during local disasters. Up to now, most employees receive a brief introduction to DSW duty during New Employee Orientation. While a number of departments have been very active in disaster response, with their employees regularly serving as DSW’s, other departments have had less active roles during disaster, leaving their employees less aware of DSW duty.
This year, with an ongoing pandemic expected to last for an unknown duration, now compounded by wildfire disaster, it has become especially critical to make sure all employees are fully apprised of their duty to serve as DSW’s. Staff resources to cover all required disaster response requirements are growing thin and additional employees may be needed to serve. In anticipation that this policy would be brought forward to your Board for consideration, Human Resources worked with Office of Emergency Services (OES) to develop a presentation, training material, and added a new segment to be delivered by OES at the bimonthly New Employee Orientation (NEO).
This draft policy has been compiled from examples used in other counties and adapted for use in Lake County. It has been reviewed by your Department Heads who have expressed a desire for more clear DSW information to be made available to County employees.
Once approved, Human Resources will coordinate with OES to add this training to NEO, post it on the County Intranet, and email the new policy, training materials, and videos to all employees. In addition, Human Resources will implement a program and tracking to comply with the FEMA National Incident Management System (NIMS) Training requirement.
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☒ Well-being of Residents ☒ Public Safety ☐ Infrastructure ☐ Technology Upgrades
☐ Economic Development ☒ Disaster Recovery ☒ County Workforce ☐ Revenue Generation
☒ Community Collaboration ☐ Business Process Efficiency ☐ Clear Lake ☐ Cost Savings
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Recommended Action:
(a) Approve Rescission of Lake County Personnel Rules Section Eleven 28. County Employee Scholarship to Marymount California University for Professional Growth and Educational Development; and,
(b) Approve addition of a new section to Lake County Personnel Rules Section Eleven 28. Disaster Service Worker Policy