Monterey County Board of Supervisors Response to the*

R1

The "Compensation Philosophy" should be updated to reflect appropriate and comparable counties and cities for each job classification. This update should be completed in six months. When the 2019/20 Civil Grand Jury began our investigations, COVID-19 had not yet become a public health crisis. However, as we conclude our reports, we are tasked to specify a time frame within which to address our recommendations. We have done so, attempting to allow some extra time given the current situation. We ask the County Supervisors, Departments, Cities, and Special Districts responsible for enacting our recommendations to do their best to accomplish these goals as expeditiously as possible, given the effect of the current pandemic crisis on staffing availability. Response R1: Agree The Human Resources Department has completed a comprehensive data analysis to identify comparable agencies. The Human Resources has submitted their recommendation to the County Administrative Office for consideration and to discuss next steps. The completion date is contingent upon the meet and confer process with the represented employee groups and Board of Supervisors direction with an overall target implementation date of November 2020.

R2

County Human Resources should engage an experienced compensation consultant to assist in the creation of a transparent and global compensation and classification program. This should be completed in three months. Response R2: Disagree The Human Resources Department submits that the Director of Human Resources and assigned staff are the premier subject matter experts in this area. The hiring of a consultant, with the appropriate public sector experience, requires significant financial resources which would be better utilized in creating additional County staffing resources. Considerable staff time must be devoted at the outset to educating the consultant and staff County staff to review and validate the work product. This additional work adds significant time for completion of the studies and diverts County staff from their daily responsibilities. Providing additional resources to the Human Resources Department would allow County staff to conduct a comprehensive classification and compensation review with the ability to sustain the program moving forward.

R3

Budgeted positions should be posted in a timely manner giving priority to posting positions that affect the health and safety of County residents. This posting should occur

R4

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R5

Each budget cycle should include specific opportunities for department heads to identify and justify specific referral and hiring bonuses for their hard-to-fill positions. This process should begin of the date of this report. Response R5: Disagree The Human Resources Department submits that individual departments have the ability to budget for these types of incentives during each budget cycle.

R6

In order to ensure an adequate staffing level for essential County public health workers, the County should begin a process to identify supplemental funding sources to mitigate un-forecast budget shortfalls in federal and state grants, aid, or other direct program funding. This analysis should be completed in 30 days. Response R6: Partially Agree The Health Department submits that it continuously researches and pursues additional funding opportunities for the County to support core health functions.