Getting Better of the Way to Excellence*

The Management Oversight Committee is not meeting on a regular basis. Response: Do not concur. The Management Oversight Committee (MOC) continues to meet regularly on a monthly basis. Since its inaugural meeting 25 months ago in June 2008, the MOC has met 23 times, with the most recent meeting occurring on August 30, 2010. The MOC plans to continue meeting monthly into the future, combining their monthly meetings with that of the Accela Automation Project Steering Committee, whose membership with a few exceptions mirrors that of the MOC.

The single most important driver of time and cost to process a discretionary land- use permit application is the decision whether, under the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act, the applicant's project may be subject to an Environmental impact Report (EIR). Response: Concur, with comment. Although, given the small number of County projects for which an EIR is prepared, this is more a general statement than a description of the County's permitting process.

The County's current ISAG is outdated and inconsistent. Update of the ISAG by all departments and agencies is currently the most difficult step in the GTE plan. It requires participation by a multitude of organizations with widely varying laws, rules, objectives, and standards to apply to potential land-use permits. Response: Concur with Clarification. Since the publication of the Grand Jury's report, the County's Initial Study Assessment Guidelines (ISAG), with the exception of the guidelines covering agriculture and biological resources, have been updated and approved by the Board. At the direction of the Board the guidelines covering biological resources are undergoing further public review. 2009-2010 Grand Jury Response

Six of the nine active GTE projects reported no activity since December of 2009, including three of the ISAG projects. (Att-01) Response: Do not concur. The Grand Jury utilized a GTEP status dated March 4, 2010 to arrive at this finding. It appears that the Grand Jury interpreted a December date in the "Date Edited" column of six of the Plan items to mean that no activity had occurred within the previous sixty days on these six items. This was not the case. At the time of the Grand Jury's review of the GTEP, seven of nine remaining items were being actively worked. The remaining two items were in fact on hold pending completion of GTEP items on which they were dependent. REPORT CONCLUSIONS: Although responding to Conclusions was not requested by the Grand Jury, we believe it is important to address Conclusion-08 as follows. C-08. Implementation of the GTE Plan is losing momentum while the ISAG project is being resolved. Response: Do not concur. We believe that this conclusion was arrived at based on incorrect findings on the frequency of the MOC meetings and ongoing activity for the remaining GTEP items, both of which were addressed in our response to Finding 7 and 17. The Grand Jury accurately noted that several of the remaining items at the time were complex inter-agency efforts and taking longer to complete than originally planned. These remaining items included the update to the Initial Study Assessment Guidelines (ISAG), update of the Administrative Supplement to CEQA, development of Standard Mitigation Measures and acquisition of a new automated permit processing and tracking system. It is correct that the overall effort required to simultaneously work on the projects described in the previous paragraph was greater than originally estimated. However, as opposed to losing momentum, these remaining items (among the most significant and challenging of the GTEP) were being actively worked by all involved agencies and departments, County Counsel and the County Executive Office and the Board of Supervisors. As stated in the response to Finding number 17, seven of the nine GTEP 2009-2010 Grand Jury Response items remaining at the time of the Grand Jury's report were being actively worked at the time the Grand Jury reviewed the status of the GTEP. <b>REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS:</b>