COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

County Manager’s Office

 

DATE:

April 27, 2010

BOARD MEETING DATE:

May 11, 2010

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Peggy Jensen, Deputy County Manager

SUBJECT:

Staffing Plan for San Mateo County Residential Energy Conservation Program

 

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt an ordinance amending the salary ordinance to add two unclassified positions to the County Manager’s office (1) a Management Analyst I, and (2) an Administrative Assistant II, to be grant funded for 12 months.

 

BACKGROUND:

San Mateo County has been awarded $1.665 million in federal and state grant funding to develop and implement a residential energy conservation program. The funding comes from three sources: $500,000 from federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, $783,000 from the ABAG Retrofit Bay Area partnership, and $382,000 from the CaliforniaFIRST Property Assessed Clean Energy financing district pilot program. The ABAG and CaliforniaFIRST grants are collaborative projects that include regional development of many program components. For those two grants, the San Mateo County funds will cover local program administration work with community, contractor and CBO advisory boards and an extensive education and outreach program. The outreach work will focus on three groups – community residents, contractors and local building officials. The grant funds must be expended within two years. The project goal is to reduce energy use by 20% in 1,000 homes in San Mateo County.

 

DISCUSSION:

We are building a multi-disciplinary team to meet the staffing needs of the San Mateo County Residential Energy Conservation Program. The eight-member team includes six current County staff and two new unclassified positions. The time team members devote to the project will range from 15% and 75% of their time. The project is organized into four components, which are described below along with the associated staffing plan.

    • Oversight and Administration is the responsibility of the Executive Sponsor and the Project Manager. The Deputy County Manager for Community Services will serve as the Executive Sponsor and 15% of her time will be grant funded for the term of the project. The Project Manager will be a LEED certified Resource Conservation Specialist in RecycleWorks working out of class as a Resource Conservation Manager. Danielle Lee, who has led the County Green Business Program and recycling initiatives, currently fills this position. The grant will fund 75% of Ms. Lee’s her time with the balance funded by the Department of Public Works.

    • City/County Liaison and Community Marketing activities will be provided by four staff with a time commitment equal to 2.75 FTEs. The Board created a full-time unclassified Management Analyst I position in April of this year, with 24 months of funding. Douglas Alfaro, who started working on this project last September as an intern with the County Manager’s Office, currently fills this position. He will devote 75% of his time to the project. Two new unclassified positions, another Management Analyst I (MAI) at 75% time and a half-time Housing and Community Development Specialist, will be funded for 12 months to get the project up and running. The balance of the two MAI positions time will be spent on Community Services and Green Team projects, and will be offset in the CMO budget by the savings from the Deputy County Manager’s grant funded time. The balance of the Housing Specialist position will be funded by C/CAG. In addition, an extra help, full time intern will assist the marketing staff. Liz Henton currently serves as the project intern.

    • Contractor Liaison will be provided by the Green Building Project Manager, a member of the RecycleWorks. The position is currently filled by Jeffery Liang. The grant will pay for 30% of Mr. Liang’s time for the duration of the project.

    • City/County Building Officials Liaison will be the Assistant County Building Inspector, which is currently Michael O’Connell. The grant will pay for 15% of Mr. O’Connell time for the duration of the grant.

 

This action supports the 2025 Shared Vision of an environmentally conscious community by reducing CO2 emissions and water consumption from county residences.

 

Human Resources has reviewed and approved the ordinance as to form and content.

 

Performance Measure(s):

Measure

FY 2010-11
Projected

FY 2011-12
Projected

Number of residences with 20% energy reductions

350

650

 

FISCAL IMPACT:

The San Mateo County Residential Energy Program is fully funded with state and federal grants. The two-year project has no net county cost. The project budget includes $687.282 in salary and benefits. The balance of the grant funds, $977,718, will pay for supplies, County specific marketing research, community marketing event and materials and training and education events for contractors and building officials. In addition, funds have also been set aside for workforce development activities.