Too much tension and dysfunction in Los Angeles County government?
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved key staffing and organizational changes designed to increase efficiency, transparency and collaboration across departments.
The new moves undo an organizational structure that has been in place since 2007 and reportedly almost immediately created tensions between board staffers and the county’s chief executive office.
Interim CEO Sachi Hamai, who stepped into the shoes of retiring CEO William Fujioka in December, told the board that the new structure “sends a clear message about the need to be flexible, transparent and collaborative” in managing the county’s business.
The county serves 10.4 million constituents and will spend more than $27 billion this year to run hospitals, jails, libraries and parks and support a wide array of social service, health, mental health, welfare, arts, foster care and public works programs.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said the current system was not working and the board had long been discussing “the dissatisfaction, the perceived dysfunction, of the old governance structure.”
An assessment in 2008 found that structure to be “excessively hierarchical” and the cause of administrative and bureaucratic delays. Board offices didn’t feel they had an active enough role in setting policy.
The new plan formally eliminates five deputy CEO positions in favor of new policy-centric positions that can change in sync with board priorities.
Cutting out that old layer of bureaucracy makes it easier for board deputies to reach out directly to content experts in various departments to get the information they need and saves nearly $2 million annually, Hamai told the board.
The current policy priorities include Health Integration, the Office of Child Protection and Sheriff Initiatives.
Supervisor Don Knabe suggested that homelessness should be added to that list.
The focus on policy issues also emphasizes that many problems and programs require input from multiple departments.
The CEO will continue to provide budgetary and administrative oversight, including running performance reviews for department heads, but department heads will report directly to the board.
Over the next 90 days, staffers in the CEO’s office will take a look at which functions should remain the responsibility of the CEO and which should be shifted to other departments. They will also consider the role of the more than 70 county commissions under the new structure.
“It’s long overdue,” Ridley-Thomas said.
— City News Service