2019 County Innovation Videos & Blogs

Budget shortfalls and structural deficits are never good news for counties. And when a steep drop in oil and gas property tax revenues left Kern County $44 million in the red, they turned lemons into lemonade with LaunchKern, a business transformation initiative based on the principles of Lean Six Sigma.

“In Kern County, we believe in continuous improvement and that culture drives great results,” said Ryan Alsop, County Administrative Officer. He explains that Lean Six Sigma is a series of business management principles that enable “becoming better, and faster at what it is that we do as an organization, to provide value to residents, cost savings, and streamlining processes that better serve the public.”

Many hands make light work, as the adage goes. In Madera County, a decision to create a Public Information Team from current staff rather than hire a single public information officer has led to better customer service and storytelling in this rural, Central Valley County.

In early 2017, a county Management Workshop identified the need to expand communication outreach efforts, increase transparency and be more active on social media. “We asked ourselves, how can we best tell the Madera County story, how can we engage the public and how can we be transparent?” explains Adrienne Calip, Deputy CAO, Human Resources & Operations and lead of the Madera County Public Information Team.

Falling through the cracks – it’s a phrase we often hear when it comes to our most vulnerable populations. In Placer County, though, a concerted effort is under way to focus on chronic homeless individuals who have traditionally needed assistance from a variety of agencies and programs.  And this effort is working; county staff is helping individuals find housing, linking them to needed resources – and changing their lives.

As one of 18 counties participating in the State’s Whole Person Care Pilot Program, Placer County has developed a custom-designed program to provide intensive case management through four different service bundles:

Yuba County’s 14Forward program for the homeless is a success story. It’s taken a lot of collaboration, creativity, patience, learning, and trust-building since it opened its doors in July 2016 – but the results are evident. The program is taking people off the streets and helping them turn their lives around.

14Forward’s tiny homes made out of modified Tuff Sheds get a lot of the publicity, but the program is much more than that. It provides wrap-around services for homeless individuals who are ready to start a new chapter.

On a hot Thursday afternoon in September 2011, San Diego County was plunged into darkness when a massive power outage hit the region, caused by a grid malfunction across the southwestern United States. The blackout spanned from North County to Coronado and left millions of San Diego County residents without power for over 12 hours.  Power was restored but in the aftermath, County officials learned a lot about the vulnerabilities and gaps in their emergency response plan. One of the unmet needs they identified was how to provide adequate power sources to vulnerable residents who are dependent on home medical devices such as dialysis machines, mobility equipment, and respiratory devices during an extended outage.

Two special rooms within the Sacramento County Youth Detention Facility are having a strong, positive impact on the residents. They are called “multi-sensory de-escalation rooms,” and the County is the first juvenile detention facility in the United States to open such a program.

These de-escalation rooms provide a safe environment where the facility’s residents can calm down and regulate their feelings without use of force or being put in isolation. This is a skill that can serve them well when they are back in the community.

In a twelfth floor conference room overlooking the serpentine shoreline of Lake Merritt in Oakland, Sarah Church sits down and takes a drink from her reusable, stainless-steel water bottle. Church works for Alameda County in the Office of Sustainability where she and colleague Karen Cook collaborate with the County’s Procurement Department to advance the county’s Sustainable Purchasing Program – an impressive initiative that has grown over two decades to become one of the leading green procurement efforts in California local government.