BUDGET LETTER #4

County of Santa Clara
—^Office of the Board of Supervisors

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County Government Center, East Wing
70 West Hedding street, loth Floor

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San Jose, California 951 10

(408) 299-2323
FAX 298-8460 TDD 993-8272

James T. Beall, Jr.

Supervisor, Fourth District

MEMORANDUM
TO:

Richard Wittenberg
County Executive

FROM:

James T. Beall, Jr.

Supervisor, District

DATE:

March 18,1996

SUBJECT: Court Consolidation and Mimicipal Court Revenue
Collections

Richard, attached is a memo from Harvey Rose that I received
during last year's budget deliberations which details the savings that
can be achieved through court consolidation. I would like the
administration to provide me with an independent assessment of the
Harvey Rose analysis. I would also like the administration to
provide me with a background/history on court consolidation efforts
to date including prior Board actions, departmental efforts, etc.
Furthermore, I would like the Internal Audit Division to evaluate the

revenue collections process of Municipal Court and submit

recommendations to the Board for improving the collection efforts of
the court.

Thank you for your assistance,
c: Gary Graves, Director, OBA

Phyllis Perez, Clerk of the Board

attachment

2-004

arvey

os© AccoMiaiiamcsf Coipoiraslioini
1390 Market Street. Suite 1025, San Francisco. CA 94102 (415)552-9292 * FAX(415)252-0461

June 8, 1995
To:

James T. Beall, Jr.
Supervisor, District 4

From:

Roger Mialocq

Los Angeles. CA
(213)951-1465

Management Audit Project Manager

Subject:

FY 1995-1996 Savings from Court Consolidation

Pursuant to your request of May 22, 1995, we completed our analysis of
potential cost savings that coxild result from court consolidation ifimplemented
in the FY 1995-96 budget. This issue wqs first examined in 1993 as part of a
^port to the Board entitled Analysis of Consolidation and Coordination
Opportunitms in Selected County Programs. That report identified consolidation

savings from the elimination of nisGEi^i^psglfrSfgr based on two findings. The
elimination of these nine FTE positions from the FY 1995-1996 budget would
generate annual ongoing savings

The first finding recommended the consolidation ofthe administrative fimctions

of the Superior and Mimicipal Courts and the ehmination of four duplicative

management positions. These FTE positions and estimated savings, updated
for FY 1995-1996 salaries and benefits, are shown below.
Position

Municipal

Superior

Executive Officer
Fiscal Officer

87,621

$115,653

$152,941

Mgmt. Analyst(Personnel Fimction) 71^771

87,621
71,771

Information Systems Coordinator

86.856

86.856

TOTAL

$361,901

$399,189

I•

The on^nal report did not identify savings from the consolidation of the Information

bystems Coordinator as the Superior Court had contracted out this function for an

unspecified amount. Savings are currently available as this function is now performed
mtemally by both the Superior and Mimicipal Courts.
Savings are based on the lower of the two salaries.

The other finding recommended consolidation ofthe twelve court divisions into
five divisions. This consolidation would allow the elimination of^SEOid^^gig^
]SiasSfg]^for estimated FY 1995-1996 savings of
In total, the
consolidation of duplicative administrative and management positions in the
Courts would result in FY 1995-96 savings of$1^^55. This is an increase of
$103,728 over the FY 1992-93 cost $623,227.

I have attached a copy of the relevant sections of the original report for
additional detail. If you have any other questions, please give me a call.
c:

Members,Board of Supervisors

-j arvey

V

Z OSO Accountancy Corpontkta

ANALYSIS OF CONSOLIDATION AND COORDINATION
OPPORTUNITIES

IN SELECTED COUNTY PROGRAMS
HEALTH DEPARTMENT
SOCIAL SERVICES AGENCY
SUPERIOR COURT
MUNICIPAL COURT

SUEMTITED TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA

Prepared by the

Harvey M.Rose Accoimtan<^ Corporation
April 30,1993

Except for the courts*, our approach included extensive interviews with

managers in the affected agencies, focus groups with employees and

clients, reviews of legal mandates, workload data, budgets, organization
charts, and other key documents. We also surveyed other counties

u^e^/review^^^^^^^°^

consolidation initiatives in the program areas

Consolidation Recommendations

Our conclusions are that of the agencies and departments reviewed, the

Municipal and Superior courts are the most likely candidates for
consolidation. We do not believe that consolidation of the Social Services
Agency and Health Department is justified at this time as their overall
mssions are vety different, as well as the key processes that they perform.

The courts, on the other hand, have similar purposes, serve some of the
same clients, and perform many of the same processes.

We ^so identified three areas within the Health Department and Social

bervices Agency that warrant consolidation: 1) merger of the Public
Administrator Guardian into the Adult Services division of the Social
bei^ces Agency; 2) merger of General Assistance into the Income

Maintenance division within the Social Services Agency; and 3)
consolidation of JTPA, GAIN, and Vocational Services into one program,
A summary of these consolidation recommendations and associated
savings is presented on the next page.
Coordination Recommendations

We recommend improved coordination in the following areas:
Coordinated intake and assessment processes for Health

Department and Adult and Children’s services to eliminate

redundancies in these processes for clients who use multiple
services. We also recommend that collection of common data

across

'

programs be automated. Our conservative estimate of

associated with eliminating these duplications is

$793,000 in annual staff costs. (Section H.3)

Development of a more comprehensive assessment process to

be developed collaboratively by the Health Department and

Social Services Agency to address a client’s total set of needs at
any point of intake to the County health and social service
programs. (Section H.3)

J^e courts chose not to participate in this study as they are planning a consolidation study^

01 their own next year.

recommendations included in this report will represent mainr

undertakings by the departments involved and cannot be expected to'ho

thefrepresent
s gmficant savings to the County and improved judgment
client services/
^
^
agencies involved in this study have had

wUh^ho Health Department and
comment
on it. Exit Conferences were
snrh
Social Services Agency. In lieu of
an

such a meeting, the Superior and Municipal Courts chose to nrCvidP

Health Department also elected t/provide ^len

comments. All written comments are attached to this report.

SECTION IV:

SUPERIOR AND MUNICIPAL COTTRT

IV.1 Introduction

71

IV.2 Consolidation /Coordination Analysis
IV.3 Court Administration

77

IV.4 Consolidated Organization Structure and Management,

80

75

LIST OF EXHIBITS

Exhibit

ILl

£ags

Coordination/Consolidation Matrix by Program and

Evaluation Criteria, Health Department and Social
Service Agency Programs
IL2

10

Frequency of Program Linkages Identified using
Evaluation Criteria, Health Department and Social

Service Agency Programs
IL3

IL4

IL5

III.l

Department of Aging and Adult Services, Social

Services Agency Organizational Chart

31

Santa Clara County Public Administrator/Public
Guardian Organizational Chart

32

Proposed Consolidation of PAG and SSA Adult
Services.

33

Coordination/Consolidation Matrix by Program and
Evaluation Criteria,, Income Maintenance,

Employment and Training and Economic
Development Programs
IIL2

11

48

Frequency of Program Linkages Identified using
Evaluation Criteria, Income Maintenance,

Employment and Training and Economic
Development Programs

49

III.3

JTPA Administration

64

III.4

GAIN Organizational Chart

65

III.5

Vocational Services Division (VSD) Organization

Chart
III.6

rv.i

IV.2

Recommended Consolidated Employment &

Training Division

67

Coordination/Consolidation Matrix by Program and
Evaluation Criteria, Superior and Municipal Court..

76

Frequency of Program Linkages Identified using

Evaluation Criteria, Superior and Municipal Court..

IV.3

:...66

76

Santa Clara County Superior Court, Total
Authorized Positions, Organizational Chart

82

Key information about the two organizations are as follows:
Superior

Number of Employees
1992-93 Budget($ millions)
Number of Facilities

Number of Judicial Positions

Municipal

Total

333.0

419.5

752.5

$23.5

$30.0

$53.5

6

8

14

48

36

84

Current Coordination Efforts

1

dements

California were required to prepare a trial court coordination
/the Trial Court Efficiency and Realignment

include consideration of 24 required coordination

These elements include both administrative and judicial areas such as cross
blanket assignment of judges, consolidation of administrative oversight
development of common case processing information systems, use of common fui^
pools, coordinated use of facilities, development of common accounting systems and
other areas. The plan is also required to address coordination efforts already
imderway,anticipated savings, and development and implementation plans.
Santa Clara County describes its previous coordination and
consolidation efforts to include the following:

• Districts
Consolidation of six previously separate Municipal Court Judicial
• Establishment ofSuperior Court Review(SCR)

• Coordination of Facility Utilization at Palo Alto, Hall of Justice and the
Court Annex building

’

• Coordination of duty judges
• Coordinated use ofSuperior Court Commissioners

• Establishment ofjoint judges committee, a bench/board committee and a
joint executive committee

’

• Coordination of administrative tasks

Those elements where the County courts have initiated coordination efforts

or have expressed an intent to consider coordination are as follows:

• Use of Blanket Cross-Assignments and Coordinated use of Judges in
certain Situations
72

"

“peeress consolidation efforts is
to eliminate 6
6 T,f"
- 8 upper management positions

n fch^^mrt^4ffuoh\rLtbu:hm^nt^
documents and access pubik recorfs

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