To: Board of Supervisors
From: Marc Shorr, Information Technology Director
Report Title: Consider waiving “sit-out period” and approve hiring of County retiree Robert Antony
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. CONSIDER waiving the 180-day "sit-out period" for Robert Antony, Communications Equipment Specialist II, in the Department of Information Technology.
2. FIND that the appointment of Mr. Antony is necessary to fill a critically needed position; and
3. APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the hiring of County retiree, Robert Antony, as a temporary County employee for the period of May 15, 2024, through April 30, 2025, as recommended by the Chief Information Officer.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Salary costs are included within the Department's budget. The total cost for the requested period is approximately $49,920.
BACKGROUND:
The Public Employee Pension Reform Act of 2013 requires that active members who retire on or after January 1, 2013, must wait 180 days after retirement before returning to work as a temporary employee. The Act also allows the Board, based on a finding that the appointment is necessary to fill a critically needed position, to waive the 180-day "sit-out" period.
Mr. Antony retired from his position of Communications Equipment Specialist II on April 1, 2024. He was originally hired on September 24, 1984, and at time of retirement, he had 39 ½ years of County service. When he retired, Mr. Antony was working on a radio encryption project that has been mandated by the California Department of Justice (DOJ) for all law enforcement agencies in the County and in the East Bay Regional Communications Systems Authority (EBRCSA). Members of EBRCSA consist of all law enforcements agencies in the counties and each city in Contra Costa and Alameda County (excluding BART Police). This mandate requires all law enforcement radios that connect to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) shall be encrypted to secure the Criminal Justice Information and Personally Identifiable Information that is being accessed is being transmitted securely. This encryption requires that each of the radios in the County and in the EBRCSA be configured by a qualified Communications Equipment Specialist in the Department of Information Technology. Mr. Antony has been trained to utilize specialized equipment known as a KVL 5000 Key Variable Loader to install the AES Encryption on the radios. Mr. Antony will begin this same encryption upgrade for all Health Services Department base stations for ambulance communications, as well as the Buchanan Airport and the Animal Services base stations. Mr. Antony was mentoring the replacement Communications Equipment Specialist who has completed the encryption training and was shadowing Mr. Antony to gain hands-on experience in providing this encryption service. Continued training will be extremely beneficial to this current staff member and the Department.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Failure to receive Board approval may jeopardize public safety and will not be in alignment with the directive from the California Department of Justice to encrypt all law enforcement radios that access CLETS.