To: Board of Supervisors
From: Anna Roth, Health Services Director
Report Title: Position Adjustment Resolution No. 26323 to add one Buyer I position and cancel one Account Clerk - Advanced Level position in the Health Services Department.
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
ADOPT Position Adjustment Resolution No. 26323 to add one (1) Buyer I (STWA) position at salary plan and grade ZB5-1245 ($5,381 - $6,541), cancel one (1) vacant Account Clerk - Advanced Level (JDTD) position # 7112 at salary plan and grade 3RX-1133 ($4,804 - $6,135) in the Health Services Department.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Upon approval, this request will result in an annual cost increase of approximately $7,827 with pension costs of $1,143 already included. (100% California Department of Public Health, Future of Public Health (FoPH) funds)
BACKGROUND:
The Public Health Administration has been centralizing their administrative functions from multiple business units into one centralized group, allowing them to provide more efficient and effect responses. As this work has become more centralized the workload has continued to increase as the functions have been consolidated. This centralizing of administrative functions has been supported by the Future of Public Health Funds. The Future of Public Health Funds is an annual allocation from the State of California to support and enhance the Public Health Infrastructure including promoting consistent readiness for major emergencies.
Currently the Public Health Administration is mainly comprised of Account Clerks. The unit has one account clerk supporting invoicing/accounts payable and another account clerk supporting purchases and travel reservations. The unit needs a more advanced role to facilitate purchase orders and contracts, which are currently being supported by the Health Administrator Level C. With the amount of time needed to support over 20 programs in Public Health with these types of fiscal requests, the Health Administrator Level C has been unable to support higher level procedure development/training for workflows related to purchasing.
The department has identified that by canceling one Account Clerk - Advanced Level (Pos #7112) and adding one Buyer I, they can better establish a full procurement/accounts payable unit within Public Health, which requires various roles to accomplish necessary tasks. The Buyer I role can support a more in-depth scope of duties while working with vendors and programs on purchase order and contract creation. As the unit is currently primarily comprised of Account Clerks, the required work such as drafting board orders, completing sole sources, assisting with service plans, entering contract requests has been supported by the Health Services Administrator Level C due to the scope of the work.
Having the Buyer I position in the unit would mirror other County Purchasing units, such as Health Services Information Technology and Public Works that utilize Buyer roles to assist with Business process outsourcing, contract negotiations and processing.
By cancelling one Account Clerk Advanced position and adding one Buyer I position, the Public Health Administration personnel will be able to better support each program in a more centralized capacity.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If the positions are not approved, the county would be at risk of not being able to sufficiently staff the Public Health Administration. This would offer less support services to Public Health Administration as the Health Service Administrator Level C would be having to perform procurement/accounts payable functions instead of supporting higher level procedure development/training for workflows related to purchasing. It would also threaten to maintain current funding levels and opportunities to receive increased funding in the future, as the program would be unable to fully utilize the currently funded amount.