At the February 2013 meeting, the Commission authorized the Executive Director to enter into a contract with an entity, later identified as California State University Sacramento Center for Collaborative Policy (CCP), to facilitate an update of the POST Strategic Plan.

CCP staff met with the Executive staff to discuss the project and the desired outcomes.  It was agreed that the new strategic plan would serve to prioritize the efforts and resources of POST for the next three to five years, and should be developed in collaboration with POST staff and representatives of those who POST serves.

Through extensive surveys and interviews with POST representatives and staff, an Assessment Summary was developed.  POST then met with the Advisory Committee and three members of the Commission, assigned by the Commission Chair, to validate the assessment and to finalize the main goals, objectives, and strategies for the final draft of the strategic plan. 

At the June 2015 meeting, the Commission approved the 2015 POST Strategic Plan that included as one of the four main goals to Increase Efficiency in POST Systems and Operations.

The first strategy under this goal is B.3.1 Complete an organizational workload study of POST utilizing internal resources.  A copy of this objective is Attachment A.

In subsequent meetings with the POST Strategic Plan Implementation Team (IPT), it was determined that this project should be done in collaboration with an outside expert in order to have a more global view during the study process.  This contractor will work in partnership with a designated POST staff member from Management Counseling/Leadership Bureau (MCLB) who is experienced and regularly conducts organizational studies for California law enforcement agencies.   

POST’s Strategic Plan requires that the organizational study identify any duplication in operations, evaluate workload distribution, and identify how POST can improve its service to the field.  With that in mind, the following tasks were developed in order to meet the objective of ensuring that POST’s structure and systems support an organization that is efficient, productive, and appropriately resourced:

Task 1:  Review Strategic Plan documentation to ensure the organization study is consistent with and takes advantage of that foundational work.

Task 2: Review POST’s existing governance, structure, and responsibilities to take a macro view of POST, including its legal and administratively mandated responsibilities.

Task 3: Compare POST’s current organization to its pre-recession and recession operations level to provide perspective to POST’s current organization structure, including its current vacancies and budget parameters.

Task 4: Identify internal processes to determine the way work is assigned and flows throughout the organization, as well as the way in which change occurs.  This task includes the examination of internal communication and quality control measures.

Task 5: Review existing job descriptions for each of the nine classifications to determine if they adequately describe the duties and responsibilities of each position.

Task 6: Identify mandated programs which will assist in setting work and resource priorities.

Task 7: Interview POST staff and key work groups to identify primary responsibilities and workload, as well as the nexus of work between bureaus.

Task 8: Using workload distribution information, a quantitative and qualitative analysis along with an assessment of workload criticality will be developed.

Task 9: Comparison with other POSTs will consist of research into the duties, responsibilities, and organizational structure of up to four other states to ascertain potential best practices that could be emulated by California POST.

Having an outside contractor working in conjunction with a POST MCLD Consultant will help to mitigate the potential of bias or influence regarding an internal POST organizational study.  Staff will view the study as objective and will be more inclined to be open and forthcoming during interactions related to study research, as was demonstrated during the recent Strategic Plan development where an outside entity worked with identified POST personnel. The results of the organizational study will be presented to the Commission upon completion, which is estimated to be summer of 2017.

The cost is based on market research and provided vendor estimates for similar projects, which equates to approximately 600 hours at $125.00 per hour.