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Board hears civil grand jury follow-ups on construction oversight and city technology; several recommendations called ‘not implemented’ with requests for follow
Summary
Committee reviewed staff responses to 2014–15 civil grand jury recommendations on construction oversight and city technology. Some recommendations were marked not implemented with requests that departments report back and that the city services auditor study implementation.
The Government and Oversight Committee reviewed follow-up responses to multiple 2014–15 civil grand jury reports and accepted departmental briefings on steps under way.
On the civil grand jury’s construction oversight findings (recommendations 6, 8 and 9), a grand jury representative summarized problems including the absence of independent oversight, multiple departments running separate systems, and the recommendation that final project reports be published online. The committee heard from Nicholas King of the Department of Public Works, who said Public Works is working on shared databases, monthly peer comparisons of projects, and other quality-assurance measures. King and other staff noted that response formats to the grand jury sometimes limit how the city can characterize ongoing multi-year efforts.
The committee moved to record recommendations 6 and 8 as "not implemented" with the board requesting a report back from the City Services Auditor in the next work-planning cycle by the end of the calendar year; recommendation 9 was also noted as not implemented with departments asked to report on construction project reporting by year-end.
On technology continuity (recommendations 3, 4 and 5), Deputy Director Brian Bayliss of the Department of Technology said a customer satisfaction survey sent in December received 41 responses to date from more than 400 addresses and that DT plans to repeat surveys every six months. Civil grand jury member Allegra Fortunati said the survey questions “got to the core” of the grand jury’s intent, but urged periodic updates and broader reporting so skill development and cross-departmental training are captured in PeopleSoft rather than tied only to current job classification.
Dennis McCormack of the Controller’s Office described work to create a central skills-inventory within the citywide HR database and said the controller’s office is coordinating with DT and DHR to ensure data quality and entry criteria.
The committee voted to forward these follow-ups to the full Board of Supervisors; departments were asked to report back to the committee on progress by the end of the calendar year. The committee recorded that recommendation 3 and recommendation 5 have been implemented per staff testimony; recommendation 4 was recorded as not implemented because the Board does not have authority to require the action, though it requested departments to report progress.
Next steps: the committee forwarded the items to the full Board for consideration and requested the City Services Auditor and relevant departments supply follow-ups as described.
