Organization and Oversight of Communities of Opportunity

The Mayor has ultimate responsibility for and leadership of Communities of Opportunity. Under the 2006 Pilot Phase Business Plan (2006 Plan), the Mayor's Director of Communities of Opportunity leads implementation of the initiative, working closely with City department directors, other public agencies, non-profit organizations, community members, and private foundations.

Organizationally, the Director of Communities of Opportunity reports directly to the Mayor. Under the 2006 Plan, the work of Communities of Opportunity was to be directed by the steering committee and community representatives.

Chart 1
Communities of Opportunity Organization

Source: Communities of Opportunity 2006 Plan

Under the 2006 Plan, Communities of Opportunity oversight was to be provided by the:

• Director of Communities of Opportunity as a representative of the Mayor,
• Steering committee of City department and agency directors, and
• Community through the Community Voice mechanism (discussed in Section 5).

Additionally, the 2006 Plan provided for an advisory board of foundation and City representatives to provide fiscal oversight.

Communities of Opportunity Program Office Staff

Program implementation of Communities of Opportunity rests with only two staff: the Director and the Deputy Director of Communities of Opportunity. The Director was hired during the early stages of Communities of Opportunity and appointed as a senior Mayoral staff member in January 2008. The Deputy Director was hired in September 2006 and is funded by the private foundations. According to the Director and the Deputy Director, they work closely together, although the Deputy Director does not have a direct reporting relationship to the Director. The two jointly produce the semiannual fiscal reports to the private foundations funding Communities of Opportunity initiative, evaluating implementation of the initiative.

The Director's responsibilities include representing the Mayor and working with the Board of Supervisors and City department directors. Although the 2006 Plan called for a community manager, this position has never been hired and the Director of Communities of Opportunity has filled this role, including supervising the paid staff in the Opportunity Centers located at the four public housing nodes (see Section 5) and working with community representatives.

The Deputy Director works with City departments to plan for implementation of specific programs within Communities of Opportunity. This position is also responsible for compiling program data to be used for program planning, and working with the Director in fundraising.

Steering Committee

According to the 2006 Plan, the steering committee participated in the business planning process and was to continue to meet periodically. The steering committee consisted of the Director of Communities of Opportunity, the directors of the Mayor's Offices of Community Investment, Housing, Criminal Justice, Education, and Policy, as well as City department and public agency directors, including:

• Department of Economic and Workforce Development
• Department of Children, Youth and their Families
• San Francisco Police Department
• San Francisco Housing Authority
• Department of Public Health
• Human Services Agency; and
• Juvenile Probation Department

According to the 2006 Plan, these steering committee members met several times during the planning process and individual steering committee members assumed responsibility for core elements of Communities of Opportunity implementation.

Although the 2006 Plan anticipated that the steering committee would continue to meet periodically, the plan never defined the role of the steering committee. According to the Director of Communities of Opportunity, the steering committee met three times since May 2008, with the last meeting on September 15, 2008 during the management audit. The actual participation of the steering committee members has not been documented in meeting attendance lists, agendas, or minutes.

Department Directors' Participation in Specific Communities of Opportunity Initiatives

Although City department directors have not participated actively in the Communities of Opportunity steering committee, they have participated in specific Communities of Opportunity programs, including planning two new initiatives to better deliver City services [1]:

1. Pre-development services provided by City departments as part of the redevelopment of public housing through Hope SF[2], and

2. Coordinated case management for families involved in multiple City systems (called SF CAN DO).

The Hope SF services planning executive oversight committee included 9 department directors or representatives from the:

Not all department directors attended all executive oversight committee meetings, but according to the Director of Communities of Opportunity, all reviewed the draft Hope SF Pre-Development Resident Services Plan and provided comments.

The Chief Adult Probation Officer and the Human Services Agency's Deputy Director for Family and Children's Services have played lead roles in planning for coordinated case management for Communities of Opportunity residents involved in multiple City systems, as discussed in Section 2. Staff from the Juvenile Probation Department, Department of Public Health, First Five Commission, Department of Children, Youth, and their Families, and the San Francisco Unified School District have participated in planning workgroups.

Communities of Opportunity Advisory Board

The 2006 Plan also called for an advisory board, composed of public and private representatives, to set and monitor Communities of Opportunity spending priorities. The advisory board was not included in the proposed organization chart and was never formed. According to the Director of Communities of Opportunity, spending priorities in 2006 through 2008 were set through discussions with the foundations funding Communities of Opportunity. The Director of Communities of Opportunity reported to the foundations on Communities of Opportunity's programs and spending in the December 31, 2007 Year-End report and the July 1, 2008 Fiscal Year-End Report.

The 2008 Plan continued to call for an advisory board, composed of six to eight members representing City agencies and private foundations. The role of the advisory board would be to:

· Monitor Communities of Opportunity and oversee its progress;

· Review and approve semi-annual financial and progress reports; and

· Report to foundations contributing to pooled Communities of Opportunity funds.

According to the Director of Communities of Opportunity, the advisory board has now been established and conducted its first meeting on September 22, 2008.

The Interagency Council

The Mayor called for an Interagency Council in the June 2008 Violence Prevention Plan to facilitate interdepartmental collaboration and cooperation in implementing anti-poverty programs Citywide. The Interagency Council is to be responsible for coordinating five initiatives, including:

1. Communities of Opportunity,

2. Hope SF,

3. CityBuild and Workforce Development,

4. Transitional Age Youth, and

5. The Violence Prevention Plan.

According to the Communities of Opportunity's 2008 Business Plan Update (2008 Plan), the Interagency Council would coordinate efforts across multiple City priorities, including the Transitional Age Youth Program, the Violence Prevention Plan, and Hope SF. The Interagency Council would be responsible for working with the Mayor's Office and City departments to align City department resources and budgets with Communities of Opportunity, Hope SF, Violence Prevention Plan, and Transitional Age Youth programs.

Discussion of the Interagency Council was included in the December 31, 2007 Year-End Report. According to this report, the Interagency Council would be convened jointly with the Transitional Aged Youth Task Force, sponsored by the Department of Children, Youth, and their Families, and the Violence Prevention Plan, under the direction of the Mayor's Violence Prevention Director, which would consist of City department directors and senior managers, would meet regularly and drive implementation of Communities of Opportunity.

The Directors of the Mayor's Office of Community Investment and the Mayor's Office of Policy serve as co-chairs of the proposed Interagency Council. The Interagency Council has not yet been formed, although Communities of Opportunity expects the first formal meeting to occur prior to December 2008. Representatives from the five City initiatives have met to plan for the Interagency Council, including the:

1. Communities of Opportunity;

2. Office of Workforce Development, within the Department of Economic and Workforce Development;

3. Transitional Age Youth program, within the Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families;

4. Mayor's Director of Violence Prevention; and

5. Hope SF, represented by the Mayor's Office of Housing and the Human Services Agency.

According to the Director of the Mayor's Office of Community Investment, representatives of these five initiatives have identified overlaps in funding for anti-poverty programs citywide. In forming the Interagency Council, the representative City departments hope to better identify City goals, align City department resources to achieve these goals, and increase accountability through better measurement of programs designed to achieve these goals. The City departments and agencies expected to participate include the:

• Human Services Agency;
• Department of Public Health;
• Adult Probation Department;
• Juvenile Probation Department;
• Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families;
• First Five Commission;
• Mayor's Office of Housing; and
• Department of Economic and Workforce Development.

Some of the Interagency Council participants will overlap with the proposed Communities of Opportunity advisory board.

The Mayor's Office will issue a request for proposals in the fall of 2008 to select a facilitator to form the Interagency Council. Through the facilitator, the City departments are expected to address:

(1) How these departments can best serve the City's most vulnerable populations;

(2) What needs have been identified;

(3) What data exists and can be shared; and

(4) What resources exist and can be better aligned.

The proposed Interagency Council has moved beyond the specific Communities of Opportunity nodes to a Citywide perspective. According to the Director of Communities of Opportunity, while the Interagency Council has a Citywide perspective, Communities of Opportunity will continue to focus on the four nodes. The Communities of Opportunity will need to clearly define its focus within the Citywide Interagency Council in order to not expand Communities of Opportunity programs before they have been successfully implemented and evaluated in the four original nodes.

Conclusion

The Communities of Opportunity has not had formal oversight since its inception in 2006. As a result, no formal entity has coordinated City department efforts in planning and implementing Communities of Opportunity's programs or held City departments accountable to program implementation. Although City department directors have participated in planning for specific Communities of Opportunity initiatives, such as Hope SF pre-development services and coordinated case management planning, neither the steering committee nor advisory board called for in the 2006 Plan have functioned.

The Interagency Council has now been tapped to provide governance to Communities of Opportunity as well as four other Citywide initiatives. Through the establishment of the Interagency Council, Communities of Opportunity involvement is shifting from the original focus on four nodes to Citywide initiatives. While the Communities of Opportunity intends to coordinate the four other Citywide initiatives with Communities of Opportunity programs in its current four nodes, it risks loss of focus. The Communities of Opportunity programs in the four nodes are in early stages of planning or implementation with insufficient information to determine if they can be expanded successfully to other locations. At the same time, the draft Hope SF Pre-Development Resident Services Plan considers expansion of Communities of Opportunity programs to other public housing sites scheduled for redevelopment as discussed in Section 2. Because the Interagency Council's oversight role is broader than Communities of Opportunity, the Communities of Opportunity needs to define its relationship to the four Citywide initiatives.

Recommendations

The Director of Communities of Opportunity should:

1.1Report to the Board of Supervisors prior to December 31, 2008 on the membership and mission of the steering committee and the advisory board.

1.2Report to the Board of Supervisors prior to December 31, 2008 regarding implementation of the Interagency Council, including:

(a)Interagency Council goals and scope;

(b)City department participation;

(c)Planning process for coordinating Citywide resources for anti-poverty services; and

(d) Defining the relationship of Communities of Opportunity's place-based focus with the Interagency Council's Citywide objectives.

Costs and Benefits

The intent of the Budget Analyst's recommendation is for the Interagency Council to establish an ongoing process of communication with the Board of Supervisors; and for the Board of Supervisors to provide direction to the City departments participating in the Interagency Council for allocating resources to anti-poverty programs.