Marin County
County Honored for Top-Notch Tech Efforts
National agencies recognize Marin for digital upgrades and transparency
The County of Marin has captured a national award for its efforts to digitize information for both residents and employees and to increase online interaction between those two groups.
Marin was recognized in the 2019 Digital Counties Survey, conducted by the Center for Digital Government (CDG) in partnership with the National Association of Counties (NACo) and held during the NACo annual conference on July 13. The awards honor counties for programs that encourage government innovation and collaboration while demonstrating technological and cybersecurity excellence.
Marin’s Department of Information Services and Technology (IST) took fourth place out of entries from counties with populations between 250,000 and 499,999.
CDG and NACo said Marin IST, led by Chief Information Officer Liza Massey, was “propelled by thoughtful IT and strategic planning, community engagement via well-designed tools and apps, and execution of a comprehensive cybersecurity program connected across the enterprise.”
“This recognition is for the entire County, not just IST,” Massey said. “Our 37-page application included collaborative initiatives from across Marin. These innovations are driven by Marin residents’ priorities and the County’s desire for community input, government transparency, and information security.”
Deployment of Compass, a new organizational performance management program, was high lighted by CDG. Compass uses data to drive performance, with the goal of displaying it in dashboards built atop the department’s existing data tools from Socrata Public and Tableau. This year, County departments are honing their missions, strategies, tools and processes to engage employees, with the goal of showing data for all strategies via internal- and external-facing dashboards by April 2020.
The County’s 5 Year Business Plan and IST’s Strategic Plan are guiding Marin through 2020, but tech-forward business processes also are helping connect officials to the residents they serve. The County has worked since 2017 to make engagements mobile, paperless and citizen-centric, deploying texting alerts and electronic signatures for County contracts to support internal digital document workflows. IST will be totally paperless this year for recruitment.
IST’s five-year plan centers on security and the department — reorganized last year — has tripled its security resources. With support from the County’s Human Resources Department, IST has promoted its cybersecurity awareness and training platform and made annual information security training mandatory for all employees. Internal monthly mock “phishing” campaigns continue, and employees can report suspected phishing via a tool implemented last year. An update to the County’s cybersecurity, incident and ransomware response plans will be completed by the end of 2019.
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute focused on technology policy and best practices in state and local government. The National Association of Counties, founded in 1935, unites America’s 3,069 county governments and advocates with a collective voice to promote exemplary leadership in public service.
Art
Marin County: A Snapshot of California’s Black History Is on Display
The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024. The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.
By Post Staff
The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024.
The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.
All will have the opportunity to visit and be guided by its curator Felecia Gaston.
The exhibit will include photographs, articles and artifacts about the Black experience in Marin City from 1942 to 1960 from the Felecia Gaston Collection, the Anne T. Kent California Room Collection, The Ruth Marion and Pirkle Jones Collection, The Bancroft Library, and the Daniel Ruark Collection.
It also features contemporary original artwork by Chuck D of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Public Enemy, clay sculptures by San Francisco-based artist Kaytea Petro, and art pieces made by Marin City youth in collaboration with Lynn Sondag, Associate Professor of Art at Dominican University of California.
The exhibit explores how Marin City residents endured housing inequities over the years and captures the history of plans to remove Black residents from the area after World War II. Throughout, it embodies the spirit of survival and endurance that emboldened the people who made Marin City home.
Felecia Gaston is the author of the commemorative book, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.’ Thanks to the generous contribution of benefactors, a set of Felecia’s book will be placed in every public elementary, middle, and high school library in Marin.
In addition, educators and librarians at each school will have the opportunity to engage with Felecia in a review of best practices for utilizing the valuable primary sources within the book.
“Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to learn from these significant and historical contributions to Marin County, California, and the United States,” said John Carroll, Marin County Superintendent of Schools.
“By engaging with Felecia’s book and then visiting the exhibit, students will be able to further connect their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of this significant historical period,” Carroll continued.
Felecia Gaston adds, “The Marin County Office of Education’s decision to bring the Marin City Historical Traveling Exhibit and publication, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home’ to young students is intentional and plays a substantial role in the educational world. It is imperative that our community knows the contributions of Marin City Black residents to Marin County. Our youth are best placed to lead this transformation.”
The Marin County Office of Education will host an Open House Reception of the exhibit’s debut on Feb. 1 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.. All school staff, educators, librarians, and community members are encouraged to attend to preview the exhibit and connect with Felecia Gaston. To contact Gaston, email MarinCityLegacy@marinschools.org
Bay Area
New Marin County HHS Director Brings Breadth of Bay Area Experience
On Feb. 20, Dr. Lisa Warhuus, a psychologist with over 25 years of social services experience, will take over as Marin County’s new Director of Health and Human Services. She replaces Dr. Benita McLaren, who retired in December 2023.
By Oakland Press Staff
On Feb. 20, Dr. Lisa Warhuus, a psychologist with over 25 years of social services experience, will take over as Marin County’s new Director of Health and Human Services.
She replaces Dr. Benita McLaren, who retired in December 2023.
“We feel very fortunate to have someone with Dr. Warhuus’ skills and ability join our executive team,” said Marin County Executive Matthew Hymel.
“Throughout her career, Dr. Warhuus has demonstrated an ability to bring stakeholders together to effectively address our most complex community challenges,” Hymel continued.
With the County of Marin, Dr. Warhuus will lead a team of over 800 full-time equivalent staff positions and manage an annual budget of $258 million.
Her annual salary will be $288,433 with benefits consistent with those received by other department heads.
Most recently, Warhuus served as the Director of Health, Housing, and Community Services for the City of Berkeley. In that role, she oversaw a budget of more than $100 million and more than 200 employees across various divisions, including Public Health, Mental Health, Environmental Health, Housing and Community Services, and Aging Services.
“It is a true honor to have been selected for this important position. I cannot wait to get to know the incredible community of Marin County and to collaborate with the dedicated team within the Department of Health and Human Services,” said Warhuus.
Before working for the City of Berkeley, Warhuus served as Director of Children and Youth Initiatives at the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. Before that, she was an Associate Director. In that role, she “managed and cultivated partnerships that helped expand mental health programs in multiple school districts. She also championed culturally responsive health and wellness services that aimed to support vulnerable populations,” according to a Marin County press release.
For Berkeley, “Warhuus was also a vital member of the Senior Executive Team providing counsel to the City Manager, Mayor, City Council, and the public on matters pertaining to health and housing,” the press release continued. “Notably, she played a key role in initiatives such as the City’s response to COVID-19, contributing to the citywide emergency efforts, and spearheading the development of a 24/7 mobile crisis response for individuals facing mental health and/or substance use crises.”
Warhuus earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley and master’s and doctoral degrees from Aarhus University in Denmark.
Community
Coming Soon: MLK Jr. Day Celebration on Jan. 15
Marin City will be hosting its Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, from 12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Marin City will be hosting its Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, from 12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The theme will be “Fan the Flames of the ‘Dream’ Into Reality!”
The celebration will have music, food, spoken word, youth presentations, songs of inspiration, speakers and fellowship.
For more information, contact Florence Williams at (415) 332-1441
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