Department of Pesticide Regulation

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June 16, 2000

ENF 2000-025

TO: County Agricultural Commissioners

SUBJECT: 2000/2001 PRIORITIZATION PLAN AND NEGOTIATED WORK PLAN

Beginning July 1, 2000, the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) will implement the new statewide Prioritization Plan and the county Negotiated Work Plan (NWP) process (attached).

  • 1. Prioritization Plan: The attached Prioritization Plan reflects comments received from county agricultural commissioners (commissioners) following the Spring California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association (CACASA) meeting. Please use this Prioritization Plan when developing your county's NWP.

  • 2. Negotiated Work Plan:

    • a. Schedule: Please provide a draft NWP to your Senior Pesticide Use Specialist Liaison (Liaison) by July 31, 2000. We have prioritized this program element with our staff, and we hope to complete the negotiation process by August 31, 2000. Please consider involving your Liaison in the development of your NWP. This may help reduce confusion and make the new process run more smoothly.
    • b. NWP "template": You may use the attached "mock" NWP as a guideline when you develop your NWP. You may also develop your own format as long as you clearly identify priority issues and work activities in your NWP. The new NWP process was designed to accommodate differences between counties' Pesticide Use Enforcement programs while still producing clear, interesting, and manageable NWPs.
    • c. Pesticide Regulatory Activities Monthly Report: The new NWP consists of Pesticide Use Enforcement activities that are included in the Pesticide Regulatory Activities Monthly Report (ENF 2000-23). The new NWP does not require you to conduct Pesticide Use Enforcement activities that are ineligible for mill assessment fund disbursement nor does it change the way you account for your activities and hours on the Monthly Report. If you develop a creative approach that is not currently included in the Monthly Report and you feel it should be a "paid" activity in the future, you need to suggest it to CACASA or your Regional Association. The commissioners and DPR are required by law to jointly develop the criteria to be used to allocate mill assessment funds.
    • d. Numeric targets: In contrast to the current NWP, numeric targets are optional in the new issues-based NWP. You may establish numeric targets for the work activities identified in your NWP if you wish. Numeric targets may make assessing your progress easier. In some of our Spring workshops, Deputies and DPR Regional Office staff discussed using the previous year's workload (the Monthly Report Summary) as a total and then allocating activities within that total based on identified priorities.
    • e. Effectiveness Evaluation: The current effectiveness evaluation requires DPR to assess whether counties conduct the negotiated number of activities. Since numeric targets are optional for your fiscal year (FY) 2000/2001 NWP, this item will not be included in the FY 2000/2001 effectiveness evaluation. Instead, your DPR Liaison will make periodic visits to discuss your progress, difficulties encountered in activity tracking, obstacles you have experienced, and any changes to be made to your NWP. These visits will also serve to document the value of the new program or changes you feel we need to make.
    • f. Focused Activities: For FY 2000/2001, we will accept most plans so long as they are developed prior to beginning the work; address priority issues identified in your NWP; and are not currently funded through DPR contracts or other funding sources. Please attach a copy of your proposed Focused Activity plans to your NWP. Due to FY 2000/2001 budgetary constraints, the Pesticide Enforcement Branch will not be able to accept Focused Activity plans that require DPR funding outside of the mill assessment disbursement.

If you have any questions, please contact your Liaison, or Ms. Lisa Quagliaroli, of my staff, at (916) 327-2035.

Sincerely,

original signed by

David Duncan, Acting Chief
Pesticide Enforcement Branch
(916) 445-3871

Attachments (Department of Pesticide Regulation Prioritization Plan and Negotiated Work Plan Process and Example)

cc: Mr. Daniel J. Merkley, Agricultural Commissioner Liaison (w/Attachments)
Ms. Lisa Quagliaroli (w/Attachments)

LQ