San Luis Obispo County:
Human Resources in Government

Shelby Cowell
Robert Griffith
Bernard Salgado

GSB 583: Managing Human Resources
Instructor: Calvin Stevens
California Polytechnic State University
Part I
The Organization and its Mission San Luis Obispo County was one of the first counties in California, created in February 1850 as residents were preparing for California’s statehood (CSAC). It was created to govern the coastal region between Salinas Valley and the Santa Maria River, writing, implementing, and enforcing local laws and regulations for this region to ease the burden of work on the California state government.
The county’s residents elect a Board of Supervisors that has authority to pass laws, and the Board entrusts a County Administrator to oversee the 24 departments, organized into six functional groups, that administer the county’s governance on a day-to-day basis (SLO County). The County government has a decentralized structure, according to Tami Douglas-Schatz, the County’s Director of Human Resources. She says the Board and Administrative Office handle overarching policy, but day-to-day operational matters are handled by the departments themselves. When it comes to organizational planning, the Human Resources is “the architect of systems” (Douglas-Schatz), with final say over what structure the organization will have. The County’s relationship with the California state government and U.S. federal government is very impersonal. These higher-ranking layers of government decree laws and regulations from on high that the County must comply with. In addition, the County depends, in part, on grants from these bodies to finance its operations, and these grants often come with strings attached that force the County to abide by certain additional rules (Douglas-Schatz). The County’s relationship with the private sector is much more