San Rafael, CA – Marin County employees are joining the public health drive to protect residents with the COVID-19 vaccine. Personnel from several County departments are being mobilized to tackle the goal of vaccinating residents as quickly as possible, anticipating the time when more doses arrive.
Like with other County departments, Marin County Parks is reassigning some of its employees to serve in different capacities during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example,
Marin County Parks is redeploying staff to assist at several vaccination centers throughout the county. As a result, staff will be reduced at Marin County Open Space District preserves and County parks to help achieve this top priority, and visitors should expect changes in typical Parks services. In addition,
Marin County Fire is contributing existing full-time staff, seasonal staff, newly hired paramedics and newly hired firefighter/EMTs, and a few of the most recent retirees who are willing to help with vaccine distribution.
“This is all hands on deck,” Fire Chief Jason Weber said.
Max Korten, Director of Marin County Parks, has spent most of the past year contributing to the County’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) by working closely with businesses to set guidelines at different stages of the pandemic response, following state and local health guidelines. He is one of the hundreds of County employees contributing as a disaster service worker (DSW) since last spring.
“I am proud that our staff are stepping up to do this critically important work,” Korten said. “Employees are being asked to contribute in ways that they normally wouldn’t have before the pandemic. We realize that nothing is a higher priority right now than stopping the spread of COVID-19.”
One more example is the Department of Human Resources, which is helping behind the scenes to coordinate the staffing effort By recruiting County employees to serve as reassigned DSWs. Anywhere from 30% to 85% of HR’s staff has been on coronavirus duty while also performing its regular workload.
Marin County has approximately 260,000 residents, and the immediate goal is to vaccine all who are willing as quickly as possible.
“We’re gearing up to offer close to 500,000 shots over the next few months,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Public Health Officer. “As supplies slowly ramp up, we’re grateful to see so many County employees responding to the call. We’ve got the troops ready to get shots into arms across Marin.”
Employees from all 22 County departments have been involved in the EOC, many as DSWs working on the front lines of the COVID response serving at COVID-19 testing sites, with food distribution, temporary housing and with rental assistance. Under state law, all public employees are DSWs and can be reassigned from their regular duties in response to any disaster or emergency. County employees are assigned to the Marin Center vaccination site in San Rafael whenever it is open. As the supply of vaccine doses increases, the County is staging plans to deploy increased DSW support to operate regional vaccination centers.
“Our top priority is vaccinating our residents,” said County Administrator Matthew Hymel. “When the vaccine supply increases, we stand ready to ensure that the supply is quickly utilized.”
Learn about disaster service workers on the Human Resources webpage.