By Alex Lane - During the Board meeting Tuesday, County Administrative Officer Terri Daly updated Supervisors on significant changes to the Health and Human Services Department. “How can we do things better, faster and cheaper?” said Daly. This set the tone for her presentation, which outlined restructuring and cutbacks designed to save the County upwards of 500,000 dollars. No General Fund dollars will be necessary to fund the reorganization. Daly outlined a number of structural changes within the department to disperse responsibilities left over from the large number of employees who recently retired under the County’s Early Incentive Retirement Program. “Social Services is the hardest department (to restructure) because of vacancies due to retirements,” she said. She proposed restructuring management to provide financial depth for the department and increase outside oversight. She also proposed consolidating financial functions that were the responsibility of many in the past. All this is happening during a time when the Department could use more help than other County agencies. “During economic downturns, social services actually see an increase in business,” said Daly. “We haven’t had any problems, we’re just trying to find more efficiency,” she said. Daly hopes to implement her new plan by November 1st. The Supervisors seemed to agree. Supervisor Boitano praised Daly for her efforts, saying, “In the end, this will be a really big savings for all of us.”