The Sonoma County In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Public Authority is a non-County public legal entity, created by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on June 12, 2001. The establishment of the IHSS Public Authority was the result of State Law (AB 1682) that required every county in California without a Public Authority to:

1. establish an IHSS advisory committee comprised of a majority of consumers;
2. establish an "employer of record" for individual IHSS workers for the purposes of collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.

AB 1682 also required that the employer of record provide the following functions:

1. establish a registry of potential IHSS workers;
2. provide potential worker referrals to IHSS consumers;
3. conduct background screening of IHSS workers;
4. make available training for IHSS workers and consumers.

On October 24, 2000, the Board of Supervisors appointed the 10 member IHSS Advisory Committee. After several meetings of evaluating the different "employer of record" models, the Advisory Committee recommended that the Board of Supervisors approve the Public Authority model. On March 20, 2001, the Board of Supervisors approved the Advisory Committee's recommendation to establish a Public Authority as Sonoma County's IHSS "employer of record." The ordinance (legal authority) that formally created the Public Authority was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on June 12, 2001.

On January 15, 2002, the Board of Supervisors approved the first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the IHSS Public Authority and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW-W), formerly SEIU Local 250. The most current MOU can be viewed under the "PA Documents" portion of the website.

On February 1, 2002, the Public Authority officially opened for business and began providing the following services:

1. a Registry that recruits and provides background screening and general orientation to IHSS workers and potential workers who are interested in being referred to IHSS consumers;
2. a referral service for IHSS consumers that provides a listing of potential workers that best match the requested needs;
3. training assistance to increase the skills and knowledge of both IHSS workers and consumers.