Merced County Grand Jury
2000-2001
Findings & Recommendations
7 findings
F1:
established to raise funds to help support activities of the cheerleading squad. The booster club was found not to be registered as a nonprofit organization as required by
Related Recommendations (1)
R1:
Wages should be increased to retain qualified staff and an aggressive approach should be taken to attract and recruit employees to fill the existing vacant positions.
F2:
the district. The booster club account was opened under a personal social security number. During its investigation the Grand Jury found that there had been a co-mingling of booster
Related Recommendations (1)
R2:
A plan should be developed and implemented to increase the work area to accommodate existing staff as well as allow for future staff growth. A design should be created which will house all necessary agencies at one location so an applicant could complete all necessary permit requirements in a timely manner.
F3:
club funds and student body funds. Personal checks that had been issued to the student body account were in fact deposited into the booster club account. The booster clubs financial records were found to be inadequate and they did not provide a
Related Recommendations (1)
R3:
A computer program should be put in place which will automate the permit applications process, speed up processing, provide the means to track the status of the applications and subsequently to store the completed permits. This should be implemented as soon as possible. MERCED COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT MAIN JAIL AND SANDY MUSH FACILITIES MANDATED INSPECTION INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND California Penal Code Section 919 mandates the Grand Jury the yearly responsibility to visit correctional facilities within Merced County and to ascertain the conditions and management of these facilities. The Merced County Sheriff's Department is responsible for maintaining the Main Jail, located at 700 West 22nd Street in Merced, and the Sandy Mush Facility located at 2584 West Sand Mush Road.
F4:
solid audit trail of income and expenses. After reviewing financial bank records of the booster club in question the Grand Jury found
Related Recommendations (1)
R4:
and continued. MERCED COUNTY JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND Section 919 of the California Penal Code requires the Grand Jury to yearly visit and inquire as to the condition and management of detention facilities within the County. The Merced County Juvenile Hall is included as a part of this requirement. At its regular meeting on January 4, 2001, the Chief probation Officer, who is the person in overall charge of the Juvenile Hall operation spoke to the Grand Jury on the history, organization and function of the Juvenile Hall and gave an insightful perspective on the plans which are in process for the new facility. Questions and discussion followed his presentation. On March 15, 2001 the Grand Jury had the opportunity to tour the Juvenile Hall facility which is located at 1411 "B" Street in Merced. The tour was conduced by the Chief Probation Officer and the on-site Director. Neither the facility nor its limitations had changed, but there was a definite positive outlook as final plans for the new facility are coming together. How pleasant it was to move through the facility knowing that the youth offenders of Merced County will have a facility where greater care and assistance can be given. The 2000-01 Grand Jury offers its highest praise and thanks to the staff who work within the Juvenile Hall. They do an excellent job under the saddest of conditions. Rather than again list the inadequacies that have been well documented in previous Grand Jury reports, these recommendations will deal with the future dynamics of the new juvenile facility. RECOMMENDATIONS Under no circumstances should funding for the new facility be compromised. Time delays I. mean greater cost. The strength of the program and facility must not be affected by cutting corners to save on cost overages. Any increased costs for the facility should be met by the County. Juvenile employees are grossly underpaid in relation to similar counties and correctional
F5:
some minor discrepancies between the booster clubs financial records and the bank statements. However, it was felt that the discrepancies were due to poor record keeping procedures. The school site administration was made aware of the manner in which the booster club
Related Recommendations (1)
R5:
about or misrepresentation of the affiliation between any booster club and school. GOLDEN VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL Complaint Number 00-01-16 INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND A complaint was filed with the Grand Jury concerning the loss of student body yearbook funds in the amount of $1,800.00 METHOD OF INVESTIGATION The Grand Jury looked at established procedures that the school utilized for conducting student registration "Round-Up." The Grand Jury contacted district administrators of the Merced Union High School District and school site personnel. The interviews were conducted between November 2000, through April 2001. In addition, the Grand Jury reviewed documents pertaining to missing funds.
F6:
organization operated and failed to take action to mitigate the problem. Since many of its activities were directed by school staff, the booster club, in its fund-raising
F7:
activities, created the impression it was a school sponsored organization.
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.