Stanislaus County Grand Jury • 2006-2007

Stanislaus County Office of Public Guardian Civil Grand Jury Case # 07-38

Published: October 17, 2006 4 pages
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Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F2

Findings 13 findings

F1
In May 2007, the Public Guardian has a caseload of 165 clients. • 82 – LPS Conservatorship • 59 – Probate Conservatorship • 23 – Representative Payee • 1 – Guardian ad litem 2. 2006-2007 Office of Public Guardian Personnel: • Program Manager II • Deputy Public Guardian II • Behavioral Health Specialist II • Account Clerk III (2) • Stock Delivery Clerk II (3) • Stock Delivery Clerk I • Account Clerk II (extra help) • Chief, BHRS Forensics Services/Public Guardian (39% assignment)
F3
The duties and legal responsibilities of the Public Guardian are listed in the California Probate Code and the California Welfare and Institutions Code.
F4
Limited Agreed-Upon Procedures reports on the Office of Public Guardian were performed by Certified Public Accountants and Management Consultants Bartig, Basler and Ray in 2003 and 2006. 2
F5
Staffing for the Public Guardian has decreased from 17 fulltime employees (FTE) in 2002/2003 to nine FTEs in 2006/2007.
F6
Office of Public Guardian estimates indicate that up to $175,000 in court accounting fees has gone uncollected due to lack of staff. Also undone or not done timely are the following Public Guardian duties: • Fee summaries for court accountings • Inventory and appraisals • Letters to conservatees’ creditors • Filing • Tracking of outside client bank accounts and investments • Client medical bills and the research involved in matching what insurance has paid and what is outstanding • Warehouse audits • Releasing and/or disposing of deceased conservatees’ property • Cleaning of clients’ houses so that they may be sold on a timely basis • Correspondence with IRS to assure that conservatees’ taxes are current
F7
Evidence suggests that eligible persons who have been referred for appraisal to the Public Guardian have not been accepted into the program because of staff limitations.
F8
The 2006 Omnibus Conservatorship and Guardian Reform Act imposes new duties to the California probate system. As a result, additional Public Guardian staff will be needed to accomplish the increased administrative time and effort this new law will require.
F9
The 2006/2007 Public Guardian budget is $965,030 and is funded from three sources: • County match funds • Service revenue from Public Guardian clients • Service revenue from Medi-Cal
F10
The Public Guardian budget decreased from $1,185,310 in 2003/2004 to $1,095,391 in 2005/2006. It then decreased to $965,030 in 2006/2007.
F11
Service revenue from Medi-Cal funds have declined from $182,020 in 2005/2006 to $71,000 in 2006/2007. Limited staffing to bill Medi-Cal and a lower reimbursement rate are two reasons for this decline.
F12
Client funds and Public Guardian funds are commingled in one fund. Software allows tracking of each client’s individual funds. When the Public Guardian bills a client for a service, the transferred funds are placed in the Public Guardian portion of the commingled fund. These transactions are not recorded in the monthly county budget until these funds are transferred to the county treasury each June. 3
F13
Evidence suggests that some client interest revenue is used to offset Public Guardian administrative program costs and not added to individual client accounts.
F14
Interest percentage paid to individual Public Guardian client accounts varies according to the amount in the individual client fund account – the larger the amount, the higher the interest percentage paid. It should be noted that Public Guardian clients who have less than $2,000 are paid no interest due to administrative cost offsets.

Recommendations 2

No Responses Found 2

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

County of Stanislaus Agency
Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors Elected County Office