Madera County Grand Jury Complaint Regarding the Madera County

The organization and staffing of the Eligibility Unit is inadequate, both in number of staff and organizational structure. a. The new "Round Robin" process was implemented in early October and will require additional time to determine its ultimate success. b. The intake process has been distributed to all EWs with the implementation of the "Round Robin", thus the specialized skills and knowledge including fact gathering and personal observations for determining eligibility, so crucial during intake, has been diminished. c. The intake process for CalFRESH will be less effective when the interview process is conducted over the telephone and may increase the potential for fraud. d. Although several highly-skilled and experienced EWs are able to cope with the caseload of approximately 450 cases per worker, many are unable to perform at this level. e. There is no central authority for processing all IEVS reports and no repercussions to EWs for failure to process these tasks in the required time.

High turnover of EWs is expensive and disruptive. a. The high rate of turnover in the Eligibility Worker Unit is a long-time problem, yet no apparent action to change the situation is in evidence. b. Wages for EWs are non-competitive with neighboring counties, contributing to the exceedingly high turnover rate. c. The morale of the EW workforce is lower than that of the other DSS employees and can be attributed to lack of top management involvement and support, lack of internal promotional opportunities, workload, low pay, inadequate and unsafe working conditions.

The automated C-IV Case Management and IEVS reporting systems are effective and efficient; however, they are sophisticated and complex systems requiring a lengthy training period. a. The required processing of IEVS reports by the EWs is not being uniformly accomplished in accordance with State and Federal regulations. Many EWs do not process their respective IVES reports in a timely basis and some reports are not processed at all. b. Many potential CalWORKS O/Ps and CalFRESH O/Is (meaning that the recipient may be receiving benefits for which he/she is not entitled) are reported via the IEVS reports, but are not diligently addressed by the EWs. c. The IEVS report processing, which is the basis for O/P and O/I discovery, are viewed as non-priority issues by many EWs, their supervisors and DSS Management. d. The Director and senior management are not effectively communicating the importance of processing O/Ps and O/Is to the EWs and the Eligibility Unit as a whole.

The Collections Unit is a competent and well-organized unit, however it is required to operate with out-dated policies and lack of attention and priority from top management. a. The outstanding balance of uncollectible O/Ps of CalWORKS grants is currently $2.8 million and has steadily increased each year. b. The outstanding balance of uncollectible O/Is of CalFRESH food stamps is currently $1.5 million and has steadily increased each year. c. The process of requesting a Board Resolution to write off uncollectible amounts for cases ten or more years in arrears, although required for accounting purposes, does not provide current information to the Board of Supervisors (BoS) for good management decisions. d. Under the current reporting system the BoS is neither completely informed nor aware of the scope and growth of current outstanding balances of O/Ps and O/Is. e. The practice of allowing the recipient to set the monthly repayment amount is a poor business practice and unreasonable.

Problems associated with the Eligibility Unit have existed for the past decade. They have been formally documented but are not resolved. a. There is a documented response to the 2009 State Audit Report from the Director of DSS identifying corrective action. b. There has been no improvement or change in the operation of DSS.

Existing office space, parking, safety and security for the main Madera locations are both inefficient and inadequate for the current operation and for future growth.

The Grand Jury investigation confirms the allegations of the complaint to be true and accurate.