Contra Costa County Grand Jury • 2011-2012

A Report by the 2011-2012 Contra Costa County Grand Jury*

Published: December 22, 2011 5 pages
Ver PDF original

Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F3

Findings and Recommendations 8 findings

F1
Without new sources of revenue, the District's current operating structure cannot be sustained.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
The Board should consider other available operating structure alternatives before deciding on a ballot measure.
F2
From a quality of service point of view, the current operating structure is adequate. The Board of Directors has not publicly explained a parcel tax option at a level necessary to sustain the current operating structure.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The Board should consider whether the current operating structure provides adequate service levels, and should be included as an alternative.
F4
The Board has not considered contracting for all fire suppression services from CAL FIRE, a capable, recognized provider of those services.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
All possible cost containment opportunities, including resolution of the union agreement, should be considered in the Board's evaluation of alternatives for providing service.
F5
The $197 parcel tax exceeds the amount required to support the Board's proposed, expanded operating structure, resulting in substantial reserves and cost to the taxpayers.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
For all operating structures considered, the Board should conduct the analyses required to determine whether the additional revenue being requested from the taxpayers is the minimum reasonably required to fund and sustain each alternative.
F6
The Grand Jury estimates the proposed $197 parcel tax will generate about 50% more revenue over a four year period than is needed to sustain the current operating structure.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
The Board should inform and educate the residents of the District regarding alternative operating structures and associated costs, and solicit their input.
F7
Only one approach to solving the problem is being presented in public information sessions. As a result, the residents have not been presented with their other options. Contra Costa County 2011-2012 Grand Jury Report 1202 Grand Jury Reports are posted at http://www.cc-courts.org/grandjury
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
After receiving public input, the Board should decide on the most appropriate operating structure and propose an appropriate parcel tax initiative.
F8
The Board is not offering a viable service option in the event a $197 parcel tax initiative for an expanded operating structure is not passed by voters in June, 2012.
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
The Board should consider developing a viable service alternative to be implemented in the event of the parcel tax initiative failing.
F9
It is not clear that the Board is actively pursuing negotiations with collective bargaining units to reduce costs.
No recommendations for this finding

Additional Recommendations 1

These recommendations are not explicitly linked to specific findings.

Agency Responses 1

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.

* 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.