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Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F19, F20, F21, F22, F23, F24, F25, F26, F27, F28, F29

Conclusions 28

• CL1
  Can check out car from City carpool
• CL2
  Mayor receives $150.00 /month
• CL3
  Mayor receives an additional $150.00/month 15 This page intentionally left blank. 16 FINDINGS FROM INVESTIGATION OF THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT PLACER COUNTY BUILDING DEPARTMENT SUMMARY: The Placer County Grand Jury conducted a comprehensive investigation into the operations of the Placer County Building Department. This department has the important responsibility of inspecting and approving building construction drawings, issuing building permits and collecting permit fees. During construction, field-staff perform on- site inspections to verify compliance with approved drawings and building codes. Our investigation disclosed a number of operational problems that management should solve to allow the department to operate at optimum efficiency. During interviews of department personnel we noted morale problems that management has not acknowledged. Additional staff training is needed to take full advantage of new automation programs developed for the department. We noted variations in the fees collected for building permits. There is a need to implement both internal and external auditing procedures. METHODOLOGY: The Grand Jury undertook an investigation of the Building Department to determine whether there was operational compliance with County building code requirements and to evaluate how well the citizens of Placer County are been served. To begin this investigation, members of the Grand Jury reviewed samples of planning calculation work sheets, and building code requirements. We also conducted extensive management interviews. A comprehensive list of questions was developed, regarding the following: • Questionable entries were made on building plan worksheets. Specifically building permit fee calculations exceeded the permit fee percentage normally used. • There was a lack of consistency in employee responses and understanding of assigned duties. Questions addressed employment history, training, county policies, department policy and job duties. The Grand Jury conducted interviews with the majority of department staff members including first line supervisors, department managers and the department chief. 17 NARRATIVE: The building department requires a mix of skills to accomplish its tasks of plan checking, issuing building permits and on-site follow-up to assure building code compliance. Employees have extensive backgrounds in building/construction fields, some training in civil engineering, and are required to hold a State of California Certificate of Registration as an Inspector. This certificate is issued by the International Conference of Building Officials. Registration as a licensed architect or professional civil engineer may also be accepted as evidence of technical qualifications. In 2005 private and commercial building construction in Placer County was very active. The department workload was high and also because of the shortage of staff, management had decided to limit those scheduled for training in the new computer “PLUS” system designed to improve the accuracy of plan check calculations and fee collection accounting. Communication within the organization had become a problem. Management stated that to its knowledge there was no dissatisfaction and that morale was at a high level. To the contrary, a number of staff members stated, morale was at an all time low. They were concerned that management had issued directives that caused problems. One example given was a directive that plan checkers were to stop reporting non-county code related errors or omissions found on building plans. However management asserted this was not true. Its supervisors gave conflicting testimony regarding reporting structure, assignments and responsibility for employee performance reviews. Some staff members reported that frequent organizational changes, promotions and inconsistent direction resulted in disharmony. Supervisors gave conflicting testimony regarding structure, assignments and responsibilities for employee performance reviews. Internal procedures for monitoring work accuracy and quality are unclear. Each plan checker is responsible for his or her own work without oversight. This permits employees and management to disregard the County’s policy concerning permit fee charges. These variations in the percentage calculation resulted in permit fee overcharges in some cases, verifying that there is no internal procedure to audit for errors Therefore, there is no attempt to offer refunds for overcharges or if the reverse is true, to seek additional fees. One example brought forward during the interview with the department manager involved the overcharging on a commercial permit for a small building expansion. His response was that the normal permit fee calculation percentage was too low to cover field inspection costs. Therefore a higher fee was charged. This is not consistent with building department informational handouts or written County policy. 18 FINDINGS: The Grand Jury finds:
• CL4
  PGO had a history of hiring inexperienced Supervisors who required basic PGO training. To remedy those findings the Grand Jury recommended:
• CL5
  Client medications require professional medical supervision. Prescriptions may be changed as much as 3-4 times weekly as doses and types are adjusted to meet the clients’ needs.
• CL6
  Rosewood staff testified that the facility operates very much like a hospital and should meet the same standards. (A hospital of comparable size and services would be required to have 4 nurses.)
• CL7
  The current supervising nurse at Rosewood testified that she works an average of 70 hours a week attending to client needs.
• CL8
  In addition to nursing duties, she also grocery shops at Sam’s Club and serves as dietician for the facility.
• CL9
  This facility currently has only one apartment scale washer and dryer for all 15 clients’ laundry needs (clothing and bedding). The facility had a commercial scale washer, but it broke two years ago and has been deemed un-repairable by the County Maintenance Department. Therefore the supervising nurse sometimes takes the clients’ laundry home to wash and dry it on her own time.
• CL10
  Staff at Rosewood is inadequate to support preparing documentation of the variety of health forms required for reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid, etc.
• CL11
  Rosewood currently has a transport van that carries 12 persons. This is inadequate for group outings that should include all 15 live-in clients plus staff.
• CL12
  The facility was clean but in need of repairs in the kitchen high traffic areas (flooring separating at the seams). 35 CYPRESS HOUSE The Grand Jury toured Cypress House at the Dewitt Center. It is an aging facility in need of many repairs (leaking sinks, roaches, uneven floors, poorly sealed windows, moldy carpets, etc.) and unofficially scheduled to be replaced around 2010. Cypress House is licensed as an “Adult Residential Facility”, housing up to 15 patients who are free to come and go as they choose. Four full-time staff members are assigned as House Managers. An additional 3 full-time and 16 extra-help staff are allocated. The average age of the patients is about 40. At least 50% of the cases are directly or indirectly drug related. Methamphetamine use is a growing problem. This facility has two staff psychiatrists who prescribe medications, although Cypress House is not licensed to administer drugs. This creates a situation in which all medications must be taken by the patient without staff intervention (i.e. for shots or any other direct contact). While the Client Services Supervisor’s view is that in some ways the quality of MHS care has improved in the last two years (better identified needs, use of the “recovery model”, employment/job training), he also echoed the understaffing concerns we heard at Rosewood, acknowledging that caseloads are skyrocketing. At the time of our tour, Cypress House was understaffed by 5 positions. Significant problems arise when two or more staff members are on leave or vacation, leaving them shorthanded and overworked. It takes several months to develop interview lists and significant time to interview and hire. In addition, there is a lengthy gap between hiring and sufficient training. Partly in response to funding and staffing limitations, but also due to changes in treatment practices, they are trying to do more and faster patient discharges “to the street”. The average patient stay has been reduced from 90 days (less than a year ago) to 40 days currently. We cannot objectively judge if this is in the best interest of the patient, but with such a dramatic shortening of treatment in such a short time and under budget constraints, sufficient patient recovery is questionable. The Client Services Supervisor emphasized a focus on teaching the patients to become self-sufficient: how to clean their rooms, how to plan and prepare nutritious meals, how to go shopping for their food, how to do their own laundry. This facility has a working washer and dryer and an ironing board for the patients’ laundry needs. Each patient has a daily list of chores in addition to his psychiatric or counseling sessions. Unlike the Rosewood Facility, Cypress House has regular, continuing contact with the ASOC Director, seeing her 2-3 times per week. However, at both facilities the staffing shortage was their number one priority. 36 COUNTY PERSONNEL REPLACEMENT POLICIES Because several staff members had reported that they believe the cause of chronic understaffing is due to county policies precluding prompt recruitment of replacements, we interviewed the County Personnel Director. We learned the following facts from her.
• CL13
  The warehouse, which at last year’s first review was disorganized and unprotected, now has a proper building of its own to store labeled, shipping boxes (instead of grocery bags) containing clients’ personal belongings, with various locked rooms set aside for specific uses. Interviews revealed an ongoing staff shortage that was resolved only briefly, and they still face problems finding qualified applicants. Filing of many boxes of closed cases was finally accomplished, but volumes of current cases remain to be done with a single person assigned to the task in addition to her regular duties. Placer County has a growing client demand combined with fixed budgets or budget reductions in many departments. In the PGO, the ratio of clients to social workers has recently increased from 60/1 in February to 70/1 in March with no plans for increased staffing in the near term. This is already well above the state average caseload of 50-55/1. But beyond that, this 17% increase in caseload can have dramatic effects considering the wide range of highly demanding requirements of the assigned social workers. They must check on clients at least three times a year, pay their bills, fill out insurance forms, ensure clients receive proper medications, and tend to many of their personal needs. Some clients require considerably more care and many reach the point of needing a thorough evaluation to determine if they qualify to move to assisted living, another time-consuming process. In addition, when clients die, the PGO sends staff to help dispose of their belongings and close up their homes. Visiting an uninhabited home alone is a potentially dangerous practice, so it is in the best interest of the caseworker and the PGO to send pairs to perform this task. In many cases it has been difficult to find two staff members free to carry out these jobs, so a caseworker has, from time to time, accepted an inmate or MHS client as a partner. Clearly this is a dangerous practice, opening the department to liability if items disappear or the partner’s behavior becomes problematic far from any support. The PGO’s staff shortage resurfaced with the impending retirement of two experienced staff workers. The staff shortage has been severely aggravated when one staff worker retired in April with an accrued 10 weeks of vacation. Although County personnel policy 23 permits hiring replacements before all the vacation pay and sick leave have been paid out, active planning is needed to avoid staffing gaps. Understaffing is a significant and continuing problem for the PGO. Because several staff members had reported that they believe that the cause of understaffing is due to county policies precluding prompt recruitment of replacements, we interviewed the County Personnel Director. We learned the following facts from her.
• CL14
  Fully Paid No No Yes No No No
• CL15
  Contribution No No Yes 1% (7) No No No H: City Vehicle Yes (6) No No No No No
• CL16
  Management should adopt a more open communications environment.
• CL17
  A “fast-track” schedule should be implemented for training staff on the new automated “PLUS” system, to reduce errors and improving account auditing.
• CL18
  A workable Quality Assurance plan should be developed for the auditing of internal activities to assure work accuracy and calculation of building permit fee charges. This plan should include periodic external audits.
• CL19
  After 12 years @ 2.7 % at 55 years
• CL20
  The accomplishments of the Rocklin Academy, the Maria Montessori Charter Academy, and Horizon Instructional Systems validate the value of the charter school concept in providing parents and students with alternative approaches to education.
• CL21
  The demonstrated academic attainments of the students of the Rocklin Academy are exceptional. Its focus on achieving world-class performance utilizing the Core Knowledge Sequence Curriculum is particularly worthy of note.
• CL22
  The Montessori method has been a legitimate choice for parents in the United States for over forty years. The Maria Montessori Charter Academy is making the contribution of providing this method to students in a public school context.
• CL23
  Especially in Placer County and adjacent counties, many parents prefer to home school their children arising from family values perspectives. The Horizon Instructional Systems is thus fulfilling a significant need.
• CL24
  The adoption of charters by the Newcastle Elementary School District and the Ackerman Elementary School District was a transparent attempt to exploit the Charter Schools Act to achieve a purpose for which it was not intended, namely to allow unrestricted interdistrict transfers.
• CL25
  The Superintendent of Schools of Placer County recognized the illegitimacy of the Bowman and Newcastle Charter Schools, and attempted unsuccessfully to gain California Department of Education attention to the matter virtually as soon as these charters began to operate.
• CL26
  The Newcastle and Ackerman Districts felt forced to adopt charters arising from a restrictive interdistrict transfer policy adopted in February 2005 by the Auburn Union School District. 57
• CL27
  There is a likelihood that the content of closed session meetings of the ARD Board regarding the proposed contract has been disclosed to local newspapers either by one or more meeting attendees or through intermediaries. Such disclosures, if they in fact occurred, are a violation of the Brown Act, Section 54963, and are subject to legal remedies. Placer County Grand Jury
• CL28
  disclosrres, if in fact occure4 qppeart o be in violatisn ofthe Bm-rrmA c! Section 54963" Response: I partially disagreew ittr this fioding. Since no examples of what may have been disclosedt o the pap€r, I can not agreet o this finding. Further,I am not surethat any'confiidential informatiort''as described in Govt. Code 54963w as disclosedp er find.ing8 . coNqr-usroNstfs gcolslENpAlrgNs "AlI l) discassions and consideration of anew contractfor the District " Adminisff ator should ce ase Action: The recommendationw as implenaentd The o<isting conhact for IvIr. Grenier, the person in questioq wasbought out-he no longerworks for ARD. "