Response to Grand Jury Report

The Public Guardian Office is understaffed. (R1, R2, R3) Response: Partially Agree Steps have been taken over the past two years to address this prior to the Grand Jury report. The Public Guardian’s (PG) Office requested support in 2018 and received an extra help fiscal assistant from May through July 2018 and then an office assistant from December 2019 until March 2020. An office assistant was hired permanently in March 2020. Additionally, an allocation for another Deputy Public Guardian was approved for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020-21 and is available to be filled as of July 1, 2020. 2

Mental Health, which administers the Public Guardian Office, did not take sufficient proactive measures to help the Public Guardian Office manage the increased caseload when a key staff member took extended leave. (R1, R2, R3) Response: Partially agree Mental Health has added an office assistant that was hired permanently in March 2020 and the Board approved another Deputy Guardian in (FY 2020-21). DHHS will continue to monitor the status of employees on leave with Human Resources to evaluate the opportunity to hire when extra help is needed. Sometimes, the PG office is supported and supplemented with Behavioral staff. (R1, R2, R3)

The present Public Guardians are unable to meet their obligations to clients adequately because they are burdened with inordinately high caseloads. (R1, R2, R3) Response: Partially agree A large portion of funding to the Public Guardian Office comes from outside the purview of Behavioral Health Administration, but often times staff assists the PG office with clients. BH staff manage many of the day-to-day activities for high needs clients and can bill insurance for services, which is more fiscally prudent. (R1, R2, R3)

The Humboldt County Memorandum Of Understanding with employees has language that restricts the replacement of employees when a full-time employee is out on prolonged medical leave. (R3) Response: Partially agree When a situation such as a full-time employee is out on a prolonged medical leave, extra help employees can be hired if the budget allows. It can be difficult to know the need for hiring extra help when it is unknown how long the employee will be on extended leave. (R3)