Stanislaus County Grand Jury • 2016-2017 • Agency Response

Ceres Fire Protection District*

Published: August 17, 2018 5 pages
View Original PDF

Findings and Recommendations 10 findings

F1 Page 1
Few districts are in full compliance with state laws in transparency, accountability, and governance.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Page 3
All Stanislaus County fire district boards should adhere to California law. All districts should have a written manual of generally accepted governance policies and procedure. The manual should include policies for nepotism, credit card control, and check signing. The manual should be completed
F2 Page 1
Many board members are not adequately prepared to assume office. Stanislaus County lacks a standardized governance training program. Disagree with findings. CFPD directors follow a structured agenda and
No recommendations for this finding
F3 Page 2
Accepted but appointments occur for different reasons. Recently our
No recommendations for this finding
F4 Page 2
The SCCGJ observed that some fire districts perceived that they are accountable to the SCCBOS. Conversely the SCBOS has no responsibility beyond appointment of board members. Accepted. CFPD Board Members are aware that they are accountable to
No recommendations for this finding
F5 Page 2
Citizen Participation is lacking at board meetings. Accepted. However, for most boards once you satisfy laws for meeting
No recommendations for this finding
F6 Page 2
Disagree. Our District posts the minimum required 72-hour notice for all
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
Page 4
County to obtain a copy of this report from the SCCGJ website for information purposes.
F7 Page 2
Many of the district websites lack required information about governance and finances. The finding may possibly be accurate, but we do not have a web-site.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
Page 4
All fire district boards must comply immediately with the requirements for meeting notices, posting of meeting agendas, publishing of minutes, and financial statements as required by law. The CFPD Board believes the District is compliant with requirements for
F8 Page 3
No apparent effort exists to increase citizen participation and involvement. Disagree. There is only so much a board can do to attract participation.
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
Page 4
The priority of websites should be to provide information and transparency about governance and finances. Current and prior agendas, minutes, financial statements, and audits should be posted. The CFPD does not have a website. None of the 3 board members or the
F9 Page 3
The fire districts spend $26 million yearly with little public scrutiny.
No recommendations for this finding
F10 Page 3
While the SCCGJ focused its investigation on independent special fire districts, our findings and recommendations should be of interest to all special districts in Stanislaus County. Acceptable.
No recommendations for this finding

* 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.