Humboldt County Grand Jury
• 2018-2019
• Agency Response
Response to:
The Mis-Fortunes of Humboldt County
County of Humboldt Received*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F9, F10
Findings and Recommendations 9 findings
F1
Continued diligence, cooperation, and teamwork among the Auditor-Controller, the County Administrative Office, and all Department Heads is vital in balancing the financial sources and revenues in the budget. I agree. The Treasurer-Tax Collector (T-TC) and Staff believe that it is only through the collective intelligence of everyone involved that the very best results can be achieved; therefore, we strive for cooperation and teamwork at all times.
No recommendations for this finding
F2
The County lacks a year-end reporting process established to guarantee that all Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP) entries are made for financial reporting. To the best of my knowledge I agree . The T-TC Department will follow all GAAP requirements. .
No recommendations for this finding
F3
The financial reports currently available to the County Administrative Office and Auditor-Controller are inadequate to produce a balanced budget. To the best of my knowledge I agree Since the T-TC is only responsible for T-TC departmental budget units I have no insight to confirm or deny this finding; but am concerned that the financial reports currently available are inadequate.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
The tracking of the funding sources and uses are not being adequately documented for numerous programs and departments. • To the best of my knowledge I agree The T-TC department adequately documents everything about which we are responsible.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
Identification and reclassification of County trust funds are essential to improve transparency and accountability. • I agree.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
The miscellaneous revenue account has been used, and is continuing to be used, to include revenues that should be posted in specific accounts. I now disagree with this finding because as of July 1, 2019 revenue is being receipted • to the specific account (or fund) to which it is intended once posting information is received; and credit is given as of the day it was deposited to the bank. Proper financial record keeping is absolutely critical for the reconciliation of all transactions.
No recommendations for this finding
F7
Improved diligence, cooperation, and teamwork are vital in determining the appropriate object code listings required for the proper management of Inter-Fund transfers. I agree. • The T-TC Department does, and will, fully cooperate in helping to determine object ٠ code listings for the management of inter-fund transfers.
No recommendations for this finding
F8
The Accounting Services Improvement Working Group was formed to develop the Auditor-Controller Policies and Procedures for all County departments. This committee is not functioning as envisioned by the consultants. To the best of my knowledge I agree. • The T-TC is happy to be of service in any way possible to help develop and ٠ implement those policies and procedures.
No recommendations for this finding
F11
The County has adopted a Capital Asset Policy but has not implemented this policy. To the best of my knowledge I agree. The T-TC is happy to be of service in any way possible to help develop and The T-TC looks forward to helping to ensure that proper cash handling and procedures are implemented in all departments; just as they are required and practiced in the T-TC Department.
Related Recommendations (1)
R11
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that consultants specializing in organizational communication and team building be retained to train staff and management in the (as a minimum): Auditor-Controller's Office, County Administrative Office, Human Resources Office, Information Technology Office, and Department of Health and Human Services. This should be done by October 1, 2019. Training for organizational communication and team building has been implemented . and been available to many employees through leadership management academy courses for a number of years, and many employees have participated; but it should continue and be enhanced to include as many employees as possible. As stated in F1 the T-TC Department totally supports and believes in open communication and team building between all Staff and Departments.
* 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.