City of Hemet

The City of Hemet successfully applied for funds from the California Senior Center Bond Act of 1984, which provided for the sale of $50 million of general obligation bonds to finance acquisition, construction and expansion of senior center programs throughout the state. The City of Hemet sought the funds to add a senior wing to its neighborhood facility, the James Simpson Memorial Center. As part of its application for funds, the City of Hemet agreed to provide an array of senior services, two of which (outreach services and routine information and referral services) were to be provided by Prime of Life. The City of Hemet and Prime of Life signed an agreement for services, dated August 13, 1991. The City of Hemet failed to monitor the contract with Prime of Life to provide senior citizen referral services in the Hemet area. For example, Prime of Life’s operating hours and days open were significantly reduced at least twice, while the City of Hemet continued to pay the contracted amount for services. The contract was never modified to reflect changes in Prime of Life’s operation.

There is a requirement which calls for written reports to be provided to the City Manager by Prime of Life every 60 days; however, testimony revealed there is no evidence of oversight by the City of Hemet.

The Prime of Life Executive Director was/is a longtime member of the Hemet City Council. This was well known in the community and by the Hemet City Council. As a member of the council, she participated in budget deliberations and approval of the entire city budget, including funding for the operation of Prime of Life. This is a conflict of interest.

As examination of the FY 2008-2009 budget figures provided by the executive director of Prime of Life revealed that out of a total projected income of $48,300, over 77 percent was allocated to four items: salary of the executive director ($28,000); employment taxes ($5,000); accounting services ($2,000); insurance ($2,500). These expenditures left little for other discretionary operating expenses. On the revenue side, in addition to the City of Hemet’s contractual obligation, the primary funding source has been Central County United Way (whose funding has decreased in the recent past).

The Riverside County Office on Aging has been instrumental in supporting Prime of Life by providing referral operator trainees through its Senior Employee Training Program to answer calls from senior citizens in the Hemet area and refer them to appropriate agencies for assistance. The Riverside County Office on Aging also provides an 800 line for callers as backup to their efforts through Prime of Life. 2

For several years Prime of Life (without the necessary city monitoring) failed to submit required annual reports to appropriate state and federal tax agencies. This failure led the Franchise Tax Board to suspend the tax exempt status of Prime of Life until/unless Prime of Life could correct the filing deficiencies. In order to regain tax-exempt status, Prime of Life had to expend approximately $20,000 in back payments and accounting fees.