CAN WE SEE YOU Now?

Recommendations 2

• R2

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  All independent special districts shall take the necessary steps to maintain their websites using the current standards set by the Special District Leadership Foundation so as to provide pertinent information to their constituents and to continue to qualify for the District Transparency Certificate ofExcellence. GCSD Response: The recommendation has been implemented. The District previously met the Tier 1 requirements, and our contact information has been updated. Four items listed in Tier 2 have been added to our website.
• R3

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  The eight independent special districts that qualify for the District Transparency Certificat e ofExcellence are strongly encouraged to apply for it to be recognized for their efforts. GCSD Response: The recommendation has not been implemented, but will be implemented by December 2017. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the Grand Jury Report and to provide our input in this process. Sincerely, GRANADA COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT Jim Blanchard, Board President 504 Avenue Alhambra . 3 r d Floor - P. O. Bo x 335 - EI Granada. California 94018 Telephone: (650) 726-7093 - Facsimile: (650) 726-7099 - E-mail: gcsd@granada.ca.gov Highlands Recreation District HI .I-ILANOS RECREATI ON 1851 Lexington Avenu e· San Mateo,CA94402 D I S TR I T (650) 341-4251 • Fax (650) 349-9627 ES T 19 5 7 www.highlandsrec.ca.gov "W here ~ami0 1'rac!ifiol1J'Bf!Ji/1 " July 12,2017 Hon. Lisa Novak Judge of the Superior Court c/o Charlene Kresevich Hall of Justice 400 County Center; 2nd Floor Redwood City, CA 94063-1655 Honorable Ms. Novak: In response to the June 19,2017 Grand Jury Report , the Highlands Recreation District (HRD) hereby submits the following. This response was approved by the HRD Board of Directors at its July 11,2017 board meeting. General Comment: The HRD generally agrees with the findings and recommendations made in the report. The HRD engaged the services of a professional web development firm to revise our website in the latter halfof2013. Since then, the site has been continually upgraded and updated, either in house or by outsourcing to a professional. The District earned a Transparency Certificate in 2014, and again in 2017. Additional comments: 1. As stated in the District's July 2014 response to the 2014 Grand Jury inquiry, the Highlands Recreation District's website was compliant and received its transparency Certificate in 2014. Therefore, the current report's opening statement regarding 'the lack of transparency in the websites of23 independent special districts' in 2014 may be too strongly worded. Our District, for example, was already actively working on improving and upgrading its website to more fully comply with transparency recommendations, but at no time was the District completely lacking in such transparency. The District's upgrade efforts ....-cre completed by June 30, 2014. Sc while there were certainly varying degrees of transparency among special districts in the County, there was not a collective and complete lack of such transparency. 2. It is also important to note that, until recently, the cost of maintaining and updating websites on a daily or monthly basis was a burden for smaller Districts who lacked the internal technological capability and expertise to update websites. Today, such updates are much more easily and more timely done, as functionality and user-interface have been greatly simplified and are much more cost-effective. 3. The District's applied for Transparency Certificate renewal in September 2016. The renewal was confirmed in April 2017. This certificate is in effect through April 2019. A copy ofthe certificate is attached. 4. The District website includes (and has included since June 25,2014) a link to a document clearly showing District boundaries: http://highlandsrec.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/pdf­ boarddocs-District-Map.pdf If that is, in fact, item 2H on the Transparency Checklist on , please make that correction on the checklist to indicate compliance. (Assuming that the item listing on corresponds to the Tier 1 and Tier 2 lists on .) Thank you for your attention to the suggestions and requested corrections to the Grand Jury report. Thank you also for your time and service to the County and its residents. Sincerely, IM~ Eric Olbekson, President, Board of Directors Highlands Recreation District cc: Portor Goltz, Counsel Supervisor Dave Pine HRD Board of Directors 555 12`" Street, Suite 1500 Lauren E. Quint Oakland, California 94607 Attorney at Law tel(510)808-2000 Iquint@meyersnave.com fax (510) 444-1108 www.meyersnave.com meyers i nave November 28, 2017 Honorable Leland Davis, III Judge of the Superior Court c/o Charlene Kresevich Hall of Justice 400 County Center; 2nd Floor Redwood City, CA 94063-1655 Re: Civil Grand Jury Response Dear Honorable Leland Davis, III: I am the General Counsel of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District( "MPFPD" or the "District"). On behalf of the MPFPD Board of Directors, the District provides the following responses to the findings and recommendations of the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury Report entitled "Can We See You Now?" dated June 19, 2017. The Board does not have sufficient information to opine as to other special districts and will respond only to those findings and recommendations that apply directly to the MPFPD. The MPFPD Board of Directors approved this letter and instructed its delivery at its November 21, 2017 regular board meeting.