Grand Jury Legacy: Responding to Recommendations*

Recommendations 3

• R1
  The Sheriff's Office should aggressively pursue reimbursement from Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) for medications prescribed for ASH patients who are transferred to the Jail;
• R2
  Juvenile Hall management should take preventive and maintenance measures to address sanitation issues;
• R3
  Courthouse Correctional Officers should explore an alternative route for wheelchair- bound prison inmates other than through public corridors. The first recommendation is under review as the Sheriff's Office examines "proposing legislation changes to obtain relief or compensation." The second recommendation has been implemented (remedied), and the 2012-2013 Grand Jury visit confirmed this fact. The third recommendation had been "previously explored for wheelchair-bound inmates..." and had been deemed non-implementable due to "the physical layout of the Courthouse." III. ARE PASO ROBLES SCHOOL BUDGETARY WOES A LESSON FOR OTHER DISTRICTS? In 2011, the Paso Robles Joint School District found itself facing serious budget problems. Noting this, as well as the fact that all ten San Luis Obispo County school districts were incurring an annual deficit, the 2011-2012 Grand Jury examined the situation in order to determine if there were lessons to be learned. The Jury concluded that, in the absence of state assistance, local governing boards must find local solutions such as governing board financial education and the development of new financial resources. All of the responses show that the districts agree in principle with the recommendations of the Grand Jury. In those cases where immediate implementation was not considered feasible or possible, rationale for placing them under study has been provided. Those districts that disagreed with parts of the recommendations have provided alternative courses of action. It is apparent that the purpose and intent of the report has been fulfilled. No further action is required on the part of this Grand Jury. Although the response requests were focused primarily on the need for training school board members to budget more accurately and employ local solutions in the absence of state funding, the individual school districts chose to highlight what they considered to be a more important element of school funding: namely, the state-imposed funding reductions that occurred during the previous four years. This concern is illustrated by the comments of the various school superintendents in their individual responses. IV. MANAGING MILLIONS: ASSESSING TRANSPARENCY OF COMMUNITY SERVICE DISTRICTS The 2011-2012 Grand Jury investigated how readily community service district (CSD) residents in San Luis Obispo County (County) could find information on the internet about how their CSDs are governed and how their budgets are allocated. Legally required public information that must be made available to CSD residents include board agendas, minutes and budget information. Among the 15 CSDs in the County, only Los Osos and Nipomo were found to provide websites containing all of the legally required information. A notable finding of the 2011- 2012 Grand Jury was that Avila Beach CSD, which operates on a budget of $1.1 million and provides many vital functions for its residents, did not maintain a website. In addition, two smaller CSDs did not have websites: Linne Road with a budget of $60,000 and Creston Hills Ranch which does not have a budget. The 2012-2013 Grand Jury noted that Avila Beach CSD activated its website in August 2012 shortly after the publication of the 2011-2012 Grand Jury report. Linne Road has also developed a website in response to the Grand Jury recommendations.