Committee Reports .

Recommendations 1

• R1
  the leasing of DPSS quarters at 539 South Rampart Boulevard; 2) the acquisition of land for civic center buildings in Newhall; 3) the acquisition of property in the Castaic area for fire station #149; 4) the acquisition of prop- erty for a County library facility in Southgate; and 5) the condemnation and use of the de Lisa Building at Temple and Grand, Los Angeles. The commit- tee and the Jury found that there was no basis for Grand Jury action in any of these matters, there being no evidence of criminality involved nor of mis- feasance or nonfeasance. All examinations and reports were completed on schedule. Each report has been serially numbered and all have been engrossed in the contract auditor's Final Report, with a suitable over-all index. The contract auditor and the committee have followed up on the implementa- tion of the numerous recommendations made in the reports. It is a tribute to the contract auditor and to the County officials concerned that most of our recommendations were put into effect either during the time that our report was in preparation or promptly thereafter. Those not susceptible to immediate compliance are, in general, in course of being put into effect. We will review here only those reports which we deem most important. For those interested, copies of the detailed Contract Auditor's Final Report are open to inspection at the Grand Jury offices. Auditor-Controller, Internal Audit Division The demands upon the Auditor-Controller have burgeoned greatly over the past 30 years. The incumbent Auditor-Controller, Mr. Mark H. Blood- good, has co-operated fully and enthusiastically with our auditor and with us and we commend him as being able and conscientious. However, it has not been possible, within budget and other limitations, to maintain a staff adequate to cope with the ever-mounting burdens of his office. We recommended that every County department and function be audited at least once every three years and that the departmental staff and bud- 26 get be increased to enable achievement of that goal. Various other im- portant but less crucial recommendations also were made, including re- moval of collection responsibility from the department; re-evaluation of the proper segregation of audit responsibilities from the revision, design and installation of accounting systems; and the implementation of vari- ous means of coping with a rather high rate of personnel turnover. We are pleased to report that our recommendations were ably supported by the Chief Administrative Officer, that their inclusion in the 1969-70 budget was approved by the Honorable Board of Supervisors and that they are being implemented as rapidly as possible. It must be noted that, by reason of budget strictures, it will be necessary to take affirmative steps to preserve to the Auditor-Controller the gains accomplished this year and to obtain for him further gains required by the long-range objective of enabling the contract auditor to produce an an- nual certified balance sheet for the Board. Land Use, Capital Project Financing From our preliminary study, it became apparent that a study in depth is required into the methods used to finance County capital projects and in- to the processes by which requests are initiated and analyzed and funds are appropriated for County land and building needs. It also became ap- parent that a detailed study should be made of capital projects recently completed or in process, to determine if the projects are being construct- ed within reasonable lengths of time. The importance of the problem is demonstrated by the County's use of long-term lease-purchase agreements which, as of January 1969, involved obligations of $189,912,000; joint-powers agreements involving $25,175,000; and non-profit corporation arrangements involving $13,000,000. Further commitments of $121,525,000. are contemplated. Under normal circum- stances, the financing costs of such obligations exceed those of public au- thority bonds, hence cost the taxpayer more. Additional County obliga- tions are incurred in the form of rentals due under lease or rental agree- ments with private persons. Recent precipitate interest rises make the pic- ture all the more complicated. The County and its citizens are fortunate, indeed, that the Los Angeles County Citizens Economy and Efficiency Committee has agreed to as- sume the burden of making a long-range study in depth into the methods used to finance the capital projects and into the processes by which re- quests are initiated and analyzed and funds appropriated for County land and building needs. We also are pleased to report that the Chief Administrative Officer has agreed to make a detailed study of capital projects recently completed or in process, to determine if those projects are being constructed within reasonable lengths of time. Merger of Bailiff and Civil Process Functions of the Marshal and the Sheriff In response to prior Grand Jury recommendations, the Board of Super- visors, on March 7, 1967, requested the Los Angeles Citizens Economy and Efficiency Committee to study the feasibility of combining the above func- tions and to report back to the Board. On September 13, 1967, the Commit- tee reported, recommending consolidation under the Sheriff. The 1967 Grand Jury and the 1968 Grand Jury contract auditor joined in that recommendation. Both in 1967 and 1968 the Board approved the rec- ommendation and sponsored appropriate legislative bills. Those bills were enabling acts. They did not seek to compel consolidation under one office or the other; they did seek authority for the Board to make the consolida- tion. The bills have been killed to date, largely by the efforts of the Marshal's Association and of the Municipal Court Judges Association, despite broad- ly based public support of the measures, including endorsements by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles County Fed- eration of Labor, AFL-CIO, The Los Angeles County Contract Cities As- sociation, the Los Angeles County and the State of California Peace Offi- cers Associations and most of the news media. The 1969 Grand Jury has further studied the merger proposal and has heard at length from representatives of the Marshal's Office and the Sher- iff's Department. 28