📋
Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

Santa Cruz County Grand Jury • 2023-2024

katherine.Hansen@santacruzcourt.org

Published: September 16, 2024 28 pages
View PDF View Full Original

Findings and Recommendations 6 findings

F1 Page 269
It is hard to contact the relevant people in CPS to get information since there is no organizational chart published on the website. People don’t know who they can contact for specific issues. Report on Child Protective Services published June 17, 2024 260 Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Page 270
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS publish an organizational chart by October 31, 2024. (F1)
F2 Page 270
The lack of readily available CPS data metrics accessible on the Santa Cruz County website can lead to perceptions based on individual experiences. Perception becomes reality if data is not provided which can lead to public distrust of the system.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Page 270
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS publish outcome based metrics, such as number of children moved to Resource Families, number of Resource Families available in the County, number of successful and failed reunifications, and identify success metrics for children under care, on an annual basis on their website to improve transparency by December 31, 2024. (F2, F3, F6)
F3 Page 270
Lots of data is available on the California Welfare Indicators Project maintained by University of California for the whole state of California for each county. It is hard to sift through and find relevant data for Santa Cruz County.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Page 270
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS publish outcome based metrics, such as number of children moved to Resource Families, number of Resource Families available in the County, number of successful and failed reunifications, and identify success metrics for children under care, on an annual basis on their website to improve transparency by December 31, 2024. (F2, F3, F6)
F4 Page 270
There is no formal complaint process. You can lodge a complaint only with your social worker. When the complainant is not happy with the resolution, complaints are lodged with the Grand Jury. This is ineffective and results in a lack of accountability or follow up on the complaint.
Related Recommendations (2)
R3
Page 270
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS create and publish the complaint process. This published process should include a supervisor not vested in the outcome who can review the complaints. This process and the accompanying metrics like number of complaints and resolution times should be made available to the public by December 31, 2024. (F4)
R4
Page 270
The Grand Jury recommends that the County Board of Supervisors establish a Child Welfare Oversight board and an Inspector General similar to what the 2002-2003 Grand Jury recommended. This could help resolve bias, impropriety and undue influence complaints and will help provide transparency and increase trust in the CPS process. The Grand Jury recommends that the planning for this should start by December 31, 2024, with the board fully implemented six months after the planning is finished. (F4, F5)
F5 Page 270
Child Family Team members often dispute the accuracy of "official" meeting notes taken by the attending CPS Social Workers, leading to lack of trust between team members.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Page 270
The Grand Jury recommends that the County Board of Supervisors establish a Child Welfare Oversight board and an Inspector General similar to what the 2002-2003 Grand Jury recommended. This could help resolve bias, impropriety and undue influence complaints and will help provide transparency and increase trust in the CPS process. The Grand Jury recommends that the planning for this should start by December 31, 2024, with the board fully implemented six months after the planning is finished. (F4, F5)
F6 Page 253
With regard to the City Manager’s response to Recommendation R8, the City’s FY 2024 Annual Budget does not provide a detailed plan and accounting of how homeless funds have been used. The City’s response only partially fulfilled its commitment to make related budget figures available. __ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE _X_ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The Annual Budget as presented by the City of Santa Cruz provides an overview of General Fund revenues and expenditures and Capital Investment Program for the City. The budget document provides information about total expenditures by department and is not intended to be a detailed expenditure plan for a specific program as recommended by the Grand Jury. An Annual Budget is a financial plan, policy document, operations guide and a communication device. The specific request relates to funds received in December 2022 in the amount of $14M from a grant from the State of California, and $4.7M from the American Recovery Act. Both sources of funds were one-time in nature and utilized over two Fiscal Years, FY23 and FY24. A detailed accounting of those funds was presented to the City Council during the FY24 Budget Hearing’s and was attached to the City Council Report which is publicly available on the City’s website located here: FY24 Budget Hearings Homelessness Response. The report details the FY23 expenditures and the planned expenditures for FY24 on of the power point presentation. The recently adopted FY25 budget provides an overview of the expenditures for homelessness response programs that occurred in FY24 and the budget for FY25. These expenditures are contained in three City Departments: City Manager, Public Works and Police Department under the Activity Code 6105. While the expenditures are not broken out into expenses by detail, they are reported categorically as is consistent with all of the city program budgets and consistent with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) accounting and financial reporting standards. The FY25 budget is publicly available on the City’s web site. Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury
Related Recommendations (3)
R2
Page 270
The Grand Jury recommends that CPS publish outcome based metrics, such as number of children moved to Resource Families, number of Resource Families available in the County, number of successful and failed reunifications, and identify success metrics for children under care, on an annual basis on their website to improve transparency by December 31, 2024. (F2, F3, F6)
R5
Page 254
the City Manager should publish the figures that their initial response indicated were available for prior for years. (F6) __ HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED – summarize what has been done HAS NOT YET BEEN IMPLEMENTED BUT WILL BE IN THE FUTURE – __ summarize what will be done and the timeframe REQUIRES FURTHER ANALYSIS – explain the scope and timeframe __ (not to exceed six months) X__ WILL NOT BE IMPLEMENTED – explain why Required response explanation, summary, and timeframe: On May 23, 2023, during the budget presentation for the FY24 budget, staff provided a power point presentation which includes detailed expenditures for the $14M State of California Grant and the $4.7M ARPA funds on of the presentation. The FY24 expenditures for the homelessness response program are presented in three departments: City Manager’s Office, Public Works and the Police Department. This document is available on-line on the city’s website located here: FY24 Budget Hearings Homelessness Response. The recently adopted Three Year Homelessness Response Strategic Plan (Plan) requires an annual update to the City Council on the progress made on the Plan. This update will be provided to the City Council in June of 2025. Included in this update will be a fiscal analysis of the past year’s activities. 2023-2024 Consolidated Final Report with Responses 245
R6
Page 255
the City should publish the summary of expenditures as presented to the City Council in May 2023 that expand on the figures provided in the FY 2024 Annual Budget. (F6) __ HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED – summarize what has been done HAS NOT YET BEEN IMPLEMENTED BUT WILL BE IN THE FUTURE – __ summarize what will be done and the timeframe REQUIRES FURTHER ANALYSIS – explain the scope and timeframe __ (not to exceed six months) _X_ WILL NOT BE IMPLEMENTED – explain why Required response explanation, summary, and timeframe: On May 23, 2023, during the budget presentation for the FY24 budget, staff provided a power point presentation which includes detailed expenditures for the $14M State of California Grant and the $4.7M ARPA funds on of the presentation located here: FY24 Budget Hearings Homelessness Response. The FY24 expenditures for the homelessness response program are presented in three departments: City Manager’s Office, Public Works and the Police Department. This document is available on-line on the city’s website. The recently adopted Three Year Homeless Response Strategic Plan (Plan) requires an annual update to the City Council on the progress made on the Plan. This update will be provided to the City Council in June of 2025. Included in this update will be a fiscal analysis of the past year’s activities. Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury Grand Jury City of Santa Cruz Response to Grand Jury Lisa Murphy Mon, Sep 16, 2024 at 4:50 PM To: "katherine.Hansen@santacruzcourt.org" Cc: Santa Cruz Grand Jury , Gina Liebig Good Afternoon, Please find attached is the City of Santa Cruz, City Manager response to “Honoring Commitments to the Public, Review of 2020-21 Grand Jury Report Responses”. Lisa Murphy Deputy City Manager City of Santa Cruz 809 Center St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Phone: 831-420-5365 Email: lmurphy@santacruzca.gov Web: www.cityofsantacruz.com 2024-2dI_Continuity_SantaCruzCM Invited Response Request_City Manager.pdf 261K 2023-2024 Consolidated Final Report with Responses 247 The 2023–2024 Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury Invites the Santa Cruz City Manager to Respond by September 16, 2024 to the Findings and Recommendations listed below which were assigned to them in the report titled Honoring Commitments to the Public Review of 2020-21 Grand Jury Report Responses Responses are invited from appointed agency and department heads, appointed committees, and non-profit agencies contracted to the county which are investigated by the Grand Jury. You are not required to respond by the California Penal Code (PC) §933(c). If you choose to respond, please follow the instructions below when preparing your response. Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury Instructions for Respondents Your assigned Findings and Recommendations are listed on the following pages with check boxes and an expandable space for summaries, timeframes, and explanations. Please follow these instructions, which paraphrase PC §933.05: 1. For the Findings, mark one of the following responses with an “X” and provide the required additional information: a. AGREE with the Finding, or b. PARTIALLY DISAGREE with the Finding – specify the portion of the Finding that is disputed and include an explanation of the reasons why, or c. DISAGREE with the Finding – provide an explanation of the reasons why. 2. For the Recommendations, mark one of the following actions with an “X” and provide the required additional information: a. HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED – provide a summary of the action taken, or b. HAS NOT YET BEEN IMPLEMENTED BUT WILL BE IN THE FUTURE – provide a timeframe or expected date for completion, or c. REQUIRES FURTHER ANALYSIS – provide an explanation, scope, and parameters of an analysis to be completed , or d. WILL NOT BE IMPLEMENTED – provide an explanation of why it is not warranted or not reasonable. 3. When your responses are complete, please email your completed Response Request as a PDF file attachment to both The Honorable Katherine Hansen, Grand Jury Supervising Judge Katherine.Hansen@santacruzcourt.org and The Santa Cruz County Grand Jury grandjury@scgrandjury.org. If you have questions about this request form, please contact the Grand Jury by calling 831-454-2099 or by sending an email to grandjury@scgrandjury.org. 2023-2024 Consolidated Final Report with Responses 249