Deadwood Conservation Camp

and R3 Board of Supervisors 14 Photo by Amber Schriver 15 PSA-2 SUMMARY The grand jury elected to investigate the Planning and Service Area 2 Agency on Aging (PSA-2) to determine whether or not it was adequately providing services to senior citizens in Siskiyou County. This agency acts as a conduit for funds coming from state and federal governments. The agency does not run any programs for seniors itself; this is done by contractors. BACKGROUND Members of the grand jury were interested in how PSA-2, which handles all services for five California counties, functions. METHODOLOGY The grand jury reviewed the following documents: PSA-2 revised and administrative budget July 10, 2014 PSA-2 (Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program) HICAP and Ombudsman budget July 7, 2014 PSA-2 County % Allocation PSA-2 Siskiyou County service provider listings Sample grant award documents Audit report prepared by Aiello, Goodrich & Teuscher for fiscal year ending June 30, 2014 US Census Bureau data PSA-2 and contractor brochures The Grand Jury also interviewed agency staff and contractors. DISCUSSION The agency handles senior services for five counties: Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, and Trinity. This covers a fairly large geographic area, so it is reasonable that some costs, travel in particular, may be higher than average than in other areas in the state. The agency handles eleven programs. Of these, only three are active in Siskiyou County: Nutrition, Caregiving (family members of disabled people over 60), and the Senior Information and Assistance Program. In Siskiyou County the agency does not run these programs itself; contractors do that. PSA-2 is essentially a conduit for monies received from state and federal agencies. Most of this funding is mandated by law and regulated by a board of directors. Money is allocated to the counties according to a standard formula. Shasta County receives just under half of the available funds, with the remainder disbursed among the other four counties. The following chart shows the proportion of seniors over 65 for each county (from Census data) along with the proportion of the budget allocated to each county (2014-2015 agency budget): Budget Allocation by County 80 70 60 50 40 % of Population % of budget 30 20 10 0 Lassen Modoc Shasta Siskiyou Trinity In Siskiyou County, funds are distributed to contractors who provide the actual services. The contractors are Madrone Hospice, the Happy Camp Nutritional Center and the Mt. Shasta Recreation District. Madrone Hospice and Mt. Shasta Recreation District write grants to get funding from PSA-2. PSA-2 audits the contractors about once a quarter and administers the grants; the timing of the audit may vary depending on how funding comes in from the government. Contractors also provide much of their own funding from sources in addition to PSA-2. The total budget for PSA-2 in the five counties is $1,226,055. Of this total, Siskiyou County receives approximately $255,000. The county also receives additional funding from other sources. The nutrition program requires that each contractor hire a licensed nutritionist to plan the menus. This is an additional cost to the contractor and is included in the grant. PSA-2 conducts information fairs at various places throughout the year, including Yreka (at the Community Center, in November) and Mt. Shasta (at the Mt. Shasta Resort in May), as well as in Redding and other places. PSA-2 uses some public service announcements and newspaper advertising. Local senior agencies help with advertising. Local agencies raise funds through various outreach programs. While they do some outreach, Madrone staff indicated that they need more volunteers and fresh ideas. In most cases, the contractors have received significant funding from cities and service clubs such as Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions and Elks. Contractors accept donations from seniors being served but do not formally charge for nutritional services. FINDINGS