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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.
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings 5 findings
F1
Page 11
The 18-19 Grand Jury recommended that the Mono County Board of Supervisors and Department of Public Works should make every effort to progress the final planning and construction phases of the New Jail building to avoid cost overruns, provide the best possible long-term facility and be able to incorporate the health clinic for locals. Timeline: End of 2019. In their response the Mono County Sheriff’s Office agreed with the recommendation. According to Mono County staff the jail project was delayed due to the construction of the new County Building in Mammoth Lakes. That is still the case as of this writing. 11
F2
Page 12
The 18-19 Grand Jury recommended that the Mono County Board of Supervisors should fund all open jail staff positions. Timeline: The next Fiscal Budget. In their response The Sheriff’s Office agreed with the recommendation. Sheriff Braun requested the funding of all positions during the budget process, and the 2019-2020 Mono County Budget funded 18 out of 20 positions in the Jail, leaving two Public Safety Officer positions unfunded. The Sheriff’s Office is currently in the hiring process for three funded positions: one current vacancy and two anticipated vacancies. The 19-20 Grand Jury verified with the Mono County Jail that the situation is still as the Sheriff’s Office described in their response.
F3
Page 11
The Committee recommended expenses administered for oversight and administration of the Charter School be defined with separate a profit/loss sheet available to the public. MCOE responded to the 18-19 Grand Jury that the recommendation required further analysis. MCOE noted that county offices of education do not use or create "profit and loss" statements. However, the MCOE stated that the Superintendent would further study whether to implement the spirit of the recommendation, which is to demonstrate that the chartering of a charter school by MCOE benefits Mono County students. MCOE responded to the 19-20 Grand Jury that the funding stream created by the charter school which benefits MCOE is part of their yearly budget. The ADA (average daily attendance) the charter school generates is part of the state calculation used to determine our yearly funding. This ADA is also used in the calculation the state uses to determine our county special education funding. :
F4
Page 12
The 18-19 Grand Jury recommended that Mono County continue discussions of a possible Joint Powers Authority to manage a new 911 system shared by Mono and Inyo Counties and their appropriate emergency agencies (Police, Fire, Etc.) to provide improved and consistent services to the community. The Sheriff’s Office agreed with the recommendation and is actively engaging with partner agencies in Mono and Inyo Counties on the potential for a regional dispatch center. On August 13, 2019, the Mono County Board of Supervisors approved an expenditure of up to $25,000 toward a Feasibility Study and Implementation Plan for a regional dispatch center. The Town of Mammoth Lakes also approved a $25,000 expenditure, and requests are pending with the Bishop City Council and Inyo County Board of Supervisors. Mono County Jail staff indicated to the 19-20 Grand Jury that Mono County’s efforts to create a regional emergency dispatch center in partnership with Inyo County are ongoing.
F5
Page 12
The Mono County Board of Supervisors is recommended to make an annual visit/tour of the Mono County Jail. Timeline: Annual. The Sheriff’s Office agreed with the recommendation and said they would welcome a visit by the Mono County Board of Supervisors. The 19-20 Grand Jury finds that no Mono County Supervisors have paid a visit to the Jail Facility 12
Recommendations 5
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R1Page 11and R2: The Grand Jury finds that MCOE has complied with the recommendations they agreed to in their original response.
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R2Page 22The Grand Jury recommends that Mono County and the TOML continue to support wildfire mitigation efforts in the areas surrounding Mammoth Lakes and in the County as a whole. 22
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R3Page 11The Grand Jury recommends that while MCOE has stated the Charter School brings in additional State funding to the benefit of Mono County students, they should also provide a comparison of the Charter School expenses which offset revenues from the State generated by the Charter School. And, provide a method for that information to be available to Mono County residents. Continuity Committee Mono County Jail Report
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R5Page 13The Grand Jury finds that, given current circumstances, a visit to the Jail would not be appropriate at this time. Hilton Creek Continuity Report
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R19-20Page 14Grand Jury Emergency Preparedness Final Report Background With the escalating dangers people everywhere face, the Mono County Grand Jury thought it important to report on some of the unique challenges facing Mono County, should the county be faced with a catastrophic event. We focused our report on the ability of Mono County’s first responders and emergency planners to respond to such an event by looking at three main emergency response capacities: one, training and personnel, two, infrastructure, and three, communications. We will call these “Response Capacity One/Training and Personnel,” “Response Capacity Two/Infrastructure and Response,” and “Response Capacity Three/Communications” in the following report. As the Grand Jury was pursuing its investigation, Mono County found itself confronted with just such an event; the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that was declared to be a county-wide emergency on March 16 and was still ongoing at the time of the writing of this report. At that time, the Grand Jury met and made the decision to discontinue the investigation into emergency preparedness for two reasons: first, in order not to create any distraction as Mono County’s leaders responded to the pandemic and second, because the Grand Jury recognized that there will likely be a better opportunity to assess Mono County’s emergency response capacity at a future date, once the Covid- 19 emergency is over and there is an ability to look back at how the Covid-19 emergency, the longest lasting and most profound in the county’s history, was handled. Summary Mono County faces a number of potential threats. For example, as a rural county surrounded by forest and desert, wildfires are one of the greatest threats to the county. Along with these increasingly large wildfires, another threat, Public Safety Power Shutoff events, where power can be shut off by utilities for multi-day stretches, are another. Other events, such as emergencies due to large snowfall and avalanches are a relatively unique threat. Long winters and potentially large amounts of snow can create obstacles to emergency response. Mono County also lies in an active earthquake zone; earthquakes are a serious threat. More common threats to Mono County are multi-fatality automobile accidents, or a public health emergency. What also makes Mono County unusual in facing these threats is two main things: one, its remoteness and geographical distance from large population areas and two, the fact it is a tourist- based economy. 14