Office of the*

A complete list of special districts, JPAs and CSAs in Marin County is not available. Inconsistent partial lists are published by Marin LAFCo, the County Clerk, the County Finance Office, and the California State Controller; therefore, the public is unable to find critical information from one source. Response: Disagree. The State Auditor Controller maintains a comprehensive open data website listing the approximately 5,000 independent and dependent special districts and JPAs throughout the state and provides breakout information on the agencies at https://bythenumbers.sco.ca.gov/. In 2016 we agreed that a single source of information was easier for residents to review and understand. To that end, in addition to the State Auditor Controller's website, the Marin County Department of Finance created and continues to maintain: A comprehensive online listing with summary information regarding special districts under the Board of Supervisors, and a link to the Marin County Special Districts' Budget for financial information: https://www.marincounty.org/depts/df/special-districts; A Marin County special district contact information link via the same site: https://www.marincounty.org/sdistrictcontact; and A web page with general information for dependent special districts under the Board at: https://www.marincounty.org/sdistrictinfo. Unfortunately, we are not able to dedicate limited staff resources to further creating, maintaining and/or duplicating dynamic information for which the Marin County Board of Supervisors is not financially or legally responsible. School districts, water districts, sanitary and fire districts, and many joint powers agencies, for example, are legally separate and independent entities for which the Board of Supervisors has no authority or responsibility. None of the three examples highlighted by the Grand Jury in its 2019 report (pp. 3-4 of 6, including the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District, the Central Marin Sanitation Agency, and the Marin Municipal Water District), falls under the authority of the Board of Supervisors. Ultimately, the State of California is the single entity to which all organizations are responsible. The State Auditor Controller's website at https://bythenumbers.sco.ca.gov/ is a comprehensive resource, and requests for further or additional information should be directed where authority is provided, or should be directed specifically to agencies of particular concern. Nevertheless, we will work to assist the Marin County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) to explore enhancing its existing online presence regarding special districts and JPA's in Marin County, though it too faces similar challenges. State Government Code section 56036 defines "District" and "Special District" in a way that limits LAFCo authority to review certain types of districts, such as school districts and most non- taxing agencies. Those agencies are not required to comply with requests for information similar to that which the Civil Grand Jury seeks. LAFCo's role would therefore likely be limited to adding a special district's name and website link to its existing website to help provide a single listing of all agencies within the county. However, agencies would need to inform LAFCo of any information changes since LAFCo's resources and authority are similarly constrained. County of Marin Response to Grand Jury Report Findings and Recommendations "Special Districts Transparency Update" (June 13, 2019)

Without a full list, it is difficult to determine how many special districts exist and how much taxpayer money is expended by them. Response: Disagree. With reference to our response to F1, the State Auditor Controller maintains a comprehensive open data website listing the more than 5,000 special districts throughout the state at https://bythenumbers.sco.ca.gov/. In addition, the Marin County Department of Finance maintains a comprehensive listing with summary information regarding each special district under the Board of Supervisors, as well as a link to the Marin County Special Districts Budget for financial information. We believe this provides the most straightforward information for our residents regarding special districts, community service areas, flood control zones, permanent road divisions, joint powers agreements/agencies (JPA's), etc. under the Board of Supervisors. We have thanked prior Grand Juries for their recommendations, and believe we have complied with their requests to improve transparency for entities under the purview of the Board of Supervisors. Nevertheless, as described in our response to F1, we will work to assist Marin LAFCo to explore enhancing its existing online presence regarding special districts and JPA's in Marin County, though it too faces similar challenges.

Information about total board compensation, including salaries, benefits, and allowances, and how it is calculated is not consistently reported and made easily available for comparison among all special districts. Response: Disagree. We can only speak to jurisdictions for which the Marin County Board of Supervisors has responsibility; very few County of Marin special districts have any direct staff. The Marin County Open Space District is unique in this respect, for example, and maintains its own substantive online presence with separately noticed budget hearings, annual reports, strategic plans and significant public involvement. As noted in our response to the 2015-2016 Grand Jury Report, "2015-16 Web Transparency Report Card - Bringing Marin County's Local Governments to Light," we provided a link on the Department of Finance's website to the State Controller's Government Compensation in California website at http://publicpay.ca.gov to increase our transparency of public employee pay and benefits. We believe this avoids confusion and what would otherwise be additional administrative expense to maintain duplicative sources for the same information that is already available in Marin County's budget or reported to the state. The County also provides links to the State Controller's Government Compensation in California website at http://publicpay.ca.gov - found in two areas on the Department of Finance's public website (under the "Payroll" Division and its "Pension and OPEB" information web pages). County of Marin Response to Grand Jury Report Findings and Recommendations "Special Districts Transparency Update" (June 13, 2019) RESPONSE TO GRAND JURY RECOMMENDATIONS The Marin County Civil Grand Jury recommends the following: