The controversy over the allocation of
Proposition 172 public safety funds popped up in two separate areas this week
with the Board of Supervisors postponing its decision on using the money to
fund firefighters while a critical grand jury report received responses from
two county officers.
The supervisors delayed a formal hearing of
the funding to May 3 because of a committee member’s illness and a request to
continue discussion of related issues.
Meanwhile, the Mendocino County
auditor-controller and district attorney took far different approaches in their
responses a grand jury report critical of the county’s handling or Proposition
172 public safety funds.
While Auditor-Controller Lloyd Weer partially
disagreed with findings in the report, District Attorney C. David Eyster said
the auditor’s office has a history failing to account properly for Proposition
172 funds and noncompliance with state requirements “normally is remedied by
state-imposed financial sanctions.”
The two responses to the Feb. 25 grand jury
report were released April 5 on the Mendocino County website.
In its report, the grand jury issued four
findings:
1) the current method of budgeting the
distribution of Proposition 172 funds to county government public safety is not
transparent,
2) the lack of transparency violates the
spirit of the original proposition and could be easily rectified by a simple
alteration to the format of the County budget,
3) the auditor-controller has been unable to
demonstrate that the remaining Proposition 172 revenues have been entirely
distributed to county public safety agencies as required, and
4) the failure to update the maintenance of
effort (MOE) calculation annually as required has placed the county in a
position of noncompliance with state requirements.
In his response, Weer said he disagreed
partially with the first three findings but would support changing the format
to clarify where the money goes. He said MOE calculations had been prepared as
required and were in compliance with state requirements.
However, Eyster charged that the
auditor-controller’s office has failed to provide transparency in its
distribution of Proposition 172 funds for several years, including before Weer
took office. His response asked that the auditor-controller provide an
accounting for the distribution of funds since it was instituted in 1994.
Eyster’s response charged that the
auditor-controller’s office “through institutional or other delay” has failed
to provide proper accountability for the distribution of funds despite a
written request. He included a 2011 request to former Auditor-Controller
Meredith Ford for an accounting of the distribution. After five years, the
office has failed to provide an adequate audit, the district attorney charged.
In its recommendations, the grand jury asked
that the CEO and the auditor-controller adopt a transparent method of budgeting
Proposition 172 funds, that the new budgeting method clearly demonstrate the
full distribution of the funds, and the auditor-controller resume performing
the MOE calculation annually and report on its completion to the Board of
Supervisors annually as well.
Weer’s report indicated that the first two
parts had been implemented and that the MOE report would be implemented as part
of the 2016-17 budget process.
In an interview, Weer added that he would let
his response to the grand jury speak for itself, but during the upcoming
2016-17 process his office would seek to address the issues raised in the grand
jury report.
Eyster’s response was that the state had
issued guidelines for calculating the MOE and its annual report.
“The Mendocino County auditor-controller
should be required by the Board of Supervisors to publicly report as soon as
possible what the 1992-93 base year allocation was for each Mendocino public
safety entity; then, for each following year, report what the amount of
Proposition 172 sales tax received was.”
Proposition 172 was passed by state voters to
provide sales tax revenue toward public safety. The proposition came after the
state claimed some local revenues to pay for education funding. Money raised
from the sales tax is distributed by the state to counties, which then
distribute the money to public safety agencies under their jurisdictions.
Board delays hearing
Consideration by the Mendocino County Board of
Supervisors for using Proposition 172 public safety funding to help financially
strapped county fire districts was postponed to its next May 3 meeting.
Dan Gjerde, 4th District supervisor and a
member of the ad hoc committee studying the issue, said fellow committee member
Dan Hamburg, 5th District supervisor, and Dave Roderick, a Hopland Fire
Protection District board member and a committee member, had requested the
delay.
Hamburg was ill and did not attend the April 5
meeting, while Roderick said some of the issues were still being resolved.
Gjerde reminded board members that use of
Proposition 172 funds was only one possibility for aiding the various county
fire districts, most of which are served almost exclusively by volunteer
firefighters. Gjerde suggested revenue being created in special districts could
be a mechanism for funding fire services.
“Our intent all along is not to conclude that
the work of the ad hoc committee is not strictly with the 172 funds because we
see there are other opportunities we’ve been discussing to provide to fire
services potentially,” Gjerde said. “So our hope is that we can, working
together, secure some other sources or enhance with other funding sources in
addition to the 172 source.”
Asked by Gjerde to address the board, Roderick
said, “As a group we’re open to any idea out there, not one funding source, we
just want to fix the problem.”
Alleviating dispatch fees through alternative
sources, he added, would not help fire districts because that would only
benefit people who call 911.
Brooktrails Community Township board member
Tony Orth spoke to the supervisors to appeal for firefighter funding.
“I’m here to wave the red flag,” he said
producing a red kerchief from his pocket. “Tomorrow (April 6) is going to be 20
degrees above normal; last year we had six months with five days of 100-degree
and above temperatures. That’s a record year. This year is record year over
that year. Fire conditions are changing for firemen on virtually a daily basis
as jet stream destabilizes.”
Orth said El Niño conditions are contributing
to the growth of the kinds of grass that cause hazardous fire conditions.
He said the loss of funding to Brooktrails
because of the state Educational Reallocation Augmentation Fund and other
shifts has been a combined $10 million over the 30 years since ERAF was
enacted.
“So I very much support sitting down with the
ad hoc committee and coming back with some meaningful recommendations for you
to act on when we come back,” Orth said.
He also warned against purchasing used
equipment as a way to cut expenses.
“The reason they’re ‘used equipment’ is
because other well-funded districts are retiring their equipment so (that
equipment is) ending up in rural counties like Mendocino,” he told the board
members. “So you need to be aware of the difference between what meets
standards and what is needed to fully fund a fire district.”
Supervisor John McCowen called the fire
fighting issue a state-created problem when it shifted money away from cities,
counties and special districts through ERAF to help pay for state expenses.
“So what we are left with is Proposition 172,
which is a partial backfill for revenue diverted by the state,” he said, “and
we’re falling into the trap of scrambling after the crumbs rather than taking a
unified approach to demand of our state Legislature that they fix the problem
that the state created. That’s where the primary focus of our energies should
be, I believe.”
McCowen suggested the committee consider
assisting fire districts by using the county’s purchasing power to reduce costs
for insurance and workers compensation or alleviating administrative overload
on volunteer fire chiefs by creating a county position that would work with the
various compliance and training issues they encounter.
Gjerde asked that the item be continued to
1:30 p.m. at the May 3 meeting.
April
8, 2016
Willits
News
By Loran Lewis
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