Fresno County grand jury criticizes board

Supervisors should consider fewer paid staffers as they cut from budget, report says.

Thursday, Mar. 26, 2009

By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee

Even as Fresno County supervisors made budget cuts that harmed vital services to the community, they increased their own staffing, according to a county grand jury report issued Thursday.

The five supervisors got by with just one assistant each until a little more than a year ago, when they each added one more.

The grand jury says they don't need two each, and the board instead should tap community volunteers and interns to pick up any extra work.

This year, the board's cuts included 37 public health jobs, $800,000 from the Department of Behavior Health, and the closure of the county's only 24-hour psychiatric center, which eliminated 45 jobs.

In addition, the board increased the salary of John Navarrette, the county administrative officer, by 18% to $185,000 -- an annual increase of $28,000.

Only Supervisor Susan Anderson voted to oppose the pay raise, saying it was inappropriate because of the county's financial straits.

To make matters worse, the grand jury said, supervisors will require about 4,700 county employees to take a week of unpaid leave.

Supervisor Henry Perea defended the board's extra staffing.

"The board and its support staff play a vital role in the operation of Fresno County, which has a $1.7 billion budget," Perea said.

The grand jury does a good job of bringing out issues, Perea said, but it should focus on much more serious concerns such as investigating Child Protective Services and the beating death of 10-year-old Seth Ireland.

The latest panel's report said some cuts have put public safety at risk. For example, cuts to the Department of Community Health will leave the county with minimum resources to identify and treat potential outbreaks of communicable diseases.

"Without the proper resources, the county is vulnerable to possible outbreaks of virulent strains of tuberculosis and other communicable diseases if not identified and treated in a timely manner," the report said.

The board's decision to add more assistants doesn't make sense, the grand jury said, partly because of the duplication of effort involved as the assistants gather information from county departments to address concerns within each of their own supervisors' districts.

"This board action created a convoluted management structure," the report said, because board assistants are overseen by Navarrette but report directly to their supervisor.

"This management structure potentially creates inefficiency and duplication of work and further erodes the authority of the CAO to manage departments under his responsibility," the report said.

The reporter can be reached at plopez@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6434.

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