By Dana M. Nichols
Record Staff Writer
June 28, 2009 6:00 AM
SAN ANDREAS - The 2008-09 Calaveras County grand jury Thursday issued a final report mixed with good and bad news. The grand jury:
» Scolded county officials for failing to follow the required format for responding to previous grand jury reports.
» Praised operation of the county landfill and transfer stations as "impressive."
More online
View the full 2008/09 Calaveras County grand jury report here.
» Urged county leaders to increase the book-buying budget for the county library system.
» Dinged leaders of a road maintenance district in Copperopolis for violating open meeting laws and failing to disclose the conflict of interest when the district board approved a pay raise for the wife of a board member.
In all, this year's grand jury conducted 16 different investigations, including visits to facilities such as the county's landfill, library, jail, animal shelter and fire departments in Arnold and Jenny Lind.
Among its suggestions: restore the county library's book-buying budget to at least $45,000 a year rather than the $17,960 spent in the fiscal year that ends Wednesday, or the even smaller budget likely to be adopted next month for the coming year.
Although this year's report does make a number of such suggestions for improving county operations, nothing in it is likely to be as explosive as the report issued a year ago that alleged mismanagement by the Community Development Agency, a now-defunct entity which formerly oversaw the Building and Planning departments.
That report was followed a few months later by the resignation of Community Development Agency Director Stephanie Moreno and then the decision to dissolve that agency and restore the Building and Planning departments to being independent entities as they were before 2006.
Some of the issues raised in this year's report, meanwhile, reflect unfinished business from that chain of events. The grand jury, for example, investigated the decision by county officials to pay Moreno $89,300 to settle a threat that she might file a sex discrimination lawsuit.
According to the grand jury report: "County Counsel determined through negotiations that it was in the best interest of the county to settle rather than to defend this matter in court."
The grand jury's conclusion: "County settlements to claimants should be based on specific charges against the county and not on threats."
The grand jury also expressed its displeasure with the way top county officials, including the Board of Supervisors and County Administrative Office Bob Lawton, responded to many of the previous year's complaints about Moreno and the Community Development Agency.
In particular, the current grand jury said the leaders failed to meet legal standards for responses when they simply said they "adopted" or "agreed" with more detailed responses given by subordinates such as department heads.
Assistant County Counsel David Sirias on Thursday said he had not yet reviewed the new report and so could not speak to any specifics.
But he said he was skeptical that the law would require officials to use extra ink to re-print a response with which they agreed.
"Without having the benefit of researching it, it wouldn't seem to make sense to require duplication of efforts," Sirias said.
Representatives of the various districts and county offices reviewed by the grand jury will, in coming months, submit formal responses to the report.
Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or dnichols@recordnet.com.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090628/A_NEWS/906280314
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