By Paul Wellersdick
Posted: 07/08/2010 01:00:00 AM PDT
Butte County's Grand Jury report for 2009-10 was released June 25, highlighting a dysfunctional behavioral health department. The 19-member jury found the department in need of permanent leadership after two temporary directors led the department. It also found questionable practices in hiring those directors as well as suspicious grant funding expenditures.
However not everyone takes Grand Jury reports seriously, the jury wrote and consented that it wasn't a comprehensive study of the department. However, it did quote Kim Yamaguchi, the Paradise area Supervisor to the Butte County Board of Supervisors, as saying the jury was a volunteer panel that may be ignorant of all the facts.
Minutes showed Yamaguchi who was a board member on the behavioral health board as saying the jury may not have all pertinent information. Notwithstanding, the jury highlighted a rift between management and staff in the department saying the two groups had different views on the department's mission and how to get there.
The first thing apparent was that the department needed a permanent leader to listen to staff and take their suggestions and put them to practice, the report stated. However, on June 7, a Anne Robin took the reigns.
The jury found the Butte County Board of Supervisors approved an open ended hire of Brad Luz as interim director without the input of the department's boards which is against state law, the report read. Again when the county hired Edward Walker as interim director at Luz' departure the county did so without the behavioral health board's participation, the jury wrote.
Also regarding hiring, the jury wrote that many psychiatrists in the department are nearing retirement, at least one of whom was in his 80s. Though the department had no plans to recruit replacements which the jury wrote was inadvisable. Since a 2005 16-percent pay cut, the department has failed to hire any psychiatrists.
Over the course of several months, the jury made 65 separate interviews including scores of former employees, current employees and administrators, the jury found some fear among employees for speaking out against its administrators. The grand jury found numerous examples of distrust between psychiatrists and administrators including the fear if employees spoke out their positions would be cut, the jury wrote.
The jury also wrote Butte County administrators were slow to return information requests and returned incomplete information. The jury also found incomplete accounting to prove or disprove claims that the department could better and more cheaply serve its clients by treating them inside the county, rather than sending them elsewhere for treatment. The jury also questioned a loan or cash advance from the county to cover costs. The loan was in the order of some millions of dollars however the amount was still in question.
The jury also called into question a contractor hired for $5,000 who was paid more than $14,000. The jury said the contractor's job could've been done by an impartial interim director at no cost. Avatar, the county's accounting software, was also questioned.
This year was the second consecutive year of a grand jury investigation into the department. The jury wrote that the interim County Administrative Officer, the first interim behavioral health director and the entire Board of Supervisors didn't take most of the previous jury's findings seriously.
All in all 21 recommendations were made by the jury, one of which appeared to have been met with Robin's hire. Other recommendations were to raise salaries to attract qualified employees. Director's salary of $200,000 was perhaps too low in comparison to a $250,000 average, the jury wrote.
http://www.paradisepost.com/news/ci_15461166
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