Official response details efforts to comply with recommendations
When the 2014-15 Kings County
Grand Jury issued a critical report on the Home Garden Community Services
District earlier this year, it tallied up a detailed list of ways the district
was allegedly failing to comply with the law.
By law, district officials were
required to issue a written response. Earlier this month, district officials
released that document.
In it, they assert that they
have made comprehensive changes to the district’s operations to comply with
most of the grand jury’s suggestions for improvement.
“A lot of it has been taken
care of already,” said district General Manager Jim Christian. “There have been
some shortcomings, but we’re working to get it all straightened out.”
Home Garden is a small county
community just outside the southeastern boundary of Hanford that was never
incorporated into the city. Most of the streets for the approximately 1,700
residents lack curbs, sidewalks and gutters.
The community services district
there collects only enough fees to provide sewer, water, garbage collection and
streetlight service.
Many of the allegations of
dysfunction in the grand jury report revolve around the Brown Act, the state
open-meetings law that lists detail requirements for how governmental entities
must operate, including instructions for exactly how public meetings should be
conducted.
The act’s requirements include
printing agendas and making them available to the public within 72 hours of
regular meetings, limiting discussions only to items on the agenda and making
sure that staff provides accurate and regular reports to keep elected board
members informed.
The district’s response stated
that the board now follows all agenda requirements, and that staff is giving
regular updates to the board on the district’s financial picture.
Officials admitted to being out
of compliance in several areas before the grand jury report was issued.
“If the [grand jury’s
allegations] we’re true, we said they were and planned on correcting them as
best we could,” said Board President Harold Reed.
One suggestion was that the
board should look into raising rates, which haven’t been increased since
roughly 2007.
Like other Kings County communities,
Home Garden is facing declining revenues as residents’ water use drops because
of drought-related conservation measures.
Meanwhile,
pumping costs are rising as well water is being pulled up deeper and deeper
underground.
September 22, 2015
Hanford
Sentinel
By
Seth Nidever
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