Shasta County supervisors disagree with a number of points made in a pair of grand jury reports and took the opportunity to explain their reasoning at Tuesday's regular meeting.
One report reviewed the county's mental health services and recommends Shasta County's Health and Human Services launch a campaign to let the general public know about its programs and services.
Supervisor Leonard Moty said this recommendation is an unfair swipe at that department.
"I'm sure (the families) are not aware. Until it affects you why would you be? It's just like you don't care about the trash until the day they don't pick it up," said Moty.
The board did agree with a few recommendations. A mobile crisis response team made up of law enforcement officers and mental health professionals is something the county will look into. Expanding hours for the county's mental health clinic also makes sense and is already something the county has been working on. County Executive Officer Larry Lees emphasized it's been in the works for several months.
"We actually created the opportunity to start talking about the resource center in November," said Lees.
"It would have been just as appropriate to say we've already done this."
Indeed, the county is working on creating a second walk-in facility that would serve patients evenings and weekends. In the meantime the grand jury said the county should look into expanding the hours for its current mental health clinic.
Mental Health Services Adult Services Director Dean True explained the lack of psychiatric bed space for children in the county, but did not expand on the response from the county.
Supervisor David Kehoe said it would make sense to include the Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug Advisory Board on the findings and recommendations made in the grand report. That board is made up of various citizen, industry and county representatives.
Meanwhile, the negotiation process for a county auditing service was the subject of the second report and the Board of Supervisors disagreed with most of the points.
Moty said the grand jury could not be faulted for not being familiar with a complex process like hiring a third-party auditing service that works with both the county and the grand jury.
The grand jury said it was not involved in the process and the county overstepped when it renewed that contract.
Moty said he was present at that meeting and the grand jury representative who was there did not voice any protest.
"They did speak up during the process and provided their input. They were there during that discussion. If memory serves me correctly if they didn't support it they didn't oppose it," said Moty.
Kehoe bluntly asked, "Why is there so much of a gap do you think between the work of the grand jury and the reality of the situation?"
Also, the board learned of a new computer program that will speed up the permitting process in the Department of Resource Management. The new program will replace one that was installed in 1994 and is no longer serviced by the manufacturer. This upgrade will allow contractors to receive automatic updates to their mobile phones and give them access to documents and parcel maps from the internet.
While the program will cost the county $467,595, Director of Resource Management Richard Simon said the upgrade will help everyone in the long run.
Historic documents on parcel maps will also get an update as they are digitized and uploaded to the county's new system. The move from analog to digital will save time for everyone and Simon said he expects the program going live in a little more than a year.
The Board of Supervisors will take two weeks off and is scheduled to return July 19.
June 28, 2016
Record Searchlight
By Nathan Solis
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