Blog note: this article references grand jury reports from 2014 through 2016.
The board of the Golden Hills Community Services District hired Regional Government Services Authority to provide interim management services during its Sept. 12 meeting.
The authority was hired to take on duties following the Aug. 17 resignations of the district's top two employees, General Manager William C. Fisher and Assistant General Manager Mike Sides.
"When we ran into the issue with the general manager resigning, we considered several options before we went to RGS. They (other options) never were able to provide us with any form of an estimate of time when they could do it and since we worked with RGS, it was just easier for us to say, 'OK, well then RGS could you provide this assistance?' and they said, 'Absolutely,'" board President John Buckley said after the Sept. 12 meeting.
RGS is charged with helping the district with “human resources, employee benefits, payroll administration, safety, project and agency management, organizational development, planning and environmental review, finance and accounting” and other responsibilities, according to the RGS agreement dated Aug. 21.
These services are meant to keep the district functioning while the board evaluates Golden Hills' needs moving forward.
"We are trying to work and get a permanent general manager, but with the advance or the expansion of scope from what we want to do, it wouldn't be prudent for us and the community to run right out and grab a general manager ... so it's better to have an interim general manager, a service, a company that can provide the services while we continue our evaluation of the district and an evaluation of what we want to do,” Buckley said Sept. 18.
He added that this evaluation possibly will include property management for Golden Hills Nature Park, security for mailboxes, water quality, constructing entertainment areas, developing higher-level policies and evaluating other needs.
The agreement states that “services shall commence on or about August 12, and this agreement is anticipated to remain in force to June 30, 2018.”
The services may be on a month-to-month basis, or until one party terminates the agreement.
The rates the district will pay RGS staff, which will be made up of three advisors and one project coordinator, will be billed at an hourly rate of $65 to $160, depending on the level of expertise.
Kern County grand jury reports dated from 2014 through 2016, and statements from previous employees, cite problems during that time period.
Grand juries in California, including the one in Kern County, look into matters such as management, ethics, performance and how public entities carry out their financial duties.
The grand jury wrote that Golden Hills board members lacked transparency, created a hostile work environment, violated the Brown Act and didn't comply with CSD law and district policy.
The Golden Hills board at the time responded to the grand jury's findings. In some instances the board said it was working to correct concerns the grand jury brought up. In other cases, the district wrote that it disagreed partially with the grand jury's findings.
According to assistant general manager Sides' Aug. 17 resignation letter, some of these issues have been ongoing since the 2013-2014 election of board members, and the problems have made some on the management team seek other positions.
Some board members serving then have also moved on and are no longer on the board.
“A hostile work environment has been maintained by the majority of the past two boards through their ongoing efforts to run day-to-day operations and limit (to the greatest extent possible) the General Manager’s ability to run the district, including his past authority to provide merit increases to deserving staff," Sides wrote in his resignation letter, which the Tehachapi News obtained from the district's attorney. "Since 2014 the board has not approved cost of living increases to any staff or management team member, implemented a hiring freeze not filling any vacant positions, and refused to address any succession planning efforts."
LaMinda Madenwald, who was employed with the district from June 2009 until she resigned in May 2016, told Tehachapi News on Sept. 18 that “everything in the grand jury report as far as my experience went as business manager is true.”
In the grand jury 2015-2016 findings and responses dated April 25, 2016, Madenwald, quoted in the grand jury report only as the business manager, said she “denied identification with the numbers and instructed the Board President she could not support the numbers the Financial Committee presented. To do so would jeopardize her Certified Public Accountant license.”
Madenwald told Tehachapi News she was the business manager cited in the 2015-2016 grand jury report.
The district, in its written response to the grand jury findings, disagreed partially.
Previous general manager Fisher declined to comment, but wrote in his resignation letter that “my decision to resign was made after long and careful consideration. My sincere thanks and gratitude to the Community of Golden Hills, my colleagues and family who supported me through my 30 years of employment.”
September 18, 2017
Tehachapi News
By Cara Jackson
No comments:
Post a Comment