Mendocino County has responded to last year’s grand jury reports on several county departments and policies, including elections, Family and Children Services and Code Enforcement. The following explains how the Board of Supervisors responded to each analysis — whether it agreed or disagreed with the grand jury’s reviews — and how it considered the jury’s recommendations.
ELECTION REPORT: FULLY AGREE
The board agreed with the grand jury that delayed election results is frustrating and that more resources should be dedicated to speeding up the process.
The Registrar of Voters already tries to hire more poll workers for each election and provides voter instructions with every ballot, according to the response. The board will discuss purchasing newer equipment for elections in the next six months, which it has previously stated a desire to do. However, it decided that changing the current ballot procedures, recommended by the jury, would not help.
FORMULA BUSINESS REPORT: MOSTLY DISAGREE
The board did not agree with the grand jury that Mendocino County demonstrates an anti-business attitude. It also refuted the jury’s points that its formula business regulations are not being implemented fairly or consistently, that its rules discourage business permit seekers from applying, that zoning regulations add exorbitant time and cost to applications and that the In-N-Out Burger causes neighborhood concerns that could have been avoided.
The board stated there is no formal record of neighborhood concerns about In-N-Out and that the comments about its business regulations seemed more like opinion instead of fact.
Supervisor John McCowen restated that point Tuesday, encouraging this year’s grand jury (for 2017-18) to be more discerning between the two when writing its reports.
“In the current year reports, there were comments that did not appear to be supported by evidence and the record, but appeared to be more in the nature of personal opinions, some of them somewhat inflammatory,” he said. “And to include those kinds of statements without the evidence that supports them actually tends to undercut the credibility of the grand jury.”
The board rejected the jury’s recommendations to include a community character design review for all business development, which would no doubt add more time and cost to the review process — contradicting the jury’s own point that too many regulations exist already — and to eliminate “by right” business permits in favor of discretionary use permits, which was determined to be unwarranted.
FAMILY AND CHILDRENS SERVICES REPORT: SOMEWHAT DISAGREE
The jury correctly reported that Mendocino County is not meeting state staffing requirements with too few employees. The Health and Human Services Agency is submitting a waiver request for 2018. However, the board did not agree that past turnover rates would continue under new leadership or that disparity of pay between Mendocino and neighboring counties has made recruitment “nearly impossible,” the board stating that a few social workers have recently been hired.
The board admitted that Mendocino County does have a higher rate than the state for removal of children from their families, but stated that the reasons listed by the jury — “drug culture, high unemployment, lack of housing, and the lack of teenage drug treatment programs” — are not solely responsible.
The board said that the recommendation to offer competitive salaries needs looking into, pointing to budget constraints.
HHSA Director Tammy Moss Chandler argued this response Tuesday, saying that the department returned more than $30 million to the state and federal government in the five years before she became director, due to coming in under the social services budget.
However, Supervisor Georgeanne Croskey clarified that the board meant budget constraints to mean the county’s overall budget, as it is obligated to maintain equity for employees across all departments.
Part 2 of Mendocino County’s responses to the grand jury reports will appear in the Tuesday, Oct. 10 edition.
October 7, 2017
Ukiah Daily Journal
By Ashley Tressel
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