[Lake County] Grand jury finds ‘significant’ non-compliance in local meals-on-wheels programs

Jury: Meals sometimes go hours before delivery with no temperature checks

LAKE COUNTY — The Lake County Civil Grand Jury has found “significant evidence of non-compliance” in the operations of local meals-on-wheels programs.

In its annual report, the grand jury cites major concerns related to food temperature upon delivery to seniors, food purchasing, delivery-person compensation and misstatement of food delivery statistics.

Meals-on-wheels programs do not typically fall under the jurisdiction of a grand jury, which is an investigative body made up of citizens meant to perform a “watchdog” function on the operations of local governments.

Though the administrators of the local meals-on-wheels programs—senior centers and the Area Agency on Aging—are both “outside the purview of a civil grand jury,” the report states, the jury still chose to investigate the programs because Lake County’s AAA is actually administered by the county and the senior centers are part of a joint powers agreement that ties them to that county-administered body.

The four senior centers that deliver meals-on-wheels are Clearlake Highlands, Clearlake Oaks (Live Oak), Middletown and Lakeport, according to the jury. These service providers receive AAA funding based on how many meals they each deliver.

The grand jury notes that this funding is not “proportionally allocated by AAA,” with the Lakeport senior center getting $6.59 per meal and the Clearlake Highlands senior center getting just $1.94 per meal. The Clearlake Oaks and Middletown centers receive roughly $2.50 per meal.

“Monies cannot be increased for a senior center unless they are taken away from a different center,” the jury states. “These funds are not allocated proportionally to the number of meals delivered for that center.”

The grand jury also finds that the temperatures of meals are not being checked regularly. “The Senior Centers are unable to verify that the temperature of these meals meet requirements.” Sometimes, the jury finds, meal deliveries are taking two hours or more, yet temperatures are not being checked during this time.

In addition, the jury finds that inspections by the Lake County Department of Environmental Health are not being conducted as often as needed.

“Lakeport senior center has not been inspected in over one year,” the jury writes. “For the other centers, it has been nearly one year since their last inspection.” The jury states it found a violation of food storage health code at the Lakeport senior center that had not been addressed.

The grand jury highlights a Lake County Board of Supervisors proclamation from March that states “over 220,000 meals are provided annually to homebound seniors in Lake County” by the meals-on-wheels programs. The grand jury contradicts this claim, stating that it is off by a 60 percent margin.

August 9, 2019

Lake County Record-Bee

By Aidan Freeman