SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury has released the results of its eight latest investigations, which typically delve into the inner workings of county and city governmental operations.
While
the subjects of the investigations are required to submit responses, they do
not have to make any changes recommended in the reports. Most are required to
respond publicly within 30 to 60 days.
The
Grand Jury, made up of 19 county residents, this year reviewed three of its
investigations from 2017-18 and found that many of their recommendations have
been implemented. The reports are often telling portraits-in-time of public
perception of how taxpayer dollars are being used, and how various aspects of
government are being run.
This
year’s reports cover the county’s response to the pandemic, and how Pajaro
Valley Unified School District (PVUSD)—the county’s largest district—dealt with
the Covid-19-related closures.
The
Grand Jury also looked at the Santa Cruz County Jail system, including several inmate
deaths and violence, in addition to criminal conduct—including sexual
assaults—by correction officers.
Chasing Covid
The
report titled “Chasing the Pandemic” looks at the effectiveness of the county’s
Covid-19 testing and contact tracing efforts, and describes the Santa Cruz
County Public Health Division as “well trained, skilled and knowledgeable
professionals,” who protected residents during the pandemic.
But
the county’s website does not sufficiently help residents find Covid-19 testing
sites. Furthermore, the Save Lives Santa Cruz County website does not
adequately inform the public of the work being done to manage the crisis, and
fails to convey the scope of the pandemic, the report shows.
The
Public Health Division should therefore update its website and shore up its
public outreach, including providing weekly updates and video reports, the jury
recommends.
Leaders cooked for CZU
response
In
the scathing report titled “The CZU Lightning Complex Fire — Learn…or Burn?,”
the Grand Jury focused on how the County Board of Supervisors and the county
administration supported residents of Bonny Doon, Davenport, Last Chance and
Boulder Creek in the aftermath of the county’s worst blaze.
“The
residents whose lives have been devastated were, and are, justifiably indignant
over the lack of leadership from their elected leaders,” the report states.
“Our county’s residents rightly continue to express doubt and dismay about
their devastating experiences and the ability to withstand future fires.”
The
report says that the supervisors have not recognized that they are responsible
to adequately address residents’ concerns over wildfire preparedness.
In
addition, the Grand Jury excoriated Cal Fire for the disparate “lessons
learned” presentations that occurred in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. The
one in Santa Cruz lasted for just nine minutes, while San Mateo’s went on for
40 minutes. The supervisors did not hold Cal Fire accountable for this lack of
analysis, the report says. In addition, there are no provisions in the contract
between the county and Cal Fire to provide such analyses.
“This
discrepancy is disappointing and not acceptable,” the report says.
The
county was also drilled for its response to a 2020 Grand Jury investigation
that looked at the county’s preparedness to wildfire risk. The responses, the
report states, “show a lack of engagement with the material and a lack of
understanding of their role as advocates for the county” and should be
revisited.
In
its recommendations, the Grand Jury says that the supervisors should question
Cal Fire about its readiness for future fires. The board should also develop a
policy for receiving and logging residents’ questions and concerns.
In
addition, county policy should require “timely after-action reports” for major
fire events, and should advocate for additional resources from the state for
fire prevention and protection.
Bringing broadband
The
challenges of providing broadband internet service throughout the county—a goal
10 years in the making-are manyfold. This includes cutting through mountains of
red tape and assessing safety and infrastructure issues that come from fire
danger.
While
the county has a plan to do so, it has committed the technological sin of
allowing that plan to become obsolete.
The
county should immediately update its 2015 Broadband Master Plan to reflect
regulatory changes on the state and federal levels, the Grand Jury says in the
report titled “Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out.” These changes, the report says,
should reflect the difficulty of bringing the service to the rural parts of
Santa Cruz County, and the challenges brought by the CZU Complex.
The
jurors recommended that the county apply for funding to help pay for increased
broadband service, and look into the possibility of the county owning and
maintaining its own broadband system.
In
addition, the county should work with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education
to continue providing internet service for the 2022-23 school year.
A look at Main Jail
In
its required annual look at the county’s jail system, the Grand Jury focused on
allegations of sexual assault and illegal sexual conduct by corrections officers
that occurred in 2017 and 2020, both of which resulted in convictions.
The
report, titled “Justice in the Jail,” also looked at several separate incidents
involving inmates, including one self-mutilation and an assault—both in 2018.
Jurors
also looked at a suicide and a homicide, both of which happened within a
two-day period in October 2019, and the death of a mentally ill inmate in May
2020.
The
Grand Jury also investigated a power outage that lasted for more than 24 hours
in September 2019, including the backup power system.
“In
the end it comes down to issues of management, having enough resources, and a
need for more effective oversight and public transparency,” the report says.
The
Grand Jury recommends either appointing an Inspector General or Sheriff
oversight board or placing the issue before voters.
In
addition, the report states that the county should increase staff at the jail,
since short staffing and mandatory overtime are “detrimental to performance,
staff morale, and contribute to human error which can threaten the health and
safety of staff and inmates.”
The
jail should also revisit its policies of providing razors to inmates, the
report says, and should hold monthly status meetings regarding the state of the
facilities.
PVUSD leads the way
PVUSD
earned the Grand Jury’s only laudatory report with its swift response to the
pandemic, which included quickly closing schools as the pandemic began to take
hold, and then creating a distance learning program.
When
an employee at Rio Del Mar Elementary School tested positive for Covid-19 in
March 2020, Pajaro Valley Unified School district closed the school for a deep
cleaning.
Just
three days later, as case rates began to climb, the district’s Board of
Trustees in an emergency meeting voted to close all schools in the district.
On
April 1, the trustees voted to close the schools for the remainder of the
2019-20 school year.
Soon
after that, the district updated its webpage, issued Chromebook computers to
the majority of its students and created a distance learning program. PVUSD
also created a “safe space” program for students unable to participate in
distance learning, or who are struggling under that system.
The
district’s response, the Grand Jury said in the report titled, “Distance
Learning During the Pandemic in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District,”
should be documented and built upon, since distance learning is likely here to
stay.
A look at pesticide notification
The
county requires that growers must inform the public when they will be applying
pesticide to their crops. But the process of doing so is cumbersome, and the
locations provided often cannot be located on a map.
This
is largely because many farms don’t have an address, and others are made up of
several fields, or are oddly shaped. And so notices are often not helpful to
the public.
That’s
according to the Grand Jury’s investigation on the Santa Cruz County
Agricultural Commission, and how that agency interacts with the Board of
Supervisors and the public. The report is titled “Santa Cruz County
Agricultural Commissioner’s Office Can Get By with a Little Help from Its
Friends.”
The
Grand Jury says that changes at the state level—with the California Department
of Pesticide Regulation (DPR)—must be informed by the County Board of
Supervisors, since they wield more influence than the local Agricultural
Commissioner.
On
Oct. 27, 2020, the Watsonville City Council issued a resolution urging the
Agricultural Commissioner to post online in advance of the pesticide use. But
at that same meeting, Agricultural Commissioner Juan Hidalgo told the council
that doing so would burden his staff that was already stretched thin.
The
report suggests that, within six months, the Agricultural Commissioner should
create a pilot program to teach farmers how to use the CalAgPermits software
that helps inform the public about pesticide application. This should come with
suggestions about improving the software’s efficiency.
In
addition, the supervisors should mandate a notification system for pesticide
application, including text and email. The board should also urge the DPR and
other state officials to include specific location information on pesticide
application forms.
The
Pajoranian (Santa Cruz County)
By TODD GUILD
July 12, 2021
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