Keeping an Eye on the [Mendocino County] Grand Jury (June 25, 1997)

Blog note: This article is posted only for historical purposes to see how grand juries were reviewed over 20 years ago.

For the second week in a row grand jury representatives paid a call on the Board of Supervisors (June 17). They were present to recount various activities revolving around the GJ's annual report which is due to be issued on June 30. For those familiar with the politics boiling around the GJ for the past year, the news was not encouraging.

As reported here earlier, there is a concerted effort throughout the state by local government bodies to emasculate grand juries. For example, in Yuba County officials from the planning and building department sued the grand jury for libel after the Grand Jury criticized their performance in a 1994 report. The GJ report concluded that the P&B director and his assistant harassed personnel and directed staff to ignore county and state codes. The two bureaucrats sued asking for unspecified damages claiming the GJ defamed them. Fortunately, a judge recently threw the case out of court because the plaintiffs couldn't prove malice or reckless disregard for the truth. In other words, the judge ruled the GJ members were just doing their job: they investigated a complaint, weighed the evidence and issued their findings. County officials don't like it when they are publicly criticized for improper, inefficient or wrongful conduct.

Things are no different in Mendocino County where certain officials have carried out an attack on the GJ for the last couple of years. The past two GJ reports have been mildly critical of the county's administrative apparatus, including three Supes who bent the Brown Act by tripling as a traveling delegation to Sacramento. With the exception of 3rd District Supe John Pinches, most county officials hold the GJ in low regard and have stood silently by while the public's watchdog has been muzzled.

Last year, the Supes — again with the exception of Pinches — began interfering directly with the GJ when they voted to withhold funding for the mass report published in local newspapers unless the GJ agreed to delay its report by three or four months so that county officials could respond in writing to any findings issued by the GJ. Earlier this year, the Supes restored the funding but the GJ's mass report will not be published until October or November instead of July in order for the bureaucrats to include gabflabble (or is it bafflegab) in the report. Never mind that the GJ is an independent, autonomous body which is supposed to issue its own stand-alone findings on the performance of local government, the public will now have a joint report comprised of the conclusions and findings of the public's watchdog as well as those being watched. It's just another variation of the fox guarding the henhouse.

At both Board sessions, Pinches questioned the GJ forewoman, Vicki Crawford, on how much work this year's panel has actually done. Although the GJ is supposed to be impaneled from July 1 to June 30, the 96-97 GJ was approximately two months late in getting started; then it would be several more months before they actually got down to business, relatively speaking. Once they were sworn in, a holdover grand juror was tossed off the panel by Judge Conrad Cox in retaliation for the juror writing the state Attorney General Dan Lungren and Gov. Pedro Wilson. The juror wrote complaining of the Supe's action in withholding funding and playing games with the GJ report.

Although legally a creature of the Superior Court, the GJ had no one to defend its integrity as the citizens' watchdog while its authority to function independently and free of political interference was being compromised. For the first six months or so of its term the GJ essentially was rudderless due to judicial politics. While the March 1996 elections elevated two new black robes to the Superior Court — leaving Cox as the sole survivor from the court coordination wars with the “insurgent” Muni Court judges — court administration, including direction for the GJ, slipped sideways during the nine-month lame duck period. In fact, even though the “reform” judges were in control of the court system by January, Cox — who opposed the Muni Court's coordination plans — remained as supervising judge of the GJ until just a couple of months ago. It was on his watch that the GJ was under political, budgetary and constitutional attack by those — including Cox — who aim to blind the public's eyes. It was also, coincidentally, during this period when the GJ “was slow in getting started” in carrying out the public's business.

At the Board session, Pinches told Crawford he had “heard that the grand jury hadn't been doing anything for six months.” Crawford responded that “Yes, we were slow in getting started,” but she said that was mostly because the original GJ foreman had died at the beginning of the new term. Of course, one of the reasons grand juries have alternates and vice foremen/women is that they are there to fill any vacancies which occur, whether by death or whatever the circumstances. The idea is you don't miss a beat just because someone falls by the wayside. So obviously something else was occurring which caused the GJ to get off the mark slowly. If you think it's political interference and intimidation, go to the head of the line.

Anderson Valley
by Jim Shields
June 23, 2020

[Mendocino County] Civil Grand Jury releases reports, forecasts problems with Mendocino County’s emergency notification system and public services funding

MENDOCINO Co., 6/21/20 — Mendocino County’s Grand Jury, an oversight committee comprised of 19 local citizens, has released three reports for the 2019 – 2020 session, including an analysis of the current state of the county’s emergency notification system, a look at safety in county schools, and an examination of how tax dollars are being used to provide local services, particularly those provided by the county’s multitude of special districts.

In particular, the jury found that county government has failed to address long standing issues concerning emergency notifications for residents, and has yet to implemented a plan or allocate adequate funding to upgrade the system efficiently. The jury did not find significant cause to be concerned about school safety in the county, although made recommendations to improved communication and campus response time to increase student safety. In the third report, the committee warned that the current system of special districts collecting taxes for public services is on the brink of being dysfunctional.

Every year, the Grand Jury is empowered to look into the activities of Mendocino County’s various government agencies, and issue a report on their findings. The reports are available on the county’s webpage, and by law require a response from the local officials or agencies named in the reports within 60 days. This year, the reports include: “The Emergency Communications System in Mendocino County,” “School Safety,” and “How Tax Dollars Pay for Services,” along with a report examining the continuity of past Grand Jury responses.

More coverage of the Grand Jury can be found here, and on the county’s website, where past reports are also posted.

Responses to the Grand Jury reports are required within 60 days. However, this year the Grand Jury reviewed the responses to the previous year’s reports, and found that the the responses lacked a specific timeline for implementing changes, and recommended a review of responses be conducted annually.

The reports are fairly simple to read, but include many months of research on issues relevant to Mendocino County residents, although the reports note that some of the group’s inquiries were stymied by the shelter-in-place orders and precautions implemented during the pandemic, including visits to more remote emergency communications equipment. Members of the jury conducted interviews as well as research into past Grand Jury reports to better assess what progress has been made over time, particularly in the case of updates to the county’s emergency notification system, and the efficiency of tax revenue as it concerns the current administration of public services.

Emergency Communications System

The Grand Jury ‘s first report considers the county’s emergency communication systems, which have been a cause of widespread concern for residents after the increasing severity and scale of wildfires over the last several years, and repeated incidents of technical difficulties with the system during those times. The jury found that despite over a decade of concern over the increasing obsolescence of the county’s emergency notification system, and calls for upgrades or repairs, the county has not allocated adequate funds to address the scale of the problem, and has prioritized repairs that they fear will be tangential if larger issues are not addressed first, including significant site issues at a number of more remote microwave sites around the county.

The Mendocino Voice
By Kate Maxwell
June 21, 2020

Shortage of Qualified Staff Causing Problems at County Jail and Juvenile Hall, [Humboldt County] Civil Grand Jury Report Finds

The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury released another report this afternoon, this one concerning all the county’s custody and corrections facilities, save our two conservation camps, which were addressed in a previous report. What was left to inspect? The jail (official name: Humboldt County Correctional Facility), Juvenile Hall and Sempervirens Psychiatric Health Facility.

“Each of these facilities has several positive attributes and each of these facilities has at least one problem or challenge to overcome,” the report states.

Both the jail and Juvenile Hall have problems maintaining enough qualified staffers — mental health workers at the jail and substance use disorder counselors at juvie, according to the report.

As for Sempervirens, the report says the facility itself is “outdated and not conducive to mental health restoration.”

The report also says the county should boost hours for the Mental Health branch’s Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) and provide more step-down housing for patients leaving county facilities.

The greatest struggle at the jail is dealing with the high number of inmates with mental health issues. “This problem is exacerbated by the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) failure to provide round-the-clock, qualified mental health staffing,” the report says. This despite the fact that last year’s Civil Grand Jury also detailed the mental health issues at the county jail.

A long-planned major expansion of the jail will include an addition dedicated to mental health services, but the project has been repeatedly postponed because of state funding issues. “These delays due to state bureaucracy are having a negative affect on our most fragile inmates – those with mental health issues,” the report says.

In order to compensate for the shortage of qualified staff, the Grand Jury recommends that the county fill empty positions through a for-profit outside contractor. “This tactic may be just a band-aid approach to deeper problems,’ the report warns. “The reasons why recruitment has failed needs to be more fully examined,” and in the long run the county should “become more savvy in attracting qualified applicants.”

Part of the challenge in recruiting qualified medical professionals may the county itself, according to the Grand Jury. While locals who love it here may scoff at such priorities, the report argues, “Humboldt County doesn’t have the social amenities that many highly educated, urban lifestyle-oriented people demand, such as shopping variety, regular available forms of entertainment, and a large cohort of other equally educated professionals with whom to interact.”

Outside contractors may save the county money, but the Grand Jury warns that these monetary savings may come at the expense of quality and continuity of care. Wellpath, a private contractor that provides mental health services in Humboldt County, has been “cited in a wide array of public articles regarding substandard care, and they have been the defendants in numerous lawsuits alleging negligence … ,” according to the report. “Not only does [employing their services] not bring permanent employees to Humboldt County, but increasingly scarce health care dollars are siphoned off to pay investors’ profit.”

Rendering of the new Humboldt County Juvenile Hall, currently under construction. | Image via Grand Jury report.

The long-delayed new Juvenile Hall, which will replace the existing 50-year-old structure, is scheduled to open as soon as this month, and employees at the Probation Department, who staff the facility, are hopeful that the new building will allow for improved services, according to the Grand Jury.

In interviews with the Grand Jury, staff at the Juvenile Hall said they were surprised to learn that DHHS had hired uncertified substance use disorder (SUD) counselors to work with kids. “While State regulations allow the hiring of ‘counselors-in-training’ provided that they are actively enrolled in recognized certification studies, this is considered a contentious practice among many SUD professionals,” the report notes.

Sempervirens, the county’s in-patient psychiatric facility, “has an early 20th century sanitarium feel which is not conducive to mental health rehabilitation,” the report says. “The space is crowded and there is no room in the building for expansion.” So the Grand Jury recommends building a new facility, one with more beds in the Crisis Intervention Unit and a separate housing unit for kids in crisis.

The Grand Jury goes on to recommend that the county adopt assisted outpatient treatment for qualified patients, as sanctioned via the 2002 legislation known as Laura’s Law.

The Grand Jury has requested responses from the Board of Supervisors, DHHS, the Human Resources Department, the Probation Department and the Sheriff’s Office.

Lost Coast Outpost
Ryan Burns
June 18, 2020

Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury finds room for improvement at jail, juvenile hall, Sempervirens

From a Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury release:

The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury is releasing the fifth in a series of eight investigative reports on County government and services.

This report takes an extensive look at County inmate facilities, including the Correctional Facility, Sempervirens Psychiatric Facility, and Juvenile Hall. The report pays particular attention to the state of physical amenities like old buildings, the state of construction of new facilities, and needed improvements.

Humboldt County Correctional Facility

·       Difficulty attaining/retaining sufficient number of mental health staff
·       Need for Competency Restoration Program
·       Possible expansion of private contractors for mental health services

Humboldt County Juvenile Hall

·       Attaining trained and certified Substance Use Disorder counselors
·       Closure of the Northern California Regional Center

Sempervirens Psychiatric Health Facility

·       Located in a facility that is outdated and not conducive to mental health  restoration
·       Need to increase the hours of Mental Health Crisis Intervention Teams
·       Adoption of Laura’s Law to provide additional treatment options for some  patients
·       Need to provide more step-down housing for patients leaving some   facilities

Eureka Times-Standard
June 18, 2020

[Solano County] Sheriff says some grand jury recommendations for Solano animal shelter will be done

FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Animal Shelter should not have rodents and should be kept cleaner.

That was the essential message the 2019-20 grand jury delivered in its report to the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Tom Ferrara, in his response this week, said he agreed.

The sheriff noted, however, that increased construction in the vicinity has created increased rodent activity so the first recommendation by the grand jury to “rid (the shelter) from rodents” can only be implemented in part.

“The county has successfully used a contracted pest control service for over 10 years, and with the construction, we have doubled the service calls,” the response letter signed by Ferrara states. “This has reduced significantly the rodent activity. We will continue to monitor and rid the area of rodents to the extent feasible.”

The area most affected by the rodent activity, the grand jury report stated, is where the stray dogs are kept.

This area also was targeted by the grand jury for being cold, for not being kept as clean as other areas and for having standing water in some of the cages.

Ferrara said a new heating and air conditioning unit has resolved the temperature issue, and when installed, an automatic watering system will replace the bowls that the dogs tip over to cause the puddling issue. Ferrara said the new system is about 50% complete.

As for the grand jury recommendation to keep the stray dog area as clean as the area where adoptable dogs are kept, the sheriff said, “This recommendation will be implemented within the next two months.”

“The shelter cages are cleaned a minimum once a day,” the response further states. “Our experience has shown that as soon as you complete a cleaning of the entire shelter, several of the animals have soiled their (cages). With that said, I will change the policy to include mandatory multiple cleanings per day.”

As is typical of official responses to grand jury reports, the sheriff’s response did not address any of the other issues raised in the report, such as adding staff, the staff suggestion to stop accepting feral cats and finding a way to improve the lives of dogs considered to vicious to handle – including getting them more exercise.

A call to the Sheriff’s Office seeking comment has not been returned.

Solano County Republic
By Todd R. Hansen
June 18, 2020

[Solano County] Grand jury: Solano child welfare agency not meeting ‘expected outcomes’

FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Child Welfare Services Agency “underperforms and does not meet its expected outcomes,” according to a report by the 2019-20 civil grand jury.

“Maintaining full staffing has been challenging due to burnout and stress. Remaining employees become overburdened with a shared workload. Cross-training, full staffing and additional management training may help alleviate some of the issues the grand jury observed,” the report released June 5 states.

The Child Welfare division has 11 vacancies out of 84 social worker positions, a 15% vacancy rate, the county Department of Health and Social Services reported Wednesday.

Gerald Huber, director of the department, said there is a brief hiring freeze in place to see how state budgeting, and specifically key realignment funding, shakes out.

The grand jury made two findings with three corresponding recommendations.

The first two recommendations address the turnover rate in the department and what the grand jury report describes as the resulting negative effect on the agency’s performance and outcomes.

The recommendations are to “fill allocated social worker positions and employ additional support staff for Child Welfare Services,” and to “provide cross-training to staff members to maintain all services at all times.”

The third recommendation is to “provide time and replacement staff for managers and supervisors to receive area-specific management training to improve staff emotional and procedural support.”

That recommendation is focused on retaining staff.

Huber said retaining Child Welfare staff has been more difficult than recruiting staff.

Huber said most of his 33 years in social services has been linked to child welfare, and it is always going to be difficult and stressful when a worker sees the results of abuse – and especially, in his personal experience, sexual abuse. Having to make a decision to remove a child from the home, he said, is always difficult.

But the workload related to filing reports and doing follow-ups with additional reporting can be equally stressful.

Moreover, Huber said, the system has become more adversarial. He credits California, ahead of other states, for doing more to keep children in the family home whenever possible, and if that is not an option, then looking to extended family to serve as a resource family.

Huber said all of those challenges are going to be even more difficult given the realignment funding cuts in the governor’s budget. He said every county in the state will face that challenge.

That demand on resources could be heightened even more in the fall when schools reopen.

Most referrals about child abuse come from schools. So during the Covid-19 stay-at-home orders, reports of child abuse are down 40% to 50%.

“So I am a little worried that we are going to have an influx of referrals come the fall. But no one knows what is going to happen,” Huber said.

While Huber did not disagree with the grand jury in terms of the stresses in the work, and the turnover in staffing, he said he wishes the report would have been more thorough in giving credit to what the department has done.

Huber said he feels the county is competitive when recruiting and “we have done a lot of work on employee retention,” he said. He said “stay interviews” are conducted with staff to better identify what would be needed to keep the employees working in Child Welfare and then to identify available resources to meet those needs.

A lot of the workers who leave Child Welfare actually land in different Health and Social Services divisions, such as behavioral health or the older adult units. Even more important, Huber said, are the efforts the county has made to get involved with families that fall within certain risk areas, and often from different directions.

Huber said the department should be involved with families early as a preventive factor. He said that department priority has been backed by the Board of Supervisors. 

Solano County Daily Republic
By Todd R. Hansen
June 17, 2020

Santa Cruz County grand jury calls on local governments to fix out-of-date websites

SANTA CRUZ — Local government websites include broken links, missing documents and information that in some cases appears years out of date, a Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury investigation found.

In a report release Tuesday, titled “The Tangled Web,” the grand jury found that departments at the county and city level are failing to update their websites “often enough to keep citizens informed.”

Santa Cruz County’s local governments generally lack a clear process to review and ensure the accuracy of information posted to their official government sites, according to the report.

“The necessary information on county and city websites at times is more than 12 months old; annual reports are not current, members of organizations and committees have moved on and rosters have not been updated; in addition, organization charts are inconsistent and do not contain contact information,” the report states. “This hampers the user’s ability to make progress, and reflects on the potential struggles the public can have to access government services.”

To improve the accuracy and availability of online information, the grand jury is urging local governments to take steps such as creating a formal review process and tasking department heads with signing off on the accuracy of online information on a quarterly basis.

Among the examples of apparently inaccurate online information detailed in the report: A city of Santa Cruz website on the city’s Equal Employment Opportunity Committee last updated its list of current members in Oct. 2018 — and the committee’s membership has since changed.

The report also notes that minutes for some of that committee’s scheduled meetings are not available on the site, though a review of the meetings in question suggests at least some were canceled. A spokesperson for the city didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

But lack of clarity around information that appears to be out of date or missing is itself an issue, according to the grand jury.

“There may be reasonable explanations for why errors and omissions exist in website information, but those explanations are not presented on the website, nor are estimates for when the website will be corrected,” the report states. “Without an understanding of why information is missing, users may continue to spend time searching for information that does not exist, whose unavailability is known to administrators, but not to users.”

Other identified issues — which the report offered only as examples, not as a definitive list — include broken links on the Santa Cruz County Fire Department homepage and other sites, outdated repositories of annual reports and seemingly out-of-date membership listings for city of Watsonville’s Board of Library Trustees.

Santa Cruz County’s government was singled out for not having a system in place to notify website users when content is updated — unlike each of the county’s four cities, according to the report. The grand jury urged the county to adopt a similar notification system by June 2021.

Responses to the report are required from the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the city councils of Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Capitola and Scotts Valley by Sept. 14.

The grand jury requested additional responses from each local government’s chief executive by the same date.

The Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury is made up of 19 private citizens. An independent arm of the judicial system that serves as an ombudsman for the public, the grand jury is tasked with investigating local government operations and alleged misconduct of public officials.

Santa Cruz Sentinal
By Nicholas Ibarra
June 16, 2020

Solano [County] grand jury, again, critical of county animal shelter

FAIRFIELD — The city can clearly show where Measure P dollars come into the city, and generally how they go out, but the 2019-20 Solano County grand jury reported “Fairfield’s accounting system currently cannot specifically track how this revenue is spent.”

The concern is about having more specific detail in the accounting.

“The grand jury found the reports (to the Fairfield Taxpayers Committee) presented a confusing mixture of forecast figures and interim budgetary figures,” the grand jury report states. “They discuss the impacts of Measure P revenues and provide a percentage breakdown of where they are used.”

For example, the annual report presented in 2019 states that the Measure P fund allocations were: police, 41%; fire, 24%; streets and roads, 22%; parks and recreation, 6%; (citywide) public safety support, 4%; and homeless engagement and response team, 3%, the report states.

The report does acknowledge that public workshops and hearings are held during the budget process, and therefore Measure P is open to questions and discussion if anyone wants to raise the issue.

Mayor Harry Price, who just received a copy of the report, said he is not exactly sure what the grand jury wants to see.

“To some extent, the city is doing that in the breakdown of the departments and where the money is spent,” Price said.

He noted that the grand jury report specifies information within each department of Measure P expenditures, such as patrol, traffic, investigations, administration, dispatch and community services within the Police Department, although precise breakouts of funding to each category are not provided.

“I need to spend more time with the report,” Price said.

He also has called the grand jury for clarification, he said.

The oversight committee was formed “to ensure transparency and oversight of the revenue.” The grand jury reports that the committee “does not participate in the city budgeting process and does not, in fact, provide input as to the use of Measure P revenues.”

The grand jury made five findings with corresponding recommendations.

The grand jury recommends the city “develop a system to track Measure P dollars from collection to disbursement so that the public can easily see how and where these funds are applied.”

It further recommends the city “enhance public transparency and consistency by directing the Fairfield Taxpayers Committee to base any reporting on actual year-end data rather than forecast data.”

The third recommendation calls for the city to “establish a protocol to validate the accuracy of financial data before it is published by the Fairfield Taxpayers Committee,” while the fourth recommendation encourages the city to “expand the scope of the annual audit to include additional procedures directed primarily toward obtaining knowledge of noncompliance relating to accounting matters.”

The audit recommendation comes from a letter by the firm that audited the city, which states:

“In connection with our audit, nothing came to our attention that caused us to believe that the city failed to comply with the provisions of Ordinance 2012-20, insofar as they relate to the collection, management and expenditure of Measure P sales taxes in the city general fund. However, our audit was not directed primarily toward obtaining knowledge of such noncompliance. Accordingly, had we performed additional procedures, other matters may have come to our attention regarding the city’s noncompliance with the above-referenced terms, provisions, or conditions of the ordinance, insofar as they relate to accounting matters.”

Finally, the grand jury recommends that the city amend the resolution that established the Measure P Committee to “define ‘taxpayer.’ ”

Measure P was passed by the voters in 2012, authorizing the city to collect an additional 1% sales tax for five years. Voters in 2016 extended the tax through March 31, 2033.

The report, which was released May 28, goes into extensive detail about the city’s financial condition prior to Measure P and provides information about those finances after the measure passed and was extended.

Measure P revenues have represented between 18% and 20% of the city’s general fund from 2015 to 2019, ranging from $16.64 million in the first of those five years and $19.6 million in the last.

“The funds go into the city general fund along with those collected from other revenue sources and can be used for any municipal purpose. The City Manager’s Office and Finance Department, with support from each of the operating departments, manage the budget process,” the grand jury report states.

“Public hearings and community workshops are conducted on the proposed budgets to review all appropriations and sources of funding. This is the only mechanism for public participation in deciding how Measure P funds should be used. The city is able to track the sources of revenue, but since they are comingled in the general fund, the city accounting system, as currently configured, cannot identify Measure P funds that are allocated to individual cost centers for specific uses or projects. Therefore, there is currently no straightforward way to track revenues generated by Measure P to their specific uses in city operations,” the report states.

Solano County Daily Republic
By Todd R. Hansen
June 16, 2020

[Solano County] Grand jury: Details of Fairfield Measure P spending lacking

FAIRFIELD — The 2019-20 Solano County grand jury described an ugly and unhealthy picture of the animal shelter, to include “evidence of rodent infestation.”

The worst conditions are in areas where stray dogs are kept, and those dogs deemed “too vicious to handle.”

“The majority of the cages of the confined stray dogs were so full of water that most of the dogs were standing on their steel-framed elevated dog beds to keep out of the water,” the grand jury report released May 28 states.

“In many cases, the dog beds were full of feces, evidence that the dogs were avoiding the water in their cages and were relieving themselves on their beds. Staff explained that these cages were cleaned once a day; however, the cages of the dogs that were up for adoption (and therefore more likely to be seen by the public) were cleaned two to three times a day.”

The grand jury made three findings with corresponding recommendations.

The first recommendation is “clean the area and rid it of rodents.” The second recommendation is to “rid the cages of the puddles of standing water.”

Finally, the grand jury recommends cleaning the “cages (for stray dogs) as often as the cages for the adoptable animals.”

The grand jury report notes that the condition of the animal shelter has been the subject of grand jury reports for decades.

Previous grand juries found Solano County’s animal care and control services ineffective in meeting the needs of the community and recommended the facilities be replaced, the report states.

“In 2012, Solano County entered into a $5.15 million agreement with the seven cities of the county for animal care and sheltering services from 2012 through 2027. The approved project was funded by the issuance of certificates of participation with the member cities reimbursing the county for their portions of the costs over the term of the agreement,” the grand jury report states.

Work on the first two phases is done. They include “site work, relocation of the ‘temporary’ modular building used for administrative offices, and design and construction of a new 12,500-square-foot kennel at the existing Clay Bank Road site,” the report states.

The kennel includes a spay/neuter clinic for animals up for adoption, but pet owners can pay for the service as well, which should increase revenues.

“Although improvements are slowly coming to fruition, there are still issues within the facility that have little to do with funding. While the improvements to the building are due to be completed by the end of 2020, the issue of maintaining cleanliness in the cages, particularly for stray dogs, will not be solved by building a new facility,” the report states.

The report also describes a condition by which dogs that staff describe as “too vicious to handle” are kept in small cages and given no exercise.

“According to animal behaviorists and veterinarians, lack of exercise can contribute to aggression as excess energy can cause the dog to perform undesirable behaviors,” the report states, although there are no specific references to back the statement.

Staffing is viewed as one of the problems, with shelter administrators telling the grand jury that even “at least one more employee would make a huge difference in conducting the business of the shelter.”

“Administrators feel that increasing the staff would allow the shelter to once again open six days a week, insteadof five,” the report states.

“The five-days-a-week schedule was designed to save money, but the new schedule allows fewer opportunities for the public to see and adopt animals. That means the shelter has to hold animals an extra day leading to extra costs to the shelter; therefore, any possible savings are eliminated,” the report states.

Cuts were made to animal care services by the Board of Supervisors, on a recommendation by the Sheriff’s Office, for budgetary reasons.

The animal shelter administrators also would like to stop accepting feral cats.

“According to shelter administrators, feral cats are the number-one issue in the shelter’s population. Of the 8,900 animals received each year at the shelter, approximately 6,000 are cats. Administrators feel it would make a vast difference if they were able to stop accepting feral cats. They emphasized that there are enough community cat programs to deal with the feline population,” the report states.

“The grand jury observed several feeding stations for feral cats outside of the shelter’s Administration Building,” the report states.

Inside, due to private donations specifically for cats, “the animal shelter has some very nice cages housing cats that are available for adoption . . . (that) include scratching posts and climbing towers for the ‘cat residents,’ ” the report states.

And while the comment was not a specific recommendation, the grand jury noted better street directions to the shelter are needed.

“Although the shelter address is technically on Clay Bank Road, clearer directions are necessary since it is not physically located on Clay Bank. Visitors need to turn right at the second intersection on Clay Bank Road onto Fonstal Way. The shelter is located on the left side of the roundabout.”

The required response from the Sheriff’s Office had not yet been filed with the grand jury.

A call seeking comment from the Sheriff’s Office was not returned.

Solano County Daily Republic
By Todd Hansen
June 16, 2020

[Humboldt County] Child Welfare Services hits milestone

Blog note: This article refers to Grand Jury Reports

A major milestone was reached in our county during the month of May. There was no fanfare, no press release, no proclamation by the Board of Supervisors. County residents deserve to know what that milestone was, and who was instrumental in bringing it about.

On May 28, Child Welfare Services (CWS) had zero (0) investigations of child abuse/neglect “open” for more than 40 days! This author is not sure if that has ever happened before. The state mandate is that all investigations of child abuse/neglect be closed within 40 days. The average number of investigations exceeding 40 days in Humboldt County had been in the neighborhood of 250 — 300 open cases each day for many years. As of April 2019 it stood at 293 investigations exceeding 40 days.

So how did this happen that we are now at zero? If you listen to Child Welfare Services management, you will hear comments such as: 1) we implemented a strategy of “Plan — Do — Act”; 2) we created a “Backlog Unit”; and 3) we focused on “Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Strategies.” However, if you look beyond these strategies you will find dedicated social workers who put in long hours of work, and bought in to major changes. These individuals rarely receive recognition for their effort, and too often are the brunt of criticism for a highly visible job. Today, we owe them thanks for implementing a new business model that helps keep our children safer.

I do not know their names. I have not met them face-to-face. I do know, however, that they know who they are. They are aware of the commitment they made, and I hope they share this article among themselves and celebrate the fact that their efforts were noticed.

Why is the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jurors’ Association reporting this milestone in this article? As alluded to above, CWS has a long track record of not meeting the state’s requirement for completion of an investigation within 40 days. This shortcoming has been investigated by multiple past Civil Grand Juries over the past 10 years. In addition, CWS’ own System Improvement Plan has mentioned this weakness for many years. Obviously, our county leadership was at a loss as to how to solve this backlog issue. Their response to the Civil Grand Jury reports consistently followed the theme of, “thank you, we are working the issue.”

So, what happened to cause this positive change? Enter the Attorney General of the State of California, Xavier Becerra. It seems that the state was not only receiving citizen complaints about the many open cases but they were also reading the Civil Grand Jury reports. In February 2018, The People of the State of California, the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office reached agreement on a Final Judgment to correct many identified CWS problems, to be rectified within the next three years. One of these stipulations was to bring the number of investigations exceeding 40 days down to zero.

Another requirement of the Final Judgment was for DHHS to hire both a facilitator/trainer and a monitor to oversee and assist the county’s commitment to change. Enter the National Council on Crime & Delinquency (NCCD), and the Center for the Study of Social Policy. These two very respected agencies brought both knowledge and ability to assist CWS along this path of improvement. Of course, this support came at a cost — a cost the county may not have incurred if it had been taking prior Civil Grand Jury report recommendations more seriously.

With regard to county residents, perhaps the most important requirement of the Final Judgment was to form a Community Task Force to monitor and assist CWS in its CQI Strategies. Members of the Community Task Force include individuals from most all children support services within the county. DHHS, the courts, law enforcement, tribes, resource centers, schools, First Five, and the California Youth Connection are participants, to name a few.

Then there is this author. As a member of the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jurors Association, a volunteer, I have continued the work that a prior Civil Grand Jury had started. As the only participant not employed in a capacity working with children, my voice is the voice of the community at large. On behalf of the community we say: Well done, CWS.

Eureka Times-Standard
Wayne Ventuleth authored this article on behalf of the Humboldt County Grand Jurors Association.

June 14, 2020