Fresno County issued the following announcement on Nov 3.
No. 1: Continuity Report
No. 2: Revisiting Special District Audits
No. 3: Who Is Running Parlier?
No. 4: Solving Homelessness Challenges Threatened By Too Many “Helping Hands”
The Grand Jury issues a consolidated Final Report at the end of its fiscal year but may issue mid-term reports at any time during its term of service.
The 2019-20 Grand Jury released Reports No. 1-4 on November 2, 2020.
No. 1: The report is a review of responses received from the preceding Grand Jury’s reports to follow up on implementation of the recommendations and includes a review of the Fresno County Grand Jury Procedures Manual.
No. 2: The report investigated the Fresno County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office and the Fresno Local Agency Formation Commission to review the status of recommendations from Report No. 3 of the 2017-18 Grand Jury “Special Districts Non-Compliance-System Failure.”
No. 3: The report investigated matters concerning the City of Parlier’s City Council.
Please refer to Page 3 of this release for additional detail from the Grand Jury.
No. 4: The report investigated the City of Fresno and the County of Fresno’s actions to address the homelessness challenges in Fresno County.
Please refer to Page 4 of this release for additional detail from the Grand Jury.
The four reports may be accessed electronically on the Fresno County Superior Court website by using the following link:
http://www.fresno.courts.ca.gov/jury/grand_jury/reports_responses.php
The reports are indexed by year.
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Grand Jury finds Parlier Council falls short on leadership
A seven-month investigation by the 2019-2020 Fresno County Civil Grand Jury concluded that the Parlier City Council left a quarter of its citizens unrepresented for many months and failed in its obligation to provide efficient and effective governance.
In, “Who’s Running Parlier?,” the Grand Jury reported deficiencies in “development and maintenance of policies and procedures for administrative operations, budget and finance, filling unexpected openings on the Council and hiring qualified management personnel.”
Among issues cited in the Grand Jury report:
- One of four council members submitted an oral resignation in October 2019 and had not been replaced when the Grand Jury investigation concluded nearly a year later, leaving a quarter of Parlier’s 15,000 residents unrepresented.
- Parlier had four city managers over five years before leaving that job vacant beginning in March 2019. Instead, a council member was contracted to handle some manager functions and the city contracted out for a city administrator.
- The city has not had a qualified finance director since 2018 and operates at a financial deficit. There have been no budget workshops for the public and council and the 2018-19 budget “was rolled over from the previous fiscal year.” Audits of the city’s 2017-18 and 2018-19 fiscal health were delayed until 2020.
- Lack of a written travel policy allowed trips to Washington, D.C., and Mexico City for elected and nonelected officials and traveling companions. Reimbursement was authorized after the fact. After the Grand Jury requested a copy of the travel policy, the council hastily adopted an inadequate policy.
The Grand Jury investigation was concluded before as Covid-19 pandemic challenges delayed the writing and publication of the report.
The Fresno County Civil Grand Jury is authorized under California law as an adjunct of the Superior Court to serve as a citizen watchdog on local government. Grand juries are comprised of 19 residents of Fresno County, who serve one-year terms learning about, examining and reporting on city and county governments, public schools, special districts and prisons.
The Grand Jury does not comment upon the reports it publishes.
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Grand Jury report critical of city-county homelessness efforts
Efforts to provide a coordinated, collaborative resolution for the chronic homelessness challenges in Fresno and Fresno County have fallen short, reports the 2019-20 Fresno County Civil Grand Jury following a nine-month investigation.
The result, says the Grand Jury, is “duplicative and sometimes overlapping roles, fuzzy lines of authority, and a myriad of often-competing initiatives [that] make it difficult to measure the effectiveness of the actions initiated to address homelessness in Fresno County.”
“It became clear to the Grand Jury that there was no single organization that had ultimate accountability for oversight of the various programs and services being provided in Fresno County,” the Grand Jury investigation concluded.
“This lack of coordinated effort has contributed to the problem rather than support successful outcomes.”
The Grand Jury recommends that Street2Home, the plan utilizing a collective-impact strategy to combat homelessness, fill board and staff vacancies and be more transparent in its efforts. Also recommended are improved communication with the community and frequent public audit reports that track funding from multiple sources and how the money is being used.
It is important to note that reports of increased homelessness resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic distress came after the Grand Jury’s investigation concluded. The Grand Jury’s report itself was delayed because of the pandemic.
The Fresno County Civil Grand Jury is authorized under California law as an adjunct of the Superior Court to serve as a citizen watchdog on local government. Grand juries are comprised of 19 residents of Fresno County, who serve one-year terms learning about and examining city and county governments, public schools, special districts and prisons.
The Grand Jury does not comment upon the reports it publishes.
Original source can be found here.
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