Gina Tenorio / Times Staff Writer | Posted: Thursday, June 5, 2003 12:00 am
The Santa Barbara County Children and Families Commission has rejected several operational changes proposed by the grand jury in a report released in May.
The jury spent several weeks examining the commission/s finances and operations and found that the Proposition 10 Funds that created the agency were being misspent on a variety of things.
But Pat Wheatley, the commission/s executive director, said that time constraints did not allow the jurors to see the full picture of their activities.
"We know that the Grand Jury had a very tough job," said Pat Wheatley. "It/s very hard for a group of volunteers to get a full picture of a body of an agency/s work with just snapshots."
Among the jury/s recommendations was that the commission designate a chief financial officer who could work in conjunction with the agency/s humanitarian efforts.
However, designating a chief financial officer would be an unnecessary expenditure and duplicative of the fiscal system already in place, the commission said in its written response.
Instead, a list of duties each agency is responsible for was included in the response.
"We/ve been working with the (Santa Barbara) auditor-controller since day one," Wheatley said. "The problem has been more clearly defining the roles that were already in process."
Wheatly said she expects the clarification should smooth out the process.
"It wasn/t real clear before and the jury saw that," she said.
Another recommendation that will not be implemented is the jury/s suggestion the commission designate members within the organization to assume responsibilities currently outsourced.
"We only have six staffers in the department," Wheatley said. "And our contractors are very task specific."
Many of them are already working at full capacity, she said. Many of the contractors specialize in the area they are contracted for.
And regarding the recommendation that the commission provide an accurate statement of its overhead expenses, Wheatley said a proper records are being kept. While it may have seemed as though the commission was spending more than the designated 15-percent limit on overhead vendor costs, that limit is in fact self imposed, she said.
Contractors often charge much more than the 15 percent overhead, Wheatley said. The limit was an attempt to keep costs down.
As to the jury recommendation that a primary office be placed in the North County to eliminate the perception that the South Coast receives more funding, commission members said they meet in both ends of the county regularly to dispel such perception. A North County office will hence not be implemented.
Not all the recommendations were rejected. According to the report, commission members have decided they will fully train all of their supervisors in the WIND computer program as per the jury recommendation. They will also designate who will train incoming staff.
During their investigation, jurors found the WIND program, designed by UCSB, was difficult and caused computer crashes.
* Staff writer Gina Tenorio can be reached at 739-2217 or by e-mail at gtenorio@santamariatimes.com.
June 5, 2003