SUPES PREVIEW: Board to Consider Further Action Against Auditor-Controller After Department Heads Sound Alarm Over ‘Precarious’ Financial Situation | Lost Coast

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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will look at two items to deal with the ongoing fiscal turmoil related with the Auditor-Controller’s Place of work during the board’s frequent meeting on Tuesday.

The board will focus on a letter signed by 13 of the county’s 19 division heads who assert that Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez “has unsuccessful to satisfy the responsibilities and responsibilities of her situation.” In accordance to a staff members report, the board will then look at getting added motion against Paz Dominguez, including referring the county’s fiscal reporting shortfalls to different point out companies.

The workers report states:

A memo signed by division heads symbolizing additional than 90% of county personnel was submitted to the Board on April 4, 2022, stating that, in spite of division heads’ efforts to help the Auditor-Controller, she has unsuccessful to satisfy the duties and duties of her situation and as a outcome has set the county in a money crisis.

Although the Board has gained similar letters from outside businesses in training, regional municipal federal government, workforce advancement, public protection and the private sector, as effectively as letters from people in the county, the hooked up memo is the very first time that a majority of division heads have submitted these documentation to the Board.

The memo is despatched from office leadership, the two elected and appointed, expressing that their departments are unable to collaborate with the just one department as a result of which all monetary transactions should be recorded, and as a final result they are going through unsafe financial troubles which will have to be fixed.

The board packet involves a simple fact sheet that lists upwards of 40 present deficiencies related with the Auditor-Controller’s Business, which includes earlier-because of fiscal experiences, conversation failures and much more.

The board narrowly authorized a vote of “no confidence” in Paz Dominguez in November 2021. Previously this thirty day period, the board was set to think about a 2nd vote of “no confidence” but Paz Dominguez was not able to show up at the board’s discussion.

The staff report notes that the county Workforce Development Board has suggested that “the make a difference be referred to the California Truthful Political Procedures Fee, Workplace of the Condition of California Lawyer Typical and the Condition of California Department of Justice for correct motion.”

Realignment of Payroll Services

The board will also look at the operational realignment of payroll services, a county functionality that has been rife with difficulties and controversy considering the fact that the board voted to shift payroll from the Human Means department to the Auditor-Controller’s Business office in August 2021.

Final thirty day period, the board directed staff members to seem into shifting payroll services back out of the Auditor-Controller’s Business. “Specifically, your Board directed the Interim Director of Human Methods (HR), the County Administrative Officer, and the Auditor-Controller to interact in conversations about the collective target with respect to payroll functions, evaluate earlier collected data with regards to payroll operations, supply your Board with updated conclusions, and present your Board with refined selections similar to the placement of the payroll perform,” the staff members report says.

The board will take into consideration 3 choices:

• Manage payroll features in the Business of the Auditor-Controller, which would be “the the very least disruptive to the latest payroll course of action,” but would probably result in “additional source requests, current communication problems, and troubles related to company shipping.”

• Shift payroll to the County Administrative Office environment, which could deliver an possibility to stabilize payroll functions “through greater stakeholder engagement and interdepartmental collaboration, enhanced conversation and responsiveness, and commitment to provider shipping.” Nonetheless, there is no precedent for these a shift and it would only be temporary.

• Or, to permit the payroll perform to remain in the Auditor-Controller’s Workplace “for further time.” This alternative seems to be virtually equivalent to the initially choice but specifies that payroll would “remain with the [Auditor-Controller’s Office] for the around future” and involves a checklist of additional recommendations if the product were being to be selected, together with the ongoing assistance of financial guide KOA Hills.

The staff members report also recommends that the county retain companies from CliftonLarsonAllen (at a price of $259,000) to perform an audit of payroll expert services to detect deficiencies. 

“[CliftonLarsonAllen] will evaluate the county’s procedures encompassing one particular test payroll period,” the staff members report states. “…[CliftonLarsonAllen] will give results with an govt summary describing the scope, aims, approach, and over-all summary of the interior audit evaluation. In addition, [CliftonLarsonAllen] will explain inside control deficiencies recognized along with system improvement tips.”

TOT Workgroup

The board will also think about the development of a transient occupancy tax (TOT) workgroup comprising stakeholders who would oversee and assessment TOT revenue and work with county personnel to establish suggestions for the Board of Supervisors as to how the resources should be used.

The make a difference was agendized in an energy to simplicity considerations from local hoteliers and hospitality marketplace representatives who strongly oppose Evaluate J, the Humboldt County Hotel Tax Update Evaluate, which seeks to boost the TOT level in the county’s unincorporated locations from 10 p.c to 12 per cent although also making the tax relevant to right away RV parks and private campgrounds. 

Associates of the Humboldt Lodging Alliance (HLA) have criticized the county — in particular the County Administrative Business — for failing to include sector reps in preliminary conversations on the subject matter. The corporation has also elevated issues about the timing of the ballot initiative and named its wording “misleading.”

“The timing of the measure to community hoteliers could threaten the fragile gains produced by the field in the latest months as the financial state recovers from Covid-connected measures,” the alliance says in an April 22 letter. “…Moreover, while County Employees and elected officers have said that the money would go to unique uses, these as rural fireplace departments, homeless guidance and the arts, it would even so go into the unrestricted typical fund, which implies the TOT resources could be utilised for any uses related to the functions of the County Govt. There are only no legal guidelines or ordinances to ensure ideal use of the TOT funds.”

The HLA is contacting for a “no” vote on Measure J, but if it had been to go, the group said it “would want to be an energetic participant” in the proposed workgroup.

The Board of Supervisors assembly will just take position at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 26. The agenda can be found listed here.