Grand Jury

MARIN COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY 2014-2015 • AUGUST 2015 2 MESSAGE FROM THE FOREPERSON To the citizens of Marin County: On behalf of my fellow jurors, I am pleased to present the summary, findings and recommendations of each of the reports published by the 2014-2015 Marin County Civil Grand Jury during the course of our twelve months in office ending June 30, 2015. When we began in July of 2014, the nineteen incoming Grand Jurors agreed that the subjects of our investigations should be of major importance and value for as many of our Marin citizens as possible. Now that all of our Grand Jury reports have been published, we feel that we accomplished what we set out to do. But now we leave it to you, the Marin public whom we serve as "watchdogs" of Marin's local governments, to determine the value of our efforts. Although only the summary, findings and recommendations of each report are included here, all reports in their entirety and their responses can be found on the Marin Grand Jury website at www. marincounty.org/depts/gj. e work of our Grand Jury was divided among seven committees with four to seven jurors serving on each committee. Five of the seven were standing committees: Administration and Finance, Education, Environment and Transportation, Health and Human Services, and Law and Justice. e remaining two Ad Hoc committees addressed specific issues: Emerging Social Issues (Homelessness) and Managing for Results, a county management program. While our reports totaled nine (9), properly stated, eight were produced: the report entitled Civic Openness in Negotiations II was essentially identical to the first report of the same title but with an additional list of respondents. erefore eight reports are shown here. e 2014/15 Grand Jury Reports "Pension Enhancements: A Case of Government Code Violations and a Lack of Transparency" found that the four government agencies whose pensions are administered by the Marin County Employees Retirement Association had been in violation of specific requirements of the California Code which set forth the procedures for approving pension benefits for their public employees. "Homelessness in Marin—a Call for Leadership" found that the multiple government agencies and non-profits serving the homeless and that share roughly 15 million dollars of county funds are neither coordinated nor held accountable financially: the report calls for the County of Marin to take on the strategic leadership for eliminating homelessness in Marin and resolve the coordination and accountability issues. "Marin's Mentally Ill: What's Being Done?" points out the lack of program budgeting and financial accountability for programs administered by the Marin County Mental Health and Substance Use Services and recommends that program effectiveness be evaluated at once to determine to what extent these programs are assisting Marin's mentally ill. Without such evaluation, it is unclear whether the funds attributed to helping mentally ill citizens are being used effectively. "e Need for Labor Negotiation Transparency" found that the opportunity for timely public comment on the results of labor negotiations is almost nonexistent and recommends public disclosure of the terms and costs of proposals during local government labor negotiations, a process called "Civic Openness in Negotiations" already adopted by several California city and county governments. "Every Child Counts: English Learners in Marin Public Schools" found a startling gap at Novato High School and San Rafael High School between the graduation rates of all students and those students designated as English Learners and recommends that closing this gap be a top priority for each District with commensurate responsibility and accountability at the highest level. "e WinCup/Tam Ridge Residences: How Did It Come to Pass" began with a citizen complaint of bribery and malfeasance in the approval process of the Tam Ridge Residences project by the Corte Madera Town Council and led to a finding that, although the accusation was without substance, earlier, clearer and more pronounced disclosure is needed in publicly communicating the plans of developers before the Corte Madera Council or any Marin government agency. "Juvenile Hall: A Time for a Change" found a continuous trend of reduced usage of the Marin County Juvenile Hall combined with a fixed overhead of roughly four million dollars, prompting the Grand Jury to study the justification for the Juvenile Hall and ultimately recommend that the County close Juvenile Hall and work collaborative with other nearby counties to provide the services needed. "Managing for Results: A Fine Tool in Need of Sharpening" found that the County's Managing for Results program, a management method of major importance for establishing priorities and managing progress, is poorly used and ineffective and therefore recommends that the program be subjected to a major overhaul. e facts from which findings and recommendations were reached have been pursued rigorously. In so doing, it became apparent that assumptions which have been made quickly by some concerned citizens can be at times erroneous and do not advance but rather hinder the democratic process in our community. We Continued on page 3

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