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 consider two items to handle the ongoing economical turmoil linked with the Auditor-Controller’s Workplace throughout the board’s regular assembly on Tuesday.

The board will focus on a letter signed by 13 of the county’s 19 section heads who assert that Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez “has failed to satisfy the duties and obligations of her position.” In accordance to a employees report, the board will then consider using supplemental action against Paz Dominguez, such as referring the county’s fiscal reporting shortfalls to several point out agencies.

The team report states:

A memo signed by section heads symbolizing extra than 90% of county staff members was submitted to the Board on April 4, 2022, stating that, despite division heads’ initiatives to assist the Auditor-Controller, she has failed to satisfy the obligations and responsibilities of her situation and as a result has place the county in a money disaster.

Although the Board has obtained similar letters from exterior agencies in instruction, area municipal authorities, workforce enhancement, public basic safety and the non-public sector, as effectively as letters from men and women in just the county, the connected memo is the very first time that a bulk of department heads have submitted these types of documentation to the Board.

The memo is sent from department management, equally elected and appointed, expressing that their departments are not able to collaborate with the a person division as a result of which all money transactions must be recorded, and as a result they are dealing with perilous fiscal troubles which need to be fixed.

The board packet includes a simple fact sheet that lists upwards of 40 present deficiencies associated with the Auditor-Controller’s Workplace, including previous-thanks fiscal studies, communication failures and more.

The board narrowly authorised a vote of “no confidence” in Paz Dominguez in November 2021. Previously this month, the board was set to think about a 2nd vote of “no confidence” but Paz Dominguez was not able to attend the board’s discussion.

The staff members report notes that the county Workforce Development Board has recommended that “the make any difference be referred to the California Reasonable Political Procedures Fee, Office of the Point out of California Legal professional Basic and the Point out of California Division of Justice for acceptable action.”

Realignment of Payroll Companies

The board will also contemplate the operational realignment of payroll providers, a county functionality that has been rife with difficulties and controversy given that the board voted to shift payroll from the Human Sources office to the Auditor-Controller’s Office in August 2021.

Final month, the board directed staff members to look into shifting payroll services back out of the Auditor-Controller’s Business office. “Specifically, your Board directed the Interim Director of Human Methods (HR), the County Administrative Officer, and the Auditor-Controller to interact in discussions relating to the collective objective with regard to payroll operations, appraise beforehand collected knowledge relating to payroll operations, present your Board with updated conclusions, and present your Board with refined options connected to the placement of the payroll functionality,” the team report says.

The board will take into consideration 3 choices:

• Preserve payroll features in the Place of work of the Auditor-Controller, which would be “the least disruptive to the existing payroll course of action,” but would most likely end result in “additional resource requests, existing interaction problems, and challenges associated to assistance delivery.”

• Shift payroll to the County Administrative Business office, which could present an option to stabilize payroll operations “through greater stakeholder engagement and interdepartmental collaboration, enhanced interaction and responsiveness, and commitment to assistance shipping and delivery.” Nevertheless, there is no precedent for this sort of a shift and it would only be temporary.

• Or, to allow the payroll function to stay in the Auditor-Controller’s Business office “for further time.” This selection seems to be nearly identical to the very first selection but specifies that payroll would “remain with the [Auditor-Controller’s Office] for the in close proximity to future” and consists of a record of added tips if the merchandise had been to be picked, such as the continued support of monetary marketing consultant KOA Hills.

The workers report also recommends that the county retain companies from CliftonLarsonAllen (at a price tag of $259,000) to perform an audit of payroll solutions to determine deficiencies. 

“[CliftonLarsonAllen] will assess the county’s procedures encompassing one take a look at payroll period,” the employees report states. “…[CliftonLarsonAllen] will deliver effects with an govt summary describing the scope, goals, technique, and general conclusion of the internal audit assessment. In addition, [CliftonLarsonAllen] will explain interior handle deficiencies recognized alongside with method advancement recommendations.”

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 income and operate with county workers to acquire recommendations for the Board of Supervisors as to how the money should be used.

The make any difference was agendized in an hard work to ease problems from local hoteliers and hospitality sector associates who strongly oppose Evaluate J, the Humboldt County Resort Tax Update Measure, which seeks to boost the TOT amount in the county’s unincorporated parts from 10 % to 12 % although also producing the tax relevant to overnight RV parks and private campgrounds. 

Users of the Humboldt Lodging Alliance (HLA) have criticized the county — particularly the County Administrative Business office — for failing to incorporate marketplace representatives in initial conversations on the topic. The corporation has also lifted worries about the timing of the ballot initiative and identified as its wording “misleading.”

“The timing of the evaluate to neighborhood hoteliers could threaten the fragile gains produced by the business in latest months as the financial system recovers from Covid-relevant measures,” the alliance states in an April 22 letter. “…Moreover, even though County Personnel and elected officials have mentioned that the revenue would go to distinct functions, such as rural fire departments, homeless assist and the arts, it would yet go into the unrestricted basic fund, which means the TOT money could be utilized for any uses similar to the operations of the County Federal government. There are simply no legislation or ordinances to guarantee very best use of the TOT money.”

The HLA is contacting for a “no” vote on Measure J, but if it were being to pass, the organization reported it “would want to be an energetic participant” in the proposed workgroup.

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