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 contemplate two products to address the ongoing monetary turmoil involved with the Auditor-Controller’s Business in the course of the board’s typical conference on Tuesday.

The board will examine a letter signed by 13 of the county’s 19 section heads who assert that Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez “has unsuccessful to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of her placement.” According to a staff members report, the board will then take into account taking more action in opposition to Paz Dominguez, which includes referring the county’s fiscal reporting shortfalls to many point out businesses.

The team report states:

A memo signed by section heads symbolizing a lot more than 90% of county staff members was submitted to the Board on April 4, 2022, stating that, in spite of office heads’ efforts to assistance the Auditor-Controller, she has unsuccessful to satisfy the responsibilities and duties of her situation and as a result has place the county in a money disaster.

Though the Board has gained very similar letters from outdoors companies in schooling, neighborhood municipal authorities, workforce improvement, general public basic safety and the private sector, as perfectly as letters from persons inside of the county, the connected memo is the initially time that a the greater part of department heads have submitted these kinds of documentation to the Board.

The memo is sent from office leadership, equally elected and appointed, expressing that their departments cannot collaborate with the one office by means of which all financial transactions have to be recorded, and as a outcome they are dealing with perilous fiscal problems which have to be set.

The board packet consists of a truth sheet that lists upwards of 40 current deficiencies affiliated with the Auditor-Controller’s Place of work, which include earlier-thanks fiscal stories, conversation failures and extra.

The board narrowly accredited a vote of “no confidence” in Paz Dominguez in November 2021. Previously this month, the board was set to contemplate a second vote of “no confidence” but Paz Dominguez was unable to attend the board’s discussion.

The staff members report notes that the county Workforce Improvement Board has advisable that “the issue be referred to the California Good Political Methods Fee, Business of the Condition of California Attorney Normal and the Condition of California Section of Justice for correct action.”

Realignment of Payroll Solutions

The board will also consider the operational realignment of payroll solutions, a county function that has been rife with troubles and controversy since the board voted to change payroll from the Human Sources section to the Auditor-Controller’s Workplace in August 2021.

Very last thirty day period, the board directed personnel to search into going payroll products and services back again out of the Auditor-Controller’s Business office. “Specifically, your Board directed the Interim Director of Human Sources (HR), the County Administrative Officer, and the Auditor-Controller to engage in discussions about the collective objective with respect to payroll functions, appraise formerly collected information concerning payroll functions, supply your Board with up-to-date findings, and present your Board with refined choices connected to the placement of the payroll purpose,” the team report says.

The board will contemplate three solutions:

• Retain payroll functions in the Place of work of the Auditor-Controller, which would be “the minimum disruptive to the existing payroll approach,” but would likely result in “additional source requests, current interaction problems, and worries linked to services shipping.”

• Shift payroll to the County Administrative Business, which could supply an prospect to stabilize payroll operations “through greater stakeholder engagement and interdepartmental collaboration, increased communication and responsiveness, and perseverance to support delivery.” Even so, there is no precedent for these types of a change and it would only be short-term.

• Or, to permit the payroll functionality to continue to be in the Auditor-Controller’s Office environment “for supplemental time.” This solution appears to be just about equivalent to the initially possibility but specifies that payroll would “remain with the [Auditor-Controller’s Office] for the close to future” and includes a record of more suggestions if the product were being to be selected, which includes the continued help of economic consultant KOA Hills.

The staff report also endorses that the county retain services from CliftonLarsonAllen (at a charge of $259,000) to carry out an audit of payroll solutions to determine deficiencies. 

“[CliftonLarsonAllen] will assess the county’s processes bordering just one examination payroll interval,” the staff members report states. “…[CliftonLarsonAllen] will offer benefits with an govt summary describing the scope, goals, solution, and total conclusion of the interior audit evaluation. In addition, [CliftonLarsonAllen] will explain internal handle deficiencies identified together with course of action improvement tips.”

TOT Workgroup

The board will also take into consideration the development of a transient occupancy tax (TOT) workgroup comprising stakeholders who would oversee and review TOT earnings and operate with county staff to acquire recommendations for the Board of Supervisors as to how the resources really should be invested.

The make any difference was agendized in an effort to simplicity fears from regional hoteliers and hospitality marketplace reps who strongly oppose Evaluate J, the Humboldt County Lodge Tax Update Evaluate, which seeks to maximize the TOT charge in the county’s unincorporated places from 10 per cent to 12 p.c when also producing the tax applicable to right away RV parks and private campgrounds. 

Members of the Humboldt Lodging Alliance (HLA) have criticized the county — particularly the County Administrative Workplace — for failing to include marketplace associates in initial conversations on the issue. The business has also raised issues about the timing of the ballot initiative and known as its wording “misleading.”

“The timing of the evaluate to regional hoteliers could threaten the fragile gains produced by the field in recent months as the economic system recovers from Covid-connected actions,” the alliance claims in an April 22 letter. “…Moreover, when County Team and elected officers have reported that the dollars would go to unique functions, such as rural hearth departments, homeless support and the arts, it would nonetheless go into the unrestricted common fund, which usually means the TOT funds could be utilised for any applications connected to the operations of the County Governing administration. There are simply just no regulations or ordinances to assure ideal use of the TOT funds.”

The HLA is calling for a “no” vote on Measure J, but if it were being to go, the organization claimed it “would want to be an active participant” in the proposed workgroup.

The Board of Supervisors meeting will acquire put at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 26. The agenda can be identified below.