On June 14, a Friday night, Sonoma County Department of Health Services Director Tina Rivera emailed her workers to warn them of an upcoming county civil grand jury report.
“I don’t need you to be surprised by the incredibly critical nature of your findings,” he wrote, awaiting the report’s release on Monday, June 17. “The research was developed at a time when negative articles in the press were at their peak. It doesn’t reflect the demanding situations we’ve faced or the really extensive artistic work we’ve all done and continue to do to fix them.
It’s the second time this year that Rivera has criticized the work of the county’s civil grand jury, which conducts investigations into government agencies or systems they choose based on citizen suggestions and news reports. In either case, Rivera, whose branch has been the subject of several controversies over the past year, linked the grand jury to the work of journalists.
In April, months before the report’s release, he described jury work as one of the hurdles facing his firm, while providing an update on the Board of Supervisors ahead of the county’s budget hearings.
“We continue to be under internal and external scrutiny,” Rivera said, “where our painting is disrupted by consistent and consistent press investigations, Grand Jury investigations, indictments, indictments, PRAs (public records requests), eclipsing all the incredibly wonderful paintings that are being done. produced. . . through the county’s most productive staff.
Although Rivera expected the grand jury to receive his report on June 17, it was not made public until June 26.
And while his email implied that damning new revelations about his branch were imminent, the resulting report focused primarily on already known and long-standing problems with the agency.
In its introduction, the report notes that this is the fourth time that the grand jury, whose members are replaced each year, has examined issues within the Ministry of Health since 2017.
In 2017, the grand jury found that understaffing and a poor pictorial culture were affecting the agency’s behavioral aptitude division. The following year, the jury looked at the department’s growing budget deficit, which had been a problem for years. Rivera, in his email to his employees, noted that the Ministry of Health is now “financially solvent. “
The 2022 grand jury report, the first released during Rivera’s tenure as director, provided a scathing critique of the agency’s style of control, especially during the pandemic. The report describes a “my way or on the road” leadership culture that has led to vacancies.
This report was released in June 2022, after Rivera officially became director of the Department of Health in March, having served as interim director since May 2021. She joined the branch in January 2020 as an assistant director. She backtracked on the report, telling The Democrat The Press that she was “disappointed” by its conclusions.
This time, the grand jury focused on the procurement and contracting issues that dominated the department’s incumbents through the fall of 2023. “We uncovered a procedure that was not working properly with a history of violations of county policies and ordinances,” the jury reported.
“It is critical for those most in need in Sonoma County that the Department of Health Services fulfill its project and responsibility,” the advent concludes. “The 2023-24 Civil Grand Jury sincerely hopes that this is the last time the Department of Health Services deserves such public scrutiny and criticism. »
The report discusses payment delays, the Health Department’s absorption of the county’s homeless services department, and a series of disputes over contracts for the Los Guilicos Village housing site, for-profit provider DEMA, and Centro Orenda, a drug rehabilitation center.
Many of those issues are already public knowledge, and Rivera said the grand jury saw no recent progress. The jury, for example, concluded that “staffing shortages, which have been attributed in part to an environment of poisonous paints, compound the department’s problems” in terms of hiring and paying outside contractors.
But in his email to staff, Rivera said the branch had reversed its vacuum rates. In March, the grand jury reported, the branch-wide vacuum rate was 23%, compared to 8% for the rest of county government. But Rivera said that by the end of May, the headline rate had fallen to 14%.
“Please don’t let the Grand Jury report discourage you,” he concluded in his email. “The fact is, we’re much further along in addressing those systemic disorders that have been around for years than the report indicates. “
In an interview with The Press Democrat on Thursday, Rivera said his branch will continue to improve issues heard through the grand jury.
“As an organization committed to fulfilling the wishes of Sonoma County residents, it is incumbent upon all parts of the county to continually maintain their administrative and governance processes,” he wrote. “The Department of Health Services has already addressed many of the issues in this report over the last year and we will officially respond with more data within the timeline established through the Grand Jury process. Until then, we intend to continue with the processes discussed in the report.
Supervisory Board Chairman David Rabbitt echoed Rivera’s sentiments.
“The Council takes all constructive complaints seriously and has taken and is taking proactive steps with DHS for processes and outcomes,” he told The Press Democrat on Friday.
The Grand Jury reported that its investigation backed up fall 2023 Press Democrat articles that described how overdue invoices to nonprofit service providers created severe monetary disruptions for cash-strapped organizations, forcing some administrators to use nonpublic budgets or borrow. . to continue its operations.
Those interviewed by the jury attributed the delays to bureaucratic hurdles, adding to a consolidation of strength at the top of the agency. “Inadequate delegation of authority has led to long waits for approval from levels of leadership, even for minor issues that can simply be dealt with to lesser degrees,” the report says.
The county began billing nonprofits that were suffering without delay after the newspaper published its Nov. 2 investigation into the long-delayed checks. However, county officials bristled at the scrutiny, and the Board of Supervisors and County Administrator Christina Rivera issued a report criticizing the nonprofits. Democratic press and support for Tina Rivera.
The grand jury report also looked at the county’s resolution in early 2023 to integrate its housing and homelessness department into the fitness department. This transition was poorly executed, jurors found, leading to delays in administering contracts and hiring key personnel.
The grand jury described a high-profile contract dispute in the town of Los Guilicos as “a clever example of chaotic practices” within the fitness department. Vincent de Paul has controlled this for the county since its inception in January 2020 as an emergency measure to accommodate the homeless from a sprawling encampment along the Joe Rodota Trail.
The association’s director, Jack Tibbetts, a former Santa Rosa City Council member, in November accused the Health Department of withholding bills as it sought to retroactively replace the terms of the San Vicente contract. He also said that a complicated bidding procedure for a long time temporary contract to manage the site, as well as misleading statements through fitness officials, had led his charity to lose the ability to submit a long-term bid for the project.
In April, the Department of Health embarked on a new bidding procedure after the supervisory board ordered the company to cancel any contract with DEMA.
Tina Rivera questioned Tibbetts’ interpretations in both cases. The grand jury, after its review, proposed an interpretation of the occasions that matched Tibbetts’ account. Saint-Vincent “never had the opportunity to submit an offer” to manage a new expanded housing complex on the site, jurors found. The board’s resolution to reopen the bidding procedure has avoided “further public scrutiny and potential litigation” by the charity, according to the report.
Editor Andrew Graham can be reached at 707-526-8667 or andrew. graham@pressdemocrat. com. Follow him on X (Twitter)@AndrewGraham88.