Sept. 27, 2011 — Lassen County’s Board of Supervisors continued to explore whys and wherefores behind a contract between the public defender’s office and a Nevada private investigator at its Tuesday, Sept. 20 meeting.
District 2 Supervisor and Chair Jim Chapman complained to county staffers that several county contracts had exceeded the amount approved by the board, including the public defender’s private investigator’s contract with Gina Crown of Reno, Nevada.
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Lassen County Counsel Rick Crabtree said the contract with Crown had been exceeded by a very small amount, and that some of the money paid to Crown came from outside the contract with court appointed attorneys hired Crown to investigate cases they were working on in the Lassen Superior Court.
John Blacklock, interim county administrator, said as of September 2010, Crown had been paid only $3,979.
By October 2011, she had been paid $17,524, but $6,734 of that amount had been paid outside of her contract with the public defender’s office for services supplied to court appointed attorneys.
He said the overage was a small amount — only $790 — but with the changes in county administrative officers, he was unable to determine who authorized the payment in excess of the contract amount without the board’s approval.
Lassen County Auditor Karen Fouch assured the board, “We do have contract tracking procedures in place,” but she agreed with Blacklock that, “We don’t know exactly what went wrong here.”
Blacklock also said he wanted to make it clear that Crown performed services for the money she was paid and this was not an overpayment issue.
Chapman directed Blacklock to look at the county’s auditing procedures and come up with a way to tighten up the process so this wouldn’t happen again.
“Business is business,” Chapman said, “and we need to take care of business.”
Susanville private investigator Ron Wood pressed the board over the issue.
He said the amount of the contract had already been exceeded, and the supervisors had extended it for another $12,000.
He encouraged the board to rescind the contract and put it out to bid.
Blacklock said the public defender’s office was trying to find a way to bring the contract into conformity with the county’s existing policy.
Chapman said, “The questions Mr. Wood raises are valid,” and he suggested the public defender needed to “scale back (the contract) or put it out to bid.”
John Abbott, a Susanville private investigator said there were similar problems with the county’ process serving contract, but Chapman told him that discussion would be inappropriate due to the Brown Act.
Chapman said in order to discuss that matter, the board would have agendize it and give everyone who might have something to say an opportunity to address the issue.
Ronald Harrison, a private investigator who’s been practicing in Lassen County for the past 14 years, told the board the contractor was paid more per hour that court appointed investigators.
He said the contractor is paid $55 per hour while the court appointed investigators are paid $45 per hour.
He also suggested the board should put the contract out for bid and see if a local private investigator wants to do it.
“If we could get that contract we could make a little more money,” Harrison said, “and that’s what it’s all about.”
Chapman gave Blacklock some direction.
“The board would like to see some consistency brought to bear, we’d like to see accountability brought to bear and we’d also like to see the competitive aspect,” Chapman said.“If we’re going to have contracting where we’re expending or exceeding the $10,000 threshold, they (those contracts) need to go to bid across the board.”
According to Chapman, these controls are especially important once AB 109 is implement, transferring the parole functions of inmates from the state to the county.
“The impact that’s (AB 109) going to have on the system is going to be way beyond most of our imaginations,” Chapman said, “and most of our imaginations are already thinking it’s pretty bad. We’re going to have to have this dialed in sooner rather than later if for nothing else to prepare for what that onslaught’s going to be about.”
Blacklock said he would bring the matter back to the board within the next 30 days.
