LAKE COUNTY >> The Lake County Board of Supervisors disputed some aspects of the Grand Jury Report, with board members saying the document overlooked many of the county’s challenges.
The Grand Jury assessed the county’s efforts toward abatement services, road management and public safety. The jury also looked a real estate taxes, property management, and Behavioral Health staffing.
The document produced by the Grand Jury examines city and county government along with special districts to ensure the duties of these organizations are being fulfilled. It’s goal is to review procedures, methods and systems to see if more efficient programs can be used.
During a meeting this week, the supervisors issued their initial response to the report.
District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown said this year the Grand Jury Report gave an unfair response, failing to fully note challenges faced by county staff.
“One of the problems in here that they have identified in here whether they are real or not is a result of our staffing issues,” Brown said. “Our staff works hard and I really think this was much more harsh than they deserve.”
Brown said he respects the Grand Jury, their decisions, and the work they put into the report, but he is surprised and disappointed in the report’s overall tone.
“I just want to make sure that staff understands that because they are short-staffed and the limited resources to them, they should put in the amount of work that they need to and that’s it. Nothing more, Nothing more is expected of them and if they agree they can write ‘yes’, if they don’t, they can write ‘no’,” Brown said.
District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele said he also felt the Grand Jury Report was not balanced. However, he pointed out the document gives those who work in the county a chance to show their passion for their work.
“The grand jury is a very valuable independent oversight on all the county functions,” Steele said. “When they do come out with a report like this, it does give us an opportunity to set the record straight and set everybody straight as to the hard work that the county does,”
County Administrative Office Carol Huchingson said some of the remarks made in the report were discouraging because county staff do care about the issues stated. She reiterated that staffing remains a problem.
“I am still a relatively new CAO and eight of the 24 department heads had turned over this past year so there is a lot of new going on and we have also had disasters as our highest priority and we’re trying to balance that among many other priorities,” Huchingson said.
As county departments continue to give their response on the report they will be looking for resolutions to problems that are mentioned by the Grand Jury.
“We all have to work together in this and we have a hard working group of people that don’t get paid a lot and there were some kicks to the teeth,” said Brown.
