LAKEPORT—The director of the temporary homeless shelter in Lakeport invoiced $34,338 for a month’s worth of work according to documentation reviewed by the county’s Behavioral Health Services department and the Continuum of Care, as alluded to by District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier during the Lake County Board of Supervisor’s April 25 meeting.
Sabatier said at the time, prior to the board voting to amend the agreement between the county and Sunrise Special Services Foundation, which kept the temporary shelter at the old Juvenile Hall location open for an additional three months, “I just need to be transparent, part of the issues that have come to the Continuum of Care, was the amount of money spent specifically for one employee, at the very beginning there was a lack of employees so few employees had to do a lot in order to ensure the services were being provided.”
According to invoices sent over to the county by the contractor, Sunrise Services never went over their allotted monthly budget of $51,200 for services that they provided since entering into the agreement with the county (approved on January 24 of this year), but the documentation breaking down cash flow reported from February to March 23, 2023 as obtained by the Record-Bee shows direct expenses included approved payroll expenses of $15,600 and $18,738 to EWS Director Yvonne Cox during the time period, which included several days where the shelter was open 24 hours during the extreme weather conditions experienced in the county. Six temporary shelters were opened during the weather event, including the Lakeport warming shelter.
Cox asserted that she worked non-stop when her crew, comprised of mostly volunteers, quit and that she was approved for time and a-half and for wearing multiple hats prior to the center’s official opening on February 14. She detailed an incident with a prospective staffer which took place prior to the official opening, which she said led to staffers with already designated positions, but not yet on the payroll, to walk out on the job. An anonymous source with close ties to the shelter said a number of prospective employees quit after clashing with Cox.
Cox added she made $40 an hour toiling under extremely challenging conditions. The original agreement the foundation entered into with the county budgeted more than $31,000 on staff with $4,000 allotted to the director’s salary, but the amended agreement approved by the BOS last week has bumped the director’s pay up to $7,000. Total expenses to run the shelter for six months were calculated at $307,200. The funding comes from the latest round of Homeless, Housing, Assistance, and Prevention grant funds received by the county from the state in the wake of concerns over the lack of proper vetting by the county of the Oroville-based foundation which previously ran the facility.
“Granted the hours are supposedly there to show why that amount was there, I have spoken with Sunrise and stated that I want to make sure we do an audit at the end of this to ensure that all labor laws and all other things have been done correctly but they also never went above budget,” Sabatier said, “We wanted to have a warming center and a warming center is what we have had since we’ve approved this on January 24, while it is something that stands out…” he said in reference to the payments, “It did get the approval of the Continuum of Care to move forward today with the 90 days. Wanted to be very transparent with some of the hiccups that we’ve had which are now in the past with a new budget moving forward.”
The County’s Behavioral Health Services Office was responsive to a request for fiscal records under the California Public Records Act, but breakdowns of expenditures were not itemized with the exception of the invoices submitted to the county in February and March, so it is not altogether clear why the director’s invoiced payments diverged so much from the amounts detailed in the initial agreement.
District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon said at the April 25 meeting of the BOS when the new budget was approved that the county’s Space Committee had met and approved moving forward with the extension of the contract, but added that the county is looking for a long-term solution after the 90 days the board approved and said the budget would have to be looked at closely moving forward.
Fourth District Supervisor Michael Green, whose district houses the temporary center, also said he shared Sabatier’s concerns about transparency. He added that with the benefit of hindsight, the nonprofit may have done things differently, but praised the effort to stand up an emergency shelter out of nothing.
Originally Cox went to the Board and implored that the center open prior to its official scheduled opening of mid-February, citing the great need to have the facility open before it was completely ready. Annie Barnes, Sunrise Special Services Foundation executive director said Cox had been paid that amount for a month partly due to the fact there was no staffing in place at the time. “We did what we could to keep it open,” she said. She declined to comment on whether she thought the payments to Cox were warranted, other than to say CoC approved them, but added that an audit will be conducted soon, now that the first three months of services have been rendered and the contract has been amended.
