County Notes (Sep. 26, 2018)

The Ghost of Tom Mitchell seems to be hovering anew over the Supervisors Chambers in Ukiah. Mitchell, long-time readers may recall, was Mendo’s CEO before they hired Carmel Angelo, a registered nurse by training. Mitchell pioneered what might be called the Zen administrative approach by answering most questions with versions of “I’m looking into that,” or “I’ll get back to you on that,” or, our favorite, “we’re looking at that,” out of which came exactly nothing. At one point we counted about 20 major subjects that Mitchell was "looking into," collecting dust on Mitchell’s growing “action item list” having been formally assigned to him during accumulated Board meetings and once described by then Supervisor John Pinches as “strong marching orders.” 

Then as now, there was no follow-up from the Supervisors, and Mitchell's "action item list" grew old and died. Mitchell abruptly resigned in March of 2010, forgotten like the items on his bulging action item list.

Say what you will about current CEO Carmel Angelo, she is a step up from Mitchell. And the current Board of Supes is objectively a stutter step more competent than the Supes were during Mitchell's somnolent reign. 

But more and more action items are accumulating on CEO Angelo’s “to do list” — based upon promises or assignments from the Board in public session — which shouldn't be allowed to languish unaddressed.

There’s the long-delayed Exclusive Operating Area for inland ambulance services, which Angelo has allowed to fall into permanent limbo by dumping the poor-performing Sonoma County Coastal Valley EMS service before having a comparable function set up locally.

There’s the Sheriff’s Overtime budget which Angelo and staff were supposed to be monitoring and reporting on monthly since assigning an arbitrarily low budget to it in June.

There are the long-delayed budget reporting “metrics” which are occasionally mentioned, promises implied or given, but no reports are forthcoming.

There are the hundreds of seemingly permanently stalled pot permit applications which, after almost a year, are still “in queue” or “under review.” (Not to mention the costly, endless “overlay zone” pot permit process which has been going on for months now and only getting farther off.)

There’s the promise to re-organize the Probation Department so that the County isn’t stuck with having to pay for the mistakes and benign neglect by their majesties of the Superior Court. 

There continue to be retroactive cash hand-outs on almost every Board agenda without explanation even though the Board has declared “no more retroactive contracts” and staff has promised to obey.

The housing problem, while talked about often by the Board, remains unattended and unaddressed beyond the minor steps associated with the fire recovery program. As a short example, we have Supervisor Gjerde mentioning the availability of modest house specs a couple of weeks ago before they were ready to be released and which are now under review by the County Counsel’s office with no deadline and no sense of urgency.

The Marbut Report produced some agreements and promises from Mental Health sub-czar Molgaard (the czarina of those many annual millions is Tammy Moss Chandler) and their crew of overpaid helping professionals to revise the way the county’s homeless and transient population is treated. The Supes vaguely (and officially) agreed. But nothing has changed and nobody asks.

There are the still incomplete memorandums of agreement relating to Mental Health Services to be provided by affiliated agencies that were supposed to have been completed in the wake of the transition from Ortner’s failed mental health services to Redwood Quality Management Company two years ago. They have been "almost finished" for well over a year now.

And that roster of the not done is just off the top of our head. Just like back in the Mitchell days, there needs to be Board-maintained official action item list with target completion dates, names of persons responsible, budget impact, and status on every item that the CEO promises to do or that the Board orders her to do. And each item needs to be reported on at every Board meeting. In Writing. Without it, the whole show just limps aimlessly and randomly along. Things that the CEO committed to do — things which have significant impact on County operations and beyond — are allowed to sit in limbo indefinitely in direct contradiction to Board direction and staff promises.

The only thing the County seems to have no trouble doing is giving big raises to itself, especially to its top officials — in spite of the poor performance listed above.

If the County can’t even track and manage the things that they themselves have committed to do, what hope is there that the general public’s priorities will ever get addressed?