County Grand Jury Slams Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency for Bad Management

The Santa Cruz County Grand Jury said the Pajaro Water Management Agency is a case of "directors needing direction." The agency which manages water in the troubled, salt-filled valley got the jury's harshest rebukes.

"The Grand Jury’s research into the financial stability of PVWMA over the last five years introduced us to an agency that has disregarded annual audit admonishments about procedures needed to protect it from fraud and theft," the jury wrote in a report released Monday night. "Investigation into its administrative style revealed an organization which only casually adheres to written policies and has an absence of leadership on the part of the Board of Directors."

The problems the district showed included inaccurate recording of grant revenue and no oversight on bank accounts and bank statements. The complaints had been raised in audits of the agency, but year after year the complaints were ignored, according to the Grand Jury. 

In one example, the Jury found that when the agency's General Manager had been mistakenly approving contracts without board approval for $25,000 when the limit was $10,000, the staff simply got the Board to raise the limit, rather than address why the original policy wasn't followed.
The Pajaro Board responded (see below) Tuesday.

The Grand Jury held a press conference Tuesday at 11 a.m. outside the county courthouse to discuss its findings. The Grand Jury is made up of 19 people chosen from the voting rolls who devote a year to studying problems in the county and making recommendations for improving them.

Among its yearly duties, it inspects jails and looks into government accounts and records. Citizens may make complaints and have the jury investigate them.

Some of the other conclusions issued Monday include:

* It recommended more use of home detention for prisoners and a better system to enforce and determine who gets to serve jail time at home. There are no written criteria for those who should get it, nor written guidelines to follow when someone violates the terms of the home custody.

* It found that the main jail was routinely overcrowded, over its limit of 311 prisoners. On Sept. 16, 2011, it found the number was 343. On April 16, 2013, it was 363.

* Although four people died in custody this year, compared to none the previous year, the Grand Jury placed no blame on the jail or the medical procedures there.

* The county needs more post-release services for ex-inmates and the process to get referred to drug treatment programs is "cumbersome." It also needs to study which treatment programs are most effective.

* The process of getting permits from the county planning department needs to be improved and expanded to include more online ability. The planning department doesn't have the ability to take credit card or debit card payments, requiring more people to go to the department in person. The department is already deluged, having been cut from 100 to 60 employees.

*Streamlining, modernizing and simplifying the permit process is needed. The planning department couldn't produce documentation that it was meeting its mandate to be revenue-neutral and its information about codes is inconsistent and frustrating to the public.

To see the full report, go here.

Here's the Pajaro Water Board response:

"The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency, and its Board of Directors, has been engaged, energetic and creative during the past five years in furthering the mission of the agency.  This critical mission is the preservation of the Pajaro Valley’s water resources, the agricultural economy that relies on protection of the groundwater basin, and the hundreds of families who rely on the jobs a strong Ag economy creates.

"Even in the face of serious financial stress the board guided the agency and made it possible to achieve some remarkable successes:

1.      Completion of the Recycled Water Facility which is capable of producing 4,000 acre feet of “New” irrigation water supplies per year from wastewater that would otherwise be discharged into Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

2.      Delivery of over 18,000 acre feet of supplemental water supply to coastal growers

3.      Capturing over 7,000 acre feet of flood water and recharging it into the Harkins Slough Project recharge basin

4.      Easing the financial burden on local residents by bringing in over $48 million dollars in grants to fund these important projects while maintaining reasonable rates for the agency’s rate payers.

5.      The creation of an Ad Hoc Basin Management Plan Committee of engaged local citizens who drafted the most comprehensive plan to halt seawater intrusion and preserve water resources in the agency’s history

"The release of the 2012-2013 Santa Cruz County Grand Jury Report has taken the agency to task primarily for deficiencies related to auditor’s findings in recent years.  The agency agrees, there were deficiencies in the past.  These deficiencies have been addressed and rectified and the resolution reported to the board of directors and the Grand Jury earlier this year."

“I am surprised that the Grand Jury, while knowing that most of what they recommended has already been implemented, still went ahead to report out that the board wasn’t paying proper attention” said Rosemarie Imazio, Board Chair.  Board vice chair Dave Cavanaugh added that “The board will take the guidance offered by the Grand Jury to heart and what hasn’t already been corrected will be addressed.”

Back row: Jim Lawton, Kingsley Snow, Matt Talley, Brian McMahon, Bill Murphy, Glenn Zimmerman, Ralph Zerweck 

Middle row: Marie Kagaju Laugharn, Lise Peterson, Colleen Tiffin, Midge Ralston, Eve-Marie Arce Bose, Carolyn Irvine 

Front row: JP Pawloski, Patrick Carter, Evelyn Taylor, Barry Battey, Alice Florio, Nell Griscom