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ADMINISTRATION / DISTRICT ATTORNEY - District Attorney Matthew Rogers
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Requested Action(s)
recommendation
a) TRANSFER OF FUNDS: DA CHILD ABDUCTI/STATE SB-90, B-86 - From State Grants (20139-450629), $291,475 to Contingency (2002-59000) $291,475 and From Contingency (2002-59000) to Public Safety/Fund Bal Available (106-301900) $291,475 (Required a 4/5’s vote)
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Financial Impact:
The District Attorney's Office is requesting permission from the Board of Supervisors to use the Strategic Priority Fund to repay a $291,475 state grant. This repayment is necessary to avoid accruing interest on the disallowance. The grant was for a successful Child Abduction and Recovery (CAR) program, which was fully audited by the state. Despite the District Attorney's Office providing all supporting documentation and strongly disagreeing with the findings, the audit recommended disallowing the entire amount, a conclusion consistent with other counties facing similar "claw-backs" by the state. The CAR program has since been restructured to be entirely reactive due to the loss of this funding.
Background Information:
For several years the District Attorney’s Office administered a successful Child Abduction and Recovery Program (“CAR”) based on statutory mandate, the costs of which had been statutorily reimbursable through Senate Bill 90 (“SB 90”). The CAR program was designed to address child abduction and child custody issues in a proactive manner, so as to shoulder part of that caseload county-wide and assist allied agencies. The CAR program funded 0.5 FTE of a DA Investigator and attendant expenses which totaled $291,475 over the three-year period of the audit. The State of California noticed the District Attorney’s Office of a three-year audit at the end of 2023 and the audit began in early 2024. The audit lasted many months, during which time the District Attorney’s Office provided all necessary supporting documentation, investigative reports and a full breakdown of the program to state auditors. Though the auditors repeatedly told the District Attorney’s Office that they believed the work had been done, the audit’s conclusion recommended that the entire amount of $291,475 be disallowed. The District Attorney’s Office completely disagreed, and continues to disagree with the audit’s findings as noted in the attached letter from District Attorney Matt Rogers to the state. The District Attorney’s Office discovered that every county whose CAR program was audited was forced to pay back all or most of the CAR funding they had received; for example, Los Angeles County was forced to pay back approximately $10 million dollars. The Tehama County District Attorney’s Office believed, and still believes, that this audit and the conclusion reached is a thinly veiled monetary claw-back by the state in an effort to fill the enormous budget shortfalls the state has experienced over the past several years. The District Attorney’s Office fought the audit but to no avail and now the state has demanded the return of $291,475. The District Attorney’s Office has completely revamped our CAR program and no longer staffs the program with a 0.5 FTE Investigator. The CAR program is now, unfortunately, a completely reactive program but still provides service to the community according to statutory mandate.