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Loss of Meal Money Ripped: Grand Jury Says County Shortchanges Senior Food Program.

Posted on: Sunday, 14 May 2006, 15:04 CDT

By Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

May 14--The El Dorado County grand jury has called for the Board of Supervisors to restore funding for a food assistance program for low-income senior citizens and to reinstate the Food Bank of El Dorado County as its administrator.

In its second mid-term report, released Tuesday, the 2005-06 grand jury maintains that county Department of Human Services managers last year presented the board with misleading and incorrect information to justify diverting state funds for the Brown Bag Program to other services.

"The reason the grand jury is appearing before you this morning is to make you aware of an injustice committed last year to over 400 residents of the county," said grand jury member Floyd Knapp in presenting an overview of the report during Tuesday's board meeting.

At issue is a $23,000-a-year grant that the county had directed to the Brown Bag Program.

The state-funded program distributes fruits, vegetables and other food items to people 60 or older with income at or below the poverty level. The Human Services Department receives the state monies and, beginning in 2001, contracted with the Food Bank of El Dorado County to administer the program.

In May 2005, however, the program was not included in the county's 2005-09 Area Plan, which set forth senior services to be provided during that period. In a presentation to the Board of Supervisors that month, Doug Nowka, assistant director of human services, reported that the plan instead called for using funds to open a second senior day-care site.

The grand jury investigation was prompted by a formal complaint regarding redirection of the Brown Bag Program funds, which occurred for several months in 2004-05 and again with adoption of the 2005-09 Area Plan, the report says.

"Our investigation concluded that Human Services managers overseeing the program did not follow the required protocol, omitting basic requirements and misrepresenting facts to the county Board of Supervisors to divert the Brown Bag funds," the executive summary of the grand jury report says.

John Litwinovich, human services director, said in an e-mail that he could not comment prior to the county's formal response to the report, due within 90 days. "I can confirm that the grand jury never spoke to me concerning the Brown Bag Program," he said.

The grand jury report includes a partial transcript of Nowka's May 24, 2005, presentation and discussion with the Board of Supervisors, in which he said that the department had received numerous complaints from people who were upset about discontinuing funding for the program.

However, according to the transcript, Nowka told the board that "funding availability alone is not the only stumbling blocks. The current Brown Bag provider, the Food Bank of El Dorado County, is either unwilling or unable to meet basic program and accounting standards for us to continue to contract with them. In the absence of those performance standards, we are unable to contract regardless of funding availability."

Nowka told the board that nonprofit organizations such as the food bank, with revenues of more than $2 million annually, are required to submit an audit to the state attorney general's office. He said the food bank had been unwilling to provide the county with financial information, although its 2003 tax return, available on the attorney general's Web site, showed the organization had revenues or income of $2.3 million, about $316,000 of which was in cash.

Nowka said money the county directed to the Brown Bag Program accounted for only about $7 of the $22 worth of food items provided per bag, and argued that the food bank could continue the services without the county's assistance.

The grand jury report says the attorney general's office requires audits only if gross revenues are more than $2 million, exclusive of grants. Aside from $316,477 in cash reported on the 2003 tax return, contributions to the food bank were in the form of noncash donations, primarily food items, the grand jury's Knapp told the board.

The grand jury further reported that no audit requirement was included in the county's contract with the food bank.

In addition, it says the county failed to follow state-required procedures for redirecting funds from the Brown Bag Program to other services. According to the report, two hearings were required, but the 2005-09 Area Plan, which terminated the program, was adopted a week before the second hearing.

"Brown Bag Program monies provided by the state have been incorrectly redirected to other county senior programs," the report says. The grand jury recommends that all state funds allocated to the Brown Bag Program be returned to the program.

The grand jury report concludes by commending the food bank, saying that the state requires any agency administering the Brown Bag Program to leverage the state funds by a factor of a least three, meaning the value of food supplied must be worth at least three times the dollar amount of the funding.

"The Food Bank of El Dorado County leverages their total cash contributions, including the state monies, by a factor of almost 10," the report says. "The Food Bank of El Dorado County is to be praised for their outstanding public service and should be recognized for their effectiveness."

The report is available on the county's Web site at www.co.el-dorado.ca.us.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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