Report 2011-120 Recommendations

To ensure that it appropriately executes interagency agreements with other state agencies, General Services should provide training to construction unit staff.

To ensure that it charges its clients appropriately for the work it performs, General Services should reassess the construction unit's methodologies for determining the hourly burden rate and direct administration fees.

To ensure that it charges its clients appropriately for the work it performs, General Services should ensure that the construction unit's methodologies are sound and that it can properly support them.

To determine if the construction unit's use of casual laborers to perform work not in their job specifications, such as procurement, is cost-effective, General Services should perform an analysis comparing the cost of paying the casual laborers at the prevailing wage rate and the cost of paying permanent civil service employees. If it finds that using permanent employees is cost-effective for the State, General Services should seek approval for additional permanent employees to perform those functions.

To ensure that the casual laborers charge only for their actual hours worked on projects, General Services should require that the civil service supervisor who has knowledge of the time the casual laborer works approve the casual laborer's daily time report and the Activity Based Management System time charges.

To ensure that the casual laborers charge only for their actual hours worked on projects, General Services should ensure that the daily time reports for casual laborers contain the appropriate task codes, the laborer's signature, and the approval of a civil service supervisor.

To ensure that the casual laborers charge only for their actual hours worked on projects, General Services should update its construction unit manual to formalize its standard practice of using daily job reports for each project.

To ensure that the casual laborers charge only for their actual hours worked on projects, General Services should retain the daily job reports and the daily time reports in the project files.

To ensure that it complies with its nepotism policy, General Services should have its office of human resources review and approve its existing temporary authorization appointments for casual laborers. If the office of human resources finds that personal relationships exist, General Services should take appropriate action in accordance with its policy.

To ensure that the construction unit complies with the State's procurement laws and policies, General Services should require the construction unit to immediately discontinue its current procurement practices that are inconsistent with the State's procurement laws and policies.

To ensure that the construction unit complies with the State's procurement laws and policies, General Services should require the construction unit to modify the procurement section of its manual to conform to the State's procurement laws and policies.

To ensure that the construction unit complies with the State's procurement laws and policies, General Services should provide training to its construction unit employees regarding the State's procurement laws and policies.

To ensure that the construction unit complies with the State's procurement laws and policies, General Services should clarify the waiver process in the administrative order governing the small business participation goal.

To ensure that the construction unit complies with the State's procurement laws and policies, General Services should continue its efforts to implement regulations that govern the small business certification process related to defining and enforcing violations of commercially useful function requirements.

To ensure that the construction unit complies with the State's procurement laws and policies, General Services should conduct an investigation of the small businesses we discussed in the report to determine if they are performing a commercially useful function.

To ensure that the State properly manages its resources, the Legislature should consider amending the state law known as the Roberti Bill to allow Caltrans to sell SR 710 properties that have a high market value at fair market prices

To pursue alternatives to the State's management of the SR 710 properties that would preserve its access to the right-of-way needed for the extension project, to the extent that Caltrans has determined it to be cost-beneficial to do so, the Legislature should consider the establishment of a JPA that would allow Caltrans and the affected cities to jointly manage the SR 710 properties.

To ensure that it collects fair market rents for the SR 710 properties on the State's behalf, Caltrans should, using the fair market rent determinations for all SR 710 properties it recently prepared and excluding those in its affordable rent program, adjust the tenants' rents to fair market after providing them with proper notice.

To ensure that it collects fair market rents for the SR 710 properties on the State's behalf, Caltrans should make only limited exceptions to charging fair market rent and document the specific public purpose that is served in any case that it does not charge fair market rent.

To ensure that all taxable fringe benefits or gifts state employees receive are appropriately included in their gross income, Caltrans should establish procedures to notify state employees who rent SR 710 properties that they may be subject to tax implications.

To ensure that all taxable fringe benefits or gifts employees receive are appropriately included in their gross income, Caltrans should continue to work with its information technology division to generate the reports necessary for it to provide the State Controller's Office (state controller) with the value of the state housing for its employees monthly.

To ensure that all taxable fringe benefits or gifts state employees receive are appropriately included in their gross income, Caltrans should work with the state controller to identify the statute of limitations for employers to report adjustments to employee gross income to the federal Internal Revenue Service and the California Franchise Tax Board.

To ensure that all taxable fringe benefits or gifts state employees receive are appropriately included in their gross income, Caltrans should work with the state controller to identify the difference between the fair market rental value of the SR 710 housing and the rent state employees paid for that housing during the applicable calendar years related to the federal and state statute of limitations.

To ensure that all taxable fringe benefits or gifts state employees receive are appropriately included in their gross income, Caltrans should work with the state controller to determine if it needs to revise the W-2 forms for the other employees to whom Caltrans provided housing benefits, including the four employees who worked at its Chilao Maintenance Station.

To ensure that all taxable fringe benefits or gifts state employees receive are appropriately included in their gross income, Caltrans should provide information to the other state agencies so that they can submit the standard form for reporting the value of the housing provided to their employees for the applicable past calendar years to the state controller. Caltrans should continue to submit this information monthly to the applicable state agencies until the state employees are no longer renting the SR 710 properties at below-market rates.

To ensure that the affordable rent policy is enforceable and that only eligible tenants receive the benefit of the policy, Caltrans should adopt regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) if the director determines that it is appropriate to continue to offer affordable rent to certain tenants.

To ensure that the affordable rent policy is enforceable and that only eligible tenants receive the benefit of the policy, Caltrans should annually review and document the tenants' household incomes using income certification forms. If tenants no longer qualify for the program because their income exceeds the income requirement or one of the income-producing tenants in the household has been replaced by a new tenant, it should increase their rent to fair market rates after giving proper notice.

To ensure that the repairs it makes to the SR 710 properties are necessary and reasonable, Caltrans should document its rationale for approving project change orders.

To ensure that the repairs it makes to the SR 710 properties are necessary and reasonable, Caltrans should conduct annual field inspections of the properties.

To ensure that the repairs it makes to the SR 710 properties are necessary and reasonable, Caltrans should discontinue performing roofing repairs on properties its roof assessments indicate are in good condition, unless a new assessment indicates a repair is needed.

To ensure that the repairs it makes to the SR 710 properties are necessary and reasonable, Caltrans should incorporate roof assessments as part of its annual field inspections of the properties.

To ensure that the repairs it makes to the SR 710 properties are necessary and reasonable, Caltrans should develop a written policy to ensure that it considers the cost-effectiveness of repair costs for historic and nonhistoric projects in relation to the potential rental income for the property. Such a policy should establish the maximum acceptable cost-recovery period for the amount it will spend for repairs, above which the repairs will be considered wasteful.

To ensure that the repairs it makes to the SR 710 properties are necessary and reasonable, Caltrans should establish a process to ensure it evaluates the cost-effectiveness of any repair before authorizing it.

To ensure that the repairs it makes to the SR 710 properties are necessary and reasonable, Caltrans should retain in its project files evidence to support the necessity and reasonableness of repairs, such as change orders, annual field inspections, and analyses of cost-effectiveness.

To ensure that the State achieves cost savings for the repairs made to the SR 710 properties, Caltrans should periodically perform more comprehensive analyses of viable options for repairing the properties. If Caltrans determines that General Services is the best option, it should ensure that it properly executes an interagency agreement in accordance with the State Contracting Manual.

To ensure that General Services performs only necessary repairs and that its costs are reasonable, Caltrans should ensure that its staff adhere to relevant contracting policies, including retaining evidence of its approval of General Services' repair work before and after the completion of a project in the project file.

To ensure that General Services performs only necessary repairs and that its costs are reasonable, Caltrans should reconcile General Services' estimates for the repair projects with the scope of work the Department of Finance (Finance) approved in the transfer request form, and, if applicable, explain any differences.

To ensure that General Services performs only necessary repairs and that its costs are reasonable, Caltrans should reconcile the actual work General Services performs to the scope of work approved in the project work plans.

To ensure that General Services performs only necessary repairs and that its costs are reasonable, Caltrans should reconcile the actual expenditures for the projects listed in the transfer request form approved by Finance and the approved budget in the project work plans with General Services' actual expenditures for each project.

To ensure that General Services performs only necessary repairs and that its costs are reasonable, Caltrans should modify its March 2012 tracking spreadsheet to ensure that it contains sufficient information for Caltrans to effectively monitor repair costs.

To comply with the 2007 court ruling and the APA until such time as the Legislature may choose to act, Caltrans should establish regulations to govern the sales process for the SR 710 properties affected by the Roberti Bill.

To pursue alternatives to its management of the SR 710 properties, Caltrans should prepare a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the State would save money by hiring a private vendor to manage the properties. If such savings would occur, Caltrans should seek an exemption under Government Code, Section 19130 (a), to hire a private vendor.

To pursue alternatives to its management of the SR 710 properties, Caltrans should perform an analysis to compare the cost of establishing a JPA to its current costs of managing the properties.