2017-041 - Status of Recommendations - Table 5

14. To ensure that property owners correct violations in a timely manner, San Rafael should develop a work plan by July 2016 to identify and address its enforcement backlog by April 2017, so that the city is up to date with its enforcement actions, such as issuing notice letters and monitoring property owners' actions to resolve violations. San Rafael's work plan should also include updating the completion status of the violations so unresolved violations can be identified and monitored for subsequent correction.

17. To ensure that property owners correct violations in a timely manner, San Rafael should follow through with its enforcement policies, such as issuing notice letters.

23. To ensure that it conducts its resale record inspections and completes the reports in a timely manner, San Rafael should establish a process to monitor its ability to meet its established time goals from application date to report issuance, such as developing a reminder report or using an automated feature of its database.

26. To ensure that it conducts its resale record inspections and completes the reports in a timely manner, San Rafael should review its time goals by July 2016 for the resale record program and modify them if necessary, factoring in property owners' expectations and staff resources to complete the resale record reports. If applicable, San Rafael should update its policies and procedures to reflect the revised time goals.

28. The city should clearly present the general fund structural deficit to the city council and the public in a budget that includes narrative and summary information to help users understand the city's budget process and its priorities and challenges, and that incorporates the elements for improved budgeting practices recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).

3. To comply with state law, benefit committees should ensure that they obtain sufficient documentation from grant applicants to demonstrate that proposed projects mitigate casino impacts. If applicable, that documentation should demonstrate that the requested funding represents a correct proportionate share of the costs attributable to casino impacts.

2. To ensure that child abuse and neglect allegations receive timely resolution, the department should assess whether it needs to permanently allocate more resources to investigate allegations of child abuse and neglect.

5. To improve its process for placing children with a relative, the department should analyze the best practices used by other county child welfare services agencies for such placements. The department should then implement changes in its practices so that relatives and their homes are approved prior to placement, as required by state law.

5. To ensure that water customers are aware of pass-through rate increases, Quartz Hill Water District should adopt a schedule of fees showing how these increases will affect its tiered usage charges before the new rates take effect.

6. To better communicate with parents and future IEP teams about reasons for any changes to student services, including changes to mental health services and student placements, Riverside should develop a process to ensure that IEP teams record these reasons in student IEP documents.

1. The board should ensure that management continues to develop and strengthen its controls over the district's financial and administrative functions. For example, district management should fully implement all of the external auditor's remaining recommendations by June 30, 2015. Management should also ensure that its staff follow these policies and should create and implement a plan for monitoring its system of controls. The board should also consider periodically contracting with qualified professionals to conduct a review of the effectiveness of the district's system of internal controls.

2. The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to make it clear that the activities of approving invoices, recording invoices, preparing checks, and reconciling bank statements to the district's records should be performed by separate individuals.

3. The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to make it clear who is responsible for reviewing and approving monthly bank reconciliations.

4. The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to limit California lodging costs to the rate set by the State for its employees, and limit any out-of-state lodging costs to rates set by the federal government for its employees. In addition, the district should remove from its travel policy the reimbursement for exercise equipment use.

7. The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to establish an appropriate system for tracking and valuing inventory.

8. The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to require employees to obtain their supervisor's approval before working paid overtime.

12. To clarify the roles and responsibilities of board members, the district should create a more comprehensive board member manual that describes all of the board's roles and fiduciary responsibilities. This manual should address the best practices contained in the California Special Districts Association's Special District Board Member/Trustee Handbook. The district should also provide for additional training for board members in the following areas over which they exercise important responsibilities: financial management, contracting, emergency procurement, and human resources.

14. To ensure that employee compensation remains appropriate after making the changes described in the previous recommendation, the board should develop robust policies that outline how it will establish future compensation for all district positions. This policy should require the district to conduct a salary survey of comparable sanitation agencies to determine what compensation levels are appropriate for the job duties of district positions and to present the results to the board.

18. The district should implement the remaining recommendations contained in its human resources consultants' work plan by the targeted dates shown in Table 3 on page 18 of our report, and improve its performance management system to ensure that staff receive required annual performance evaluations.

19. The district should implement the remaining recommendations contained in its human resources consultants' work plan by the targeted dates shown in Table 3 on page 18 of our report, and develop and document a policy that requires board members and supervisors to attend harassment prevention training biannually and a process for monitoring their attendance.

10. To ensure that it is effectively preventing and addressing incidents of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying in its schools, Sacramento City Unified should measure the effectiveness of its school safety programs at both the district and school site levels.