Thursday, July 9, 2009

Egregious Mismanagement at Public Guardian's Office

The Orange County grand jury issued a scathing report criticizing the public administrator/public guardian's office for "egregious" mismanagement, including questionable promotions that cost hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

The report, the jurors' second on the subject, concluded "that a complete restructuring" of the office was necessary.

Jury foreman Jim Perez: "It was outrageous behavior."

The public administrator settles the estates of the deceased; the public guardian takes care of people under legal conservatorship. The department handles estates valued at more than $38 million each year, according to the report.

In a move to reduce county costs, the office of the public guardian was split from the Health Care Agency in 2005 and combined with the public administrator.

But instead of saving money, the first grand jury report said, costs went up because of additional management salaries. Staffing levels have risen from seven managers for 67 employees at a cost of $529,796 to 10 managers for the same number of employees at $1.04 million.

Jurors intended to issue only one report on the agency. But within two weeks of its release in May, they got a "significant" number of calls and letters informing them that not only had management not changed, but that the situation had worsened.

Full Article and Source:
O.C. grand jury again criticizes public administrator/public guardian's office

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The whole system is sick and needs a major overhaul!

Anonymous said...

This is great to see. I love to see it in print --- "mismanagement" by the PG!

Anonymous said...

This is great -- a grand jury makes such a statement!

Please congratulate the other members of the grand jury, Jim Perez. We, the people, find encouragement in the jury's actions and report!

Anonymous said...

I hope this is the beginning of grand jury investigations into Public Guardians all over the country!

Sue said...

Look who is profitting from this?

And, how much are they pocketing off the record and not being reported to the IRS?

Mega millions into billions with no one watching - a kid in 1st grade could figure this out to be the biggest scheme with court approval, and this is going on nationwide.

Add it up.

Anonymous said...

The Public Guardian is a misnomer title -- the guardian is supposed to be guarding the public.

Instead, the Public Guardian many times is nothing more than a menace to innocent and vulnerable people.

Anonymous said...

Ruthless thugs

Anonymous said...

What makes it worse for people dealing with the public guardian is that the PG is usually entrenched in the very agencies one would go to for help --- and they've fallen into a trap instead.

Thank you Orange Co. Grand Jury!