County Must Spend More Wisely on Human Care, Jury Declares

Orange County must improve the way it spends money on the homeless, the poor and the mentally ill and must seek more funds to help society’s have-nots, the country grand jury said Thursday in its fourth critical report in eight days.

The panel also criticized the county Social Services Agency for poor long-term budgeting and planning, for seeking little reaction from staff members and the community and insufficient training of its staff and managers.

In a slap at county supervisors, the grand jury report said that “treatment of citizenry and staff bringing legitimate human care needs” to the board “has not always been courteous and dignified.”

The current grand jury, whose term ends this month, has been far more critical of county supervisors than past panels.

A separate report Thursday found “fundamental organizational deficiencies in the county.” Two earlier grand jury studies faulted the supervisors for a lack of planning, too much involvement in daily county operations and too little coordination of programs to battle drug and alcohol abuse among youth.

No Referral System

“The 1986-87 Orange County Grand Jury believes that an improvement in the deployment of resources to address human care needs in Orange County must occur,” the grand jurors said in their report titled “Human Care Needs in Orange County.”

It also said: “There is no information and referral system to increase efficiency by directing clients to both public and private services. There is no needs assessment to define the scope of problems and to help set priorities for deploying resources.

“The melding of private and public resources is minimal. In the past a lack of leadership by the Board of Supervisors has resulted in a less than fair share receipt of state resources.”

The grand jury recommended a hot line such as the one in San Diego County, where callers are told where to find help from the county, private or nonprofit groups for problems ranging from eviction from an apartment to aid for a disabled family member.

The panel said the United Way of Orange County devised a plan for such an information and referral system a year ago and offered to pay $130,000 of a proposed annual budget of just over $300,000. The county or private groups could provide the rest, the United Way said.

The grand jury said the county’s largest anti-poverty organization, the Community Development Council, has $150,000 in a bank account and “no clear-cut policy on how these funds might best be used.” The jurors said the county could spend the money to start setting up the information and referral system.

The grand jury’s reports last week and this week called on the supervisors to take a leadership role in various programs. The latest report echoed that call, this time urging the supervisors to push for community support, as they did in getting private funds to help build Orangewood, the county home for abused and neglected children.

Pursuit of State Funds

The supervisors should make cities in the county aware of their responsibilities to help the unfortunate and should “vigorously pursue fair-share funding from the state and federal government for social and medical needs,” the report said.

Last year the supervisors wrote to Gov. George Deukmejian to complain that the county gets far less than its fair share on a per capita basis of state funds for programs dealing with alcoholics, the mentally ill, poor people needing medical care and drug abusers.

The grand jury said the county must do more to help five specific groups: the homeless, poor people needing medical care, undocumented aliens, elderly people suffering abuse and the mentally ill.

A review of those five areas showed that in the past there was “a reluctance on the part of the Board of Supervisors to admit the problem was severe or even existed,” the panel said.

The grand jury did not study the county Health Care or Community Services agencies, but did have the firm of Deloitte, Haskins and Sells report on the Social Services Agency, which has 1,620 employees, a $220-million budget and responsibility for programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, foster care, food stamps and Medi-Cal.

Deloitte, Haskins and Sells said the Social Services Agency has improved its budgeting and planning programs, but needs more long-range planning and reaction from its lower-level staff members.

The agency also needs more training for its staff and a formal process to allow community organizations to make their views known, the study said.

Robert A. Griffith, chief deputy director of the agency, said he had not had time to review the report in detail, but noted that “virtually every organization on the face of this planet could stand improvements.”

Griffith said the agency was working to solve some problems mentioned by the grand jury and Deloitte, Haskins and Sells, but that some recommendations might go unmet because of county budget problems.