This graph and its dire prediction was Mark Charlton’s final message to the Modoc County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 3, 2009, the day he resigned as chief administrative officer. It was Charlton who publicly exposed the county’s misappropriation of nearly $20 million from the county treasury and then worked to regain the county’s financial stability with the state.

County Treasurer Clarifies Tax Assessment Distribution

Editor’s Note: The following is a response and clarification from Cheryl Knoch, Modoc County Treasurer-Tax Collector, regarding our article on the proposal to portion out assessment payments to the Surprise Valley Hospital district. See article below.


The Auditor's office apportions taxes and writes all of the checks for
county entities. The Modoc County Treasurer does not distribute the tax money.

The county, in an effort to curb our cash flow problems, is planning to
distribute the taxes closer to the same schedule as they are collected - 50%
in December, 40% in April and 10% in June. In the past the county has
distributed 100% of their tax charge to the agencies in December, which has
left the tax resources fund with a deficit of around 14 million dollars.

I have contacted many other northern California counties and inquired how they distributed their taxes, and found that no one distributed the 100%
charge in December. All of the other counties distributed it much like our
planned distribution this year.

We did not plan this distribution to hurt the Surprise Valley Hospital
District or any other agency in Modoc County. We are merely trying to spend
the county's money in a more responsible fashion.

Cheryl Knoch
Treasurer-Tax Collector
Modoc County

Modoc's Financial Disease Spreading SV Hospital Funds in Jeopardy

(Surprise Valley Hospital faces potential loss of assessment funds)

Modoc Independent News sources have confirmed that the Modoc County treasurer Cheryl Knoch is considering withholding a percentage of the Surprise Valley Hospital District assessment funds.

If such a move is made it will be the first time in decades that the county has embargoed tax monies payable to the hospital, according to a spokesperson for the Surprise Valley Hospital District.

Surprise Valley Hospital District, independent of the Modoc Medical Center, is due to receive its tax assessment funds amounting to approximately $165,600 in December, but this year hospital board members and staff have learned that the county may pay only 50 percent of the funds in December, 40 percent in April and the remaining 10 percent in June.

Supervisor Dan Macsay, who represents Surprise Valley, when queried by the Modoc Independent News via e-mail regarding the possibility of Surprise Valley Hospital District funds being in jeopardy said, "I think my position has been clear in regards to our hospital. I also do not respond to questions to be put on a blog."

Macsay did not explain what his position is regarding the hospital.

Surprise Valley Hospital’s line of credit with Plumas Bank comes due in December, according to Modoc Independent News sources, and typically the hospital has used the tax assessment funds to pay off the line of credit at that time.

Hospital officials are requesting confirmation and clarification from county officials.

-- Barbara March

Modoc Supervisors Retaliate

(Mark Charlton, Modoc County's former CAO, is history)

After its surprising move yesterday morning in naming Rick Rudometkin as the county’s interim CAO/CEO, the Modoc County Board of Supervisors quickly followed up that afternoon by handing Mark Charlton, out-going CAO, his final check and then fired his front office secretary Paula Jessup.

At 8:18 a.m. this morning a call to the administrative office was answered by a recording.

(See yesterday’s story on the board’s hiring of Rudometkin and rejecting a call for a state of emergency in Modoc County).

-- Ray A. March

Modoc Board Appoints Interim Chief, Rejects Undersheriff's State of Emergency

(A frustrated Karen Stockton, director of Modoc County Health Services, pictured left, told the Modoc County Board of Supervisors "We have a financial hemmorage. We have to keep the patient alive until we can find treatment.)

In what appeared to be a well rehearsed plan, the Modoc County Board of Supervisors today appointed a new interim county chief administrative officer/ chief executive officer with no administrative experience and then rejected an effort to call for a state of emergency.

In an inexplicable move Walt Beck, who just last week resigned as CEO of the Modoc Medical Center, asked the board to appoint Rick Rudometkin to take over the duties of CAO Mark Charlton, who also resigned last week.

On the motion of Supervisor Dan Macsay and seconded by Supervisor Jeff Bullock, the board unanimously voted to appoint Rudometkin to the county’s top job. He has been director of county transportation and public works for about the last two years.

There was no discussion by the board as to Rudometkin’s qualifications to take over the county’s administrative and executive duties. The action came at a time when the board is facing charges of illegally misappropriating an estimated $20 million from the county treasury, and is on the brink of failing to meet its payroll and possibly declaring bankruptcy.

The board's vote went unchallenged and was quickly followed by a second unanimous decision to reject Undersheriff Gary Palmer’s call for a state of emergency based on the financial crisis the county is presently in.

Even before hearing a presentation prepared by Tony Richno of the emergency service department in cooperation with county department heads as to why the board should ratify a call for a state of emergency, Macsay made a motion to “decline a declaration.” Bullock quickly seconded the motion.

It wasn’t until Carol Baker, library director, suggested the board should first hear the presentation before making its decision that the board held off voting.

Defeated were department heads’ recommendations for an incident management team headed by Palmer, a public information campaign and an allocation of $12,000 for emergency operations center equipment. These suggestions are patterned after similar teams that are assembled by the U.S. Forest Service and local sheriff’s offices during fire, flood or earthquake emergencies.

The most contracted debate was over Palmer’s being named head of the Incident Management Team. It was apparent the supervisors were not going to let Palmer handle the job when they had just appointed Rudometkin to be their interim chief administrative officer -- and obviously their future spokesman. Palmer told the board he didn’t care who headed up the team.

For more information and coverage of Modoc County’s financial crisis pick up a copy of the new “Vigilance,” a weekly newsletter published by the Modoc Independent News.

-- Ray A. March

Modoc May Have to Sue for Audit Costs

(Pictured above, the standing-room-only crowd at the Board of Supervisor's Meeting Friday, November 6.)

Look for a more in-depth and certainly a revealing audit of Modoc County’s financial books when a new state-ordered audit takes place beginning sometime after Thanksgiving.

That’s the prediction from Richard Arrow, the county’s outside, contracted, financial advisor.

If you ask who is going to pay for the audit, estimated at $190,000 it appears the matter may well go to litigation.

Modoc County is asking the former auditing firm, TCA Partners of Fresno to pay for the next one because the county didn’t get what it paid for. That position has been borne out by the state Controller’s office in a scathing 129-page report revealing TCA failed to meet numerous criteria in examining the county’s records.

“It failed to meet professional standards, lacked evidence, and failed to support the auditor's conclusions regarding Modoc County's finances. In short, the document was found to be unacceptable,” reported a spokesman for the Controller‘s office in characterizing TCA‘s audit of the county.

TCA, according to Arrow, is willing to pay for the new audit if its insurance will cover the costs. If not the county will have to take legal action against TCA.

-- Ray A. March

Modoc County Financial State of Emergency

Editors’ Note: Welcome to the Modoc Independent News blog! This space is open to news coverage and comments. It’s primary coverage will be the history-making state of emergency recently called by the Modoc County Undersheriff as a result of the county’s financial crisis.

To our knowledge this is the first time such a state of emergency has been called in California, and perhaps the nation.
What makes this state of emergency unique and history-making, is because unlike situations where fires or floods have devastated a region or community and brought its economy to a halt, Modoc County is under threat because the Board of Supervisors misappropriated an estimated $20 million from the county treasury and has no immediate way of repaying that money.
Combined with California’s own fiscal crisis, Modoc County is now faced with the problem of making payroll, both on a long and short-term basis, and it looks doubtful that the state or any other lenders are going to come to the rescue any time soon.
We invite your insights, opinions, thoughts and comments on this subject or on subjects related to this state of emergency.
Do you know of any other county that has been faced with a crisis similar to Modoc County, for instance?
Do you have information you would like to share with us and our fellow bloggers?
We plan to make this a day-to-day action spot where you can see what has happened, what’s currently happening and what’s going to happen.
Let us hear from you!

-- Ray A. March