A Summary of Parts 1 and 2
BOS And The Monday Night Group
What To Look For Without a Program

Editor’s Note: Following the action between the Modoc County Board of Supervisors and the Monday Night Group can be like watching a hockey game without a rule book or program. Here’s what to watch for if the ad hoc citizens oversight committee persists in its efforts to make the supervisors accountable for their misappropriation of monies, and find alternatives to a long-term loan for replacing an estimated $12.5 million to the treasury.

The workshop meeting between the Modoc County Board of Supervisors and the Monday Night Group last Tuesday (March 30) might have been in a church, but at times it took on the atmosphere of a senate investigative hearing. Other times it recalled a down home town hall meeting against a background of internal combustion.

It was best described by Gary Jones, county superintendent of schools, when he said, “There appears to be a lot of anger between supervisors, the auditor and the treasurer. Leadership needs to work together.”

While the Monday Night Group and the public in attendance were politely aggressive, the supervisors were everything from candid to cautious, frequently “political,” and at times shielded by their attorney -- but, never did they hold themselves accountable for their misappropriation of an estimated $20 million from the county treasury.

That comes as no surprise, after all they took taxpayers’ money from the treasury without the legal authority to do so. That has been confirmed by the State Controller’s Office (SCO).

The Monday Night Group is asking questions even if in the asking they inadvertently incriminate the supervisors, certain department heads and some previously elected officials.

To summarize what can be expected in the coming  weeks, here again are some of questions presented to the board:

1. Does the county need the services of Richard Arrow, its contracted chief financial officer?

2. Regarding accountability: Who was following who when the money was taken from the treasury. And, where did our leadership fail?

3. Why didn’t the county auditor, treasurer and chief administrative officer at the time of the misappropriation question it, and why wasn’t it reported to the Board of Supervisors?

4.What’s the total debt?

5. Which county services need to be protected, and which do not?

6. What are the cash flow projections beyond the end of this fiscal year, June 30?

7. If county doesn’t get a long-term $12.5 million bond-loan, assuming it continues to seek such financing, is there enough money to run the county?

8. How cooperative will department heads be, including CAO Rick Rudometkin, when the Monday Night Group comes looking for information?

9. And, in the end, how cooperative will the Board of Supervisors remain when -- and if -- the Monday Night Group comes up with alternative plans for replacing the $12.5 million to the treasury -- plans that may contradict the direction the board is currently taking?

As Don Demsher, one of the Monday Night Group members, told the board on March 30, “If we have information from the CAO and departments we will be able to make a preliminary proposal to board by April 13. But there has been nothing specific presented to the Board of Supervisors by its top staff. It’s a compressed time frame. We have to get on with it.”

-- Ray A. March

(Nancy Gardner moderated)

Part II
Modoc-gate

Monday Night Group Calls for Cooperation

For the rest of the day, minus a lunch break, the Monday Night Group, with Nancy Gardner, a retired Forest Service employee delicately moderating, looked for answers to this question and others, “How did we get into this mess?“.

What they found was a public voice generally opposed to the board’s idea of pursuing a long-term loan in order to replace the $12.5 million in the treasury.

They also found that the board was willing to work with the Monday Night Group in its request for cooperation in obtaining information from county officials, including Rick Rudometkin, the board’s hastily appointed chief administrative officer.

Led by Mascay, each of the supervisors stood and said they supported the Monday Night Group’s request for cooperation. In fact, the first three supervisors to agree to the need for cooperation from not only county department heads but the board itself were Macsay, Patricia Cantrall and Dave Bradshaw -- the three who were on the board when the misappropriations occurred.

However, when it came to specifically answering questions from Monday Night members such as John Dederick, mayor of Alturas, some information was less than forthcoming, especially from Rudometkin.
   
In response to Dederick’s question about identifying the necessary cost reductions in the county’s budget as to what they are and when they will be made, Rudometkin was vague.
   
“We’re working on it,” Rudometkin answered. “The department heads have cut back and been very frugal. That’s why we are positive,” he said in reference to the current positive cash flow projections from Knoch.

“We’re looking at making more cuts,” he continued. “We are working on things as we speak.”

Early on the session members of the Monday Night Group posed these questions as a kind of framework from which to seek eventual answers:

-- Where did our leadership go? Who was following who? Where did our leadership fail?

-- Why weren’t the checks and balances followed?

-- How are we going to learn from past lack of communication and move forward?

-- What is the total debt?

-- Why didn’t the auditor, chief administrative officer and treasurer question the misappropriations and why weren’t they reported to the Board of Supervisors?

-- Why didn’t the Board of Supervisors speak up?

-- Is there a written copy of your plan for repaying the money to the treasury?

And there were defensive explanations by board members:

Bullock: “We, the Board of Supervisors, don’t know the financial laws so we go to the financial experts. Any board member who wants to do this is probably stupid. I was over my head.”

Cantrall: “The CAO’s salary doesn’t all come out of the general fund.”

Richard Arrow, county chief financial officer: "The role of the community (involvement) has not been defined. I work for the board of supervisors.”

Macsay: “I think they’re getting off track with Arrow. His job is clear with the board as to what we want him to do.”

As the Monday Night Group moved to a conclusion, a time line was created by Gardner.

Demsher explained: “If we get the information we need from the CAO (Rudometkin) and department heads, we can bring a preliminary proposal to the board on April 13 and then ask for a special meeting of the board for April 20.”

Asked his assessment of the workshop meeting, Demsher was realistic.

“It was good, a very productive  meeting. Our job is to keep the process moving along, to get everybody to do what they have committed to do. Otherwise, frankly it won’t happen. Somebody has to be driving the process.”

-- Ray A. March

Part I
Modoc-gate

Fear of Jail and Some Answers

(Community members at the Federated Church in Alturas.)

“This money needs to be replaced in the county treasury. I’m the one who is going to prison and be behind bars.”

            -- Cheryl Knoch, Modoc County Treasurer

“Who is going to share in this? I don’t want anybody to go to jail. I’m like Cheryl, I don’t want to go to jail.”

            -- Jeff Bullock, Modoc County Supervisor


They came together in the sanctuary of the Federated Church in Altruas, not for the sake of religion, but to save the county from its financial crisis and in the process possibly keep people like Cheryl Knoch from going to jail.

And each time the subject of a jail term came up John Kenny, county counsel under contract to the Modoc County Board of Supervisors, steered the subject away from potential litigation involving his employers and back to the question of how will the treasury be repaid.
   
“What we have is a fiscal problem,” Kenny interjected at one point late into the afternoon of the all-day session. “It has nothing to do with who goes to jail and who doesn’t. We still have a solvency problem.”

What’s at stake besides the fear of a jail term?

As Kenny argued, the financial solvency of the county is at stake. It has been a critical issue since early last summer when it was disclosed that the Board of Supervisors, its appointees and other elected officials misappropriated an estimated $20 million from the treasury.
   
The matter is not an idle one. More than any other county in a cash-strapped state, Modoc County is facing a severe financial crisis because of the misappropriation.

After Mark Charlton, then chief administrative officer for the county, went public with the information that the board and its staff had misused county monies, the State of California Controller’s Office stepped in and demanded the money be repaid to the treasury by June 30.
   
How much has to be repaid? After some monies belonging to the schools were replaced, the estimates come in at $12.5 million, but no one knows the exact figure.

Frustrated by what it perceived as the Board of Supervisors’ slow reaction to the state’s mandate and concerned over the county’s going into long term debt to repay the treasury, local business and education leaders known as the Monday Night Group came forward as an ad hoc citizens oversight committee and asked the supervisors for permission to intercede.

The Monday Night Group’s first intercession came on Tuesday, March 30, at the Federated Church in Alturas where Ben Zandstra, one of the Monday Night Group’s members, is pastor. Calling the workshop meeting to order and then taking a seat in the third pew, right side, was Dan Macsay, chair of the board. The other four supervisors scattered themselves among the audience estimated at100.

The question before them was: How did we get into this mess?

Part II will be posted tomorrow, April 1, 2010

-- Ray A. March

Creating Partnerships that Work!

This is a great opportunity for businesses and agencies to partner with the Modoc Employment Center.  

You provide the workplace training, mentoring and experience and receive an employee.  MEC provides all wage costs, worker’s compensation and monitoring.  Through our partnership we can put over 50 individuals to work and infuse the local economy with much needed dollars.
 
If you are interested to learn more about this program please call Kim Stanford at 530-233-4161 or come by the Modoc Employment Center at 221 N. Main St., Alturas Ca.

(Public Service Announcement)

Town Meeting Potlucks in Surprise Valley

The Surprise Valley Chamber of Commerce is hosting town meeting potlucks again this year. Updates will be presented and input welcomed. The format will be similar to last year with food and social at 6 p.m. followed by discussions at 6:45pm.

• Tuesday April 6 Lake City at the fire hall.

• Thursday April 8 Cedarville at the Senior Center

• Tuesday April 13 Eagleville at the Community Center

• Thursday April 15 Fort Bidwell at the Community Hall