Grand Jury conducts 10 probes
County agencies investigated; scrutiny of Oroville titled ‘A Time for Change’
The jury is out for Butte County. The 2022-2023 Butte County Civil Grand Jury published its final report for public view Friday, as part of its state-assigned duty to function as the “public watchdog” for Butte County.
Nineteen jurors submitted 10 investigative reports on Butte County cities, agencies and other governing boards — informed by a collection of interviews and research conducted by jurors.
The report is available at https://www.buttecounty.net/1208/Grand-Jury.
The 10 reports include an evaluation of responses to 2021-2022 recommendations, county use of grants, county disaster response, audits of county and special district finances and recommendations for governing agencies.
Most notable is the jury’s report on Oroville, titled “A Time for Change” with 14 findings and 18 recommendations that address personnel complaints, the city charter, communication failures and other subjects.
To add, the jury included a 10-year review of Oroville’s previous responses to Butte County Grand Jury recommendations.
Butte County’s Grand Jury was selected through an initial letter to 7,500 randomly selected residents which was pared down to 19 through interviews by Butte County Superior Court, according to the report.
The 10 reports published Friday are summarized below:
The report, Responses to 2021-2022 Grand Jury Report, reviews the county, city and agency responses to the previous juries’ 10 reports that total 40 findings and 27 recommendations.
The audit report reviews the 2023 Butte County Single Audit Report, which an independent auditor found Butte County’s major federal programs had no instances of noncompliance, but flagged a significant deficiency in internal controls.
A payroll report reviews the Butte County Payroll Clearing Fund Analysis Report for fiscal years 20102018.
An Assessment Sampling Survey Report reviews property assessments by the Butte County Assessor’s Office which are used to calculate property taxes.
A report on Special Districts for drainage reviews revenue, expenses and benefits of six drainage and reclamation districts in south Butte County.
A report on Special Districts for street lighting reviews inefficiencies caused by excessive administration costs from the presence of too many unique county service areas.
On law enforcement, the jury reported law enforcement operations follow policy and procedure but highlight addressable problems in interagency exchange of data and records.
Investigating disaster response, the jury analyzed the county’s emergency response, disaster preparedness and public outreach.
A report on county community development reviews usage of Community Development Block Grants which fund programs including housing development.
The final report reviews the city of Oroville’s responses to 10 previous years of Butte County Grand Jury recommendations. It also recommends updates to the city charter, personnel reallocation, improving technology utilization, allocating workspace for councilors and providing staff cross training.