General Manager Mimi Morris explains a new data tracking tool to better manage all information requests made to the district. Courtesy photo

RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Despite a light agenda, the Rancho Murieta Community Services District Board considered several notable topics when the directors met on Dec. 20.

• The financial report included an update about the completion of the long overdue 2020/21 audit. Instead of writing off an audit adjustment of $123,000, which is the final task, the staff asked for more time to “clean up a tangled mess” to ensure the fund balances are correct going forward.

• The staff has developed new data tracking tools to better manage requests for information including requests under the Public Records Act. The district has received 149 public record requests since 2019 and has spent more than $66,000 answering them.

• A tentative agreement between the district and employees represented by a union that included wage increases and other issues was rejected just before the meeting. Although the bargaining unit consists of 35 full and part-time employees, only five are union members and were able to vote on the agreement. The other employees had no say.

• The security report touched on many interesting topics including two recent restaurant burglaries, abandoned cats, and an adult doorbell ditcher. See the separate story in this issue.

In other business, the board approved a new IT position and approved a new investment policy.

Financial report

Director Stephen Booth asked why General Manager Mimi Morris and Mark Matulich, the director of finance and administration, hadn’t followed his prior suggestion to write off a $123,000 audit adjustment and take the lumps from the auditor to finally wrap up the long overdue 2020/21 audit that has been promised to the community for many months.

Director of Administration Mark Matulich explains what is preventing the completion of the 2020/21 audit. Courtesy photo

In explaining why, Morris described the 2020/21 finance year as a “tangled mess”. Matulich, who is a CPA, said from an accounting standpoint, the year had been “out of whack.” Both assured the board that only a few items remain to be researched and reviewed with the auditors.

Matulich said it was important to close out 2020/21 fiscal year with a good set of numbers so the district will have a good foundation moving forward into the subsequent audits. He told Booth they should be finished by the next board meeting.

 “One thing I can commit to is that when this one is done, it is going to be right,” Matulich said.

Audience member Mike Martel, a past CSD board member, told Morris and Matulich that he thought they were doing a marvelous job. But he also asked when the district’s financial problems began, if there had been negligence, and who was responsible.

Morris said it was a complicated question and would involve speculation since it happened before she was hired in May. But it appears it began in 2019 after “very knowledgeable” employees left the district. The employees coming in behind them didn’t have the same ability.

“It was just sort of negligent, and (it was) bad, bad bookkeeping,” Morris said.

(Continuous turnover in CSD accounting also contributed to problems.)

Martel said that preserving institutional knowledge is a good reason why CSD should begin appointing residents to its committees because they would stay on when staff turned over.

Booth asked Morris to place three financial items on the agenda for the January meeting. First was his observation that  the 2022/23 and the 2023/24 budgets don’t match, second was that the 2023/24 budget doesn’t show a $250,000 transfer from property taxes to the security budget, and the third was the 38.9% administrative allocation to security in the 2023/24 budget. Booth indicated that figure was too high.

Information request tracking

Morris said that staff has been developing basic data tracking tools to better manage requests for information being made to the district including correspondence, general inquiries and requests Public Records Act.  Since 2019, the district has received 149 public record requests. The majority were made in 2021 and 22, and nine came in during 2023. One request alone encompassed 4,500 emails that had to be reviewed and redacted.

Morris said the cost of review by an outside law firm came to more than $56,000, and the cost of staff time to work on PRAs has been over $10,000. The district still hadn’t been billed by the district’s counsel for its PRA work.

“Staff understands the conditions that led to so many requests for information and hopes to restore confidence in district operations so as to reduce the cost burden of these inquiries in the future,” Morris said.

The district’s response time to inquiries probably drew justifiable criticism, she added. However, given the volume, the district didn’t have the mechanism to evaluate them, especially in the summer of 2022. Morris said new tracking system will show every stage in the process. “The goal is to make it clear about why some of these responses will take a while,” she said.

Booth commended Morris and her staff for developing the tracking tool. “I think it is a good step forward in providing greater transparency and accountability to our ratepayers,” he said.

Union negotiations

Morris had placed a three-year tentative agreement between the district and its unionized employees on the agenda for board approval.  It included more rewarding longevity pay, a more specific drug policy, and wage increases. However, she found out before the meeting that union members had rejected the agreement. “So, we will be going back to the drawing board with them,” she said.

Morris and Director Randy Jenco had negotiated the agreement with a union representative and two union member employees, who had agreed to it.

Morris said that the bargaining unit consists of 35 full and part-time employees. However, only five of them belong to the union, and they were the only ones who could vote.

Because of the U.S. Supreme Court Janis decision in 2018, members of a bargaining unit aren’t required to join the union. Morris said they noticed that many CSD employees dropped their union memberships in February and March.

“But then some of these people realized they didn’t get a vote,” she said. “So now they are asking to be brought back in because the action impacted everyone.”

In other business:

• Operations Director Michael Fritschi reported that when utility employees investigated a sewer complaint near Playa Del Rey, they unearthed a manhole covered with 12 inches of artificial turf. After opening the cover, they found an extensive mass of roots inside.

Image shows the open manhole, the cover, and some of the matted roots found inside. Courtesy photo

Image shows a section of artificial turf covering a manhole. The photo was included in the utilities report delivered at the Rancho Murieta Community Services District meeting on Dec. 20. Courtesy photo

• The board approved a job description for an information technology (IT) manager.  Morris said the district pays at least $7,500 a month for contracted IT services. She said she hopes to add a part-time position to handle the work at less than the current cost with much improved service.

• The board approved a revised investment policy that will allow the district to use an investment pool (California Asset Management Program) that will pay a higher rate of return than the pool that has been used.

• Morris reported the Communications Committee is working on a strategy to restore the community’s confidence in the district.

• The board declared five district vehicles with extensive mileage as surplus so they can be sold.

• Morris said she moved 120 boxes of old records into the office to end the monthly expense of a storage unit. Staff will review the records to see which can be destroyed per the district’s retention policy.

The board’s next regular meeting will be held at 5 p.m. on Jan. 17.