In 2011 and the first half of 2012, Humboldt County spent more than $700,000 on salaries and benefits for people who weren’t coming to work — they were on paid administrative leave. Department heads order these leaves to protect employee rights while an investigation is conducted. That can happen for a variety of reasons: a sheriff’s deputy involved in a shooting, a manager accused of sexual harassment or a victim of alleged misconduct by fellow employees, for example.
Sometimes the accusations have merit; other times they’re baseless. And not every employee placed on investigative leave is suspected of wrongdoing. But before any employee can be disciplined, a thorough investigation must be conducted, during which employees get their paychecks and accrue benefits as usual. This is the law for public employees in California, and the system works the same way in every county.
But not every county puts as many people on leave — or keeps them there for as long — as Humboldt County has over the past two years. During the 18 months from the start of last year through June 30 of this year, Humboldt placed two dozen workers on paid administrative leave for two weeks or longer — some of them much longer. All but four of those 24 were on leave for more than three months.
If you look beyond that 18-month window you’ll find some truly extended leaves. Three women employed in the county’s social services department haven’t gone to work since December 2011, though that hasn’t kept them from earning, cumulatively, nearly $100,000 in salaries and benefits.
Another employee, a government aid eligibility worker named Dawn Schultheis Musselman, was paid to stay home for more than two years. Actually, “stay home” isn’t quite accurate. “I was out partying, having a good time,” she told the Journal. Before her leave ended, Musselman had moved with her two sons to San Diego, where she now lives and collects unemployment. Her last paycheck arrived in March, by which time she’d collected $51.499.84 in salary plus nearly $22,000 worth of benefits without showing up for a single day of work.
(Chart: The county has paid these people to stay home while it investigates whether they are victims of workplace wrongdoing or may have done something wrong themselves. The paid leaves aren’t discipline and do not imply any guilt. Click to enlarge.)
All this at a time when the county is struggling under major budget constraints — cutting positions, maintaining hiring freezes and denying raises to minimum-wage workers. A Humboldt County official argues that these long leaves are the inevitable result of some difficult balancing acts — discipline versus due process; union demands versus shrinking budgets; the cost of thorough investigations versus the cost of sloppy, inconclusive ones. But former employees and their union rep say the county is wasting their time, and our money.
Much of the information in this story was the result of a Public Records Act request, which at first was granted only partially. County staff initially refused to release the names of almost everyone who’d been placed on administrative leave. The county’s legal counsel argued that releasing those names “would constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy.” Only after the Journal hired an attorney to explain state law did the county relent. California’s Supreme Court holds that names and salaries of public employees are public information, part of the state’s “strong public policy supporting transparency in government.”
In that spirit of transparency, we take a closer look at the people and departments most affected by these long absences, and the process that’s causing them.
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Of the two dozen employees placed on leave, three quarters were, or remain, employed in the Health and Human Services department, which accounts for just over half of the county’s total workforce. Ten of the 24 (42 percent) came from the social services branch, which accounts for less than a quarter of the county workforce.
Katie Koopman worked in that branch for more than a decade. In early 2010 she was a lead eligibility worker managing a complex caseload of clients who were on or applying for public assistance programs such as Medi-Cal and food stamps. She was, by her own account, a star employee. Her most recent performance review, which she showed to the Journal, had nothing but positive things to say. So she was shocked on the morning of Friday Feb. 5, 2010, when she was unexpectedly placed on administrative leave.
“It really blindsided me, to be honest with you,” Koopman recalled in a recent interview.
Her coworker and friend, Dawn Shultheis Musselman, an eligibility worker 2, was placed on leave that same morning. Musselman said she was called into her boss’s office, informed that she was being placed on leave and ushered out of the building. “I couldn’t even go back to my desk,” she said.
Neither woman knew why they were being placed on leave, and they didn’t hear anything for weeks, they said. Eventually they learned that Koopman was being accused of interfering with the interview of a man who lived with her. He’d come in to apply for social services and, during an intake interview being conducted by Musselman, Koopman had emerged from her office — just to say hi, she said, though the county was accusing her of preferential treatment. Both women denied any wrongdoing. They looked to their union representative to handle negotiations with the county.
The county hired an outside investigator named Cindy Manos who took months to contact the women, they said. After an interview with Koopman, it emerged that Manos had a conflict of interest in the case. (She knew Koopman’s ex-boyfriend, who had a tangential connection to the case.) So the county hired another investigator, Diane Davis, who’s based in Redding. More months went by without contact.
Musselman didn’t mind the delay. “Oh, I was having a blast,” she said. She loved knowing that she was getting paid not to work, and even accruing benefits. “I accrued sick leave. I accrued everything — my retirement, my health benefits — everything was paid.”
But for Koopman, the wait was excruciating. “It created so much stress and anxiety in my life that I just wanted a resolution,” she said.
That’s a much more typical response, according to Harriet Lawlor, the local rep of Koopman and Musselman’s union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). “The whole time you’re on administrative leave, you’re thinking that someone believes you’ve done something [wrong], whether or not you’ve done it,” Lawlor said. “It’s terrifying. And your income relies on it.”
Diane Davis delivered her completed investigation of Koopman to the county on Jan. 4, 2011, 11 months after Koopman had been placed on leave. Davis submitted a three-ring binder containing a 35-page report along with transcripts of interviews with 15 of Koopman’s coworkers. This might seem like an exhaustive amount of information, yet Koopman wasn’t contacted for another four months.
On May 3, Health and Human Services Director Phillip Crandall sent her a letter notifying her that he intended to fire her for committing fraud. She vehemently denied the allegations and considered appealing her case to the state but ultimately decided that the fight wasn’t worth the hassle and anxiety, she said. She resigned on May 27, one year, three months and three weeks since she’d last been to work. In that time she made more than $73,000 in salary and benefits. Since resigning she’s been collecting unemployment.
Musselman’s case is even more confounding. The county didn’t resolve her investigation until the following October. According to both Musselman and Lawlor, the county told her to come back to work. But by that point, she’d decided that she didn’t really want to work for the county anymore. And the county didn’t really want her back, either, she said. During her five-year employment she’d filed grievances against a couple of coworkers and didn’t get along with all of her superiors. As she put it, “There was a handful of us at work that weren’t butt-kissers, and I’m one of them.”
So what did she do? She talked turkey — tried to get the county to keep paying her salary in exchange for not coming back to work. “I told ’em to pay me for a year. They said, ‘You’re crazy.’ They came back with two months, and then we bartered. The final decision was five months.”
Musselman forwarded the Journal a copy of the settlement agreement between AFSCME (her union) and the county. The agreement, which was emailed to her on Oct. 25, 2011, says that in exchange for an irrevocable letter of resignation submitted on or before Oct. 28, 2011, “Ms. Musselman will remain on full pay status until 5 p.m. March 21, 2012, at which time the employee will be separated from County service.”
Musselman still can’t believe the county agreed to it. “They continued to pay me, full pay, for an additional five months,” she marveled. By the end of her two-plus years on leave she’d collected more than $127,000 in salary and benefits. The county’s investigations into Koopman and Musselman cost an additional $14,684, bringing the total taxpayer-funded expense of the duo’s time off to more than $200,000.
“The amount of money that they spent just on the two of us was obscene,” Koopman said.
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As Humboldt County’s director of human resources, Dan Fulks was saddled with the unenviable task of explaining the nuances of administrative leave without addressing any specific cases. Legally he’s not allowed to talk about individual employees, and he’s a disciplined adherent to this policy: He’s very practiced at saying, “That’s a personnel matter. I can’t comment.”
But it’s easy to draw at least one distinction between private- and public-sector employees in California. In the private sector you can be fired with little fanfare. If you work for the government, on the other hand, you have “Skelly rights.” In 1975, the California Supreme Court ruled in Skelly vs. State Personnel Board that before being disciplined, a public employee has a right to know what’s being alleged, confront his or her accusers and respond to the charges.
“The only way to protect the legal rights of the county as well as the employee is to place ’em on paid administrative leave, because that’s not disciplinary,” Fulks explained.
Next, the county has to investigate, either with its own staff or, increasingly, due to staffing cuts, by hiring an outside investigator. If wrongdoing is discovered then the county has to build a solid case against the employee, which can get complicated, Fulks said. Investigations rarely lead where he expects them to. “It’s very common that you start an investigation into employee A, and then you find you’re not only talking about employee A but you’re talking about employee B, C, D and F. Or other conduct comes out.”
Once an employee has been disciplined, he or she has five days to appeal, which works like this: Each side, the employer and the union, selects a representative. Those representatives choose from a list of five possible arbitrators provided by the State Mediation and Conciliation Service. The arbitrator then considers the evidence and makes a binding decision.
When Fulks was first hired by the county in June 2010, at least three disciplinary actions were pending, he said. Two of those would have been Musselman’s and Koopman’s. Fulks suggested that the turnover in his position (his predecessor was only there for a few months), could have been partly responsible for their long leaves.
But he also feels that it has gotten progressively more difficult for employers to win in the arbitration process. He characterized the county’s position as similar to prosecutors building a court case: A lot of evidence must be gathered. “That’s what takes time,” he said. Every time the county disciplines an employee it must cite what rules were broken, outline the behavior that violated those rules and provide evidence. Arbitrators, he said, are supposed to side with whichever party has a preponderance of evidence in its favor, but in his opinion they treat the process more like a criminal hearing, where even a reasonable doubt is enough to acquit. “They hold us to a standard that is not reasonable.”
Lawlor, the union rep, laughed when she heard that. “It’s always weighted in management’s favor,” she countered.
Ultimately, Fulks said that without going into detail on individual investigations, he couldn’t explain why Humboldt County has been placing more people on leave, and leaving them there longer, than other counties with similar populations.
Here’s the data we tracked down that revealed that fact. According to the U.S. Census, Humboldt County’s 2010 population was 134,623. Among the 24 administrative leaves of two weeks or more last year and the first half of this year, the average lasted more than seven months. Compare that to the following counties:
In Sutter County (population 94,737), just five people were placed on leave during the same timeframe. The average lasted 26 calendar days; the longest, 39 days. When told that Humboldt County had employees out for more than a year, Sutter County Personnel Assistant Christine Luigard was taken aback. “With pay?” she asked. “Oh, no, that’s way too long.”
Nevada County (population 98,764) placed almost as many people on leaves of two weeks or longer (20) as Humboldt, but only one was kept off work for more than three months. The average was less than eight weeks.
Kings County (population 152,982) placed 15 workers on leave for two weeks or more, with the average lasting less than eight weeks.
And Napa County (population 136,484) placed just six employees on leaves of two weeks or more, with the average lasting just over three weeks. Nonetheless, Napa County Human Resources Director Suzanne Mason took Humboldt County’s statistics in stride, saying it’s not possible to determine what’s normal and what’s unreasonable without knowing more about the individual cases. When an employee is charged with a crime, for example, the employer often has to wait for the criminal justice process. Some investigations are more complex than others, and when staff is conducting the investigation it usually takes longer. “There are so many variables,” Mason said. “I don’t know how you can make a generalization.”
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With that in mind, let’s look at a few other examples here in Humboldt County. Several did involve criminal charges, including the case of Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Marsh. On the Fourth of July 2010, Marsh enlisted the help of a friend’s 10-year-old daughter to hold an illegal Roman candle firework. It exploded in their hands, injuring Marsh and blowing off the fingers on the girl’s right hand, leaving just the pinkie. After the incident, Marsh was kept on paid administrative leave for more than 6½ months, costing taxpayers $62,480. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor child endangerment last September and is no longer employed with the county.
Last January, the Humboldt County Drug Task Force and California Department of Justice were wrapping up a major marijuana trafficking investigation. They’d been targeting a Eureka couple named Brandon and Christina Savio. On Jan. 2, they pulled Brandon over near Benbow and arrested him.
Meanwhile, agents monitoring the Savios’ Eureka house saw a neighbor walk in and out several times, hauling out an armload with each trip. This neighbor proved to be Gordon Glynn, then a deputy public guardian in the county’s Health and Human Services Department. His wife, Mari, was a mental health case manager in the same department. Officers searched their house and discovered that the Glynns, who’d been tipped off to Brandon Savio’s arrest by his wife, were hiding some of their neighbors’ belongings — two pounds of processed marijuana, four firearms and a large sum of money, according to a press release issued the following day. Officers also found that the Glynns had a growing operation of their own, with more than 500 marijuana plants, processed bud, packing materials, more firearms and more money.
The Glynns were placed on administrative leave the following Monday. They remained on paid leave for nine months and a week, earning more than $100,000 in salaries and benefits. Four months after their leaves ended, Gordon Glynn was sentenced to two years’ probation and the charges against Mari Glynn were dismissed. Neither is currently employed by the county.
Other cases remain a mystery. Humboldt County Airport Manager Jacquelyn Hulsey, for example, was placed on administrative leave from Oct. 3, 2011, through Jan. 28, 2012, and despite numerous inquiries the Journal couldn’t find out why (“Where’s the Airport Manager,” Dec. 22, 2011). Hulsey’s job performance has been criticized by former employees, business leaders and former members of the county’s Aviation Advisory Committee. Following an investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board blamed a miscommunication between Hulsey and one of her employees for causing a 12-hour delay in search-and-rescue efforts after a plane crashed off the coast of Trinidad in March 2009. The bodies of the two men on board that plane were never recovered (“The Plane That Wasn’t There,” Dec. 17, 2009).
Hulsey earned $32,770 in salary and benefits while on leave. She remains employed with the county.
As mentioned above, not everyone who has been placed on leave is suspected of misconduct. Last year, Jeannie Duncan, a legal business manager in the District Attorney’s Office, filed a claim for damages against the county, alleging that she was the victim of retaliation after complaining of sexual harassment and office misconduct, including “unlawful polygraph practices” and improper use of office resources and employee time for DA Paul Gallegos’ re-election campaign.
The county has yet to resolve Duncan’s claims. She’s been on leave for almost a year and a half, collecting $134,000 in salary and benefits.
No one the Journal spoke with could explain why the social services office has been placing more employees on leave than any other in the county. We sent an email through a county public information officer asking if Katherine Young, the county’s director of social services, could explain why 42 percent of employees placed on leave came from her branch. She sent a reply through the same public information officer, saying only, “Careful adherence to the terms of the MOU,” referring to the memorandum of understanding that dictates contract conditions that the county has to follow. But since the MOU applies to all county departments, this doesn’t really answer the question. We also asked to speak with DHHS Director Phillip Crandall but were referred back to Dan Fulks, the HR director.
Fulks said that the appeal process for disciplinary actions is different for employees in social services and child support services, under rules that apply statewide. Rather than being referred to an arbitrator, appeals from these two groups of employees are sent to an administrative law judge from the state’s department of personnel, aka CalHR. Fulks actually prefers dealing with administrative law judges. “I have much more objective decisions come from the ALJs,” he said. He didn’t indicate that this process should take any longer than arbitration.
On Dec. 13, 2011, three social services employees — former colleagues of Koopman and Musselman — were placed on administrative leave. One of them was office assistant Shannon Noonan, who, six months later, was arrested at her home by the Eureka Police Department. Officers were responding to reports that she was selling methamphetamine, and a search of the house turned up an ounce of crystal meth hidden in Noonan’s bedroom as well as bags and digital gram scales, according to the EPD.
Koopman and Musselman heard through the grapevine about Noonan’s arrest. Neither was exactly friends with Noonan (Musselman said Noonan once made false allegations against her). They knew she’d been on administrative leave, and they were curious to see what happened next, as were their friends. “Everybody was like, ‘Well, it’s a slam dunk. They’ve got to fire her now,'” Koopman recalled. But the county didn’t fire her. Not yet, anyway. She remains on leave, along with the two coworkers who were sent home the same day. “She’s still getting paid,” Koopman remarked. It has been four months since her arrest.
Lawlor, the union rep, said she appreciates that social services employees deal with sensitive issues like child protection and welfare, which makes it all the more important to ensure that these workers are trustworthy and competent. The county, she said, has “an obligation to make sure that all of the actions of the workers are above board. But it shouldn’t take ’em a year to do it.”
The money that the county spent paying people not to work during the 18-month stretch we examined — $706,106.23 — could have paid the salaries of 10 fulltime sheriff’s deputies over the same time period. Or seven public health nurses. Or 17 child care workers.
Last month, the county refused to grant a raise of 75 cents per hour to local in-home support services workers, who currently make minimum wage ($8 per hour) and receive no benefits, insurance, pension or sick time while caring for the community’s elderly, disabled and poor.
County officials, including DHHS Director Crandall, said the county was under too much financial pressure to grant the raise, which, according to the county’s own estimates, would cost $245,025 annually. If the county granted the workers’ request for another raise the following year — to $9.50 per hour — it would cost $490,051 annually. An independent fact-finding report looked into the matter and concluded that “the County clearly has the ability to pay the modest increases sought.” But in a closed session, the Board of Supervisors rejected the raise anyway.
If you do the math you’ll see that, for less than the county spent paying a few employees not to work, it could have given a raise of at least a dollar per hour to all 1,450 of the county’s in-home support services workers, who currently make sub-poverty wages.
But according to Fulks, this is just the way the system works. A report of wrongdoing comes in, and the county has a legal obligation to look into it. That takes time. “When I see a violation of the rules, I’m going to move forward and investigate it,” he said. “And the reason I do that is to protect the taxpayers’ dollars.”
But what about Koopman and Musselman, whose case dragged on for years and cost taxpayers $200,000? “Sounds like an important case then, doesn’t it?” he responded. Asked to elaborate, he just repeated himself. “Sounds like an important case then, doesn’t it?”
So, are huge expenses inevitable? “I would love to be able to tell you, ‘No, it’s not inevitable,'” Fulks said. “But the answer, I think, [is that] there will be a certain amount of paid administrative leaves that go into the future.”
Especially here in Humboldt County.
This article appears in ‘Don’t Bother Coming In’.
The resolution can be simple. First, fire Phil Crandall. Then, do a clean sweep of management at DHHS. Let the employees who want to work do their work.
Then give the IHSS workers their raise.
And come election time, ask every Supervisor why they’ve allowed this waste of county money by the worst department head on the entire planet.
This article was very informative on the amount of money wasted to pay employees who are out on leave due to the counties laziness to handle this and most situations adequately and quickly. Its pretty common! They lost one of the best employees when they lost Koopman. She resigned, she was not fired. Another “handshake” by the county to ensure Koopman would not fight the county at State level…which she would of won…HANDS DOWN! This entire situation started due to an employee who did not like Koopman. This employee stated and created lies to create havoc. This same employee happens to be the one of the three who is currently out on paid leave and who has been arrested for sales of meth! Go figure! As for not getting along with all my supervisors, this is not true! There was only one supervisor who I difficulty with since she had the inability to stand up for her employees…not just myself but all employees! Can anyone say, “Wuss”!
And as for employees who are arrested, if found gulity…such as dealing meth (Shannon Noonan) and would be terminated, do just that…terminate at time of arrest! I mean really, an ounce of meth was found in her bedroom along with scales…oh she’s innocent! It makes me wonder now if Noonan was person who left a line of meth in the women’s bathroom. (Cops were called to pick up.)
We are heading in a new and positive direction. As much as I will not complain about being paid for over 2-yrs (you should have seen my vacation paycheck), I understand the waste of money! I totally agree with the comment above about unloading Crandall! There are some really good supervisors/management at DHHS but there are the one that need to go! You all know who you are!
To clarify, I agree there are some good supervisors at DHHS. The problems there gets larger as the pay grade gets higher.
As an IHSS worker I agree that this is sickening. I help the elderly in our community and literally wipe ass for minimum wage, while other county workers are on paid vacation.
I agree…the problem does exist primarily (but not only) with the TajMahal (the professional building on 5th st ABOVE domino’s). Humboldt County Management has the interpretation they are untouchable and can do whatever they want with whoever they want! Most people don’t fight back due to fear of losing their job or inability to find another job in such a small county! I would love to see the numbers of employees out of disability due to the “stress” of all the BS that goes on in that department! This harassment/stress comes from the higher ups..directed to supervisors to harass an employee! Prior to my over 2-yr paid vaka, in my department, there were approx. 10 people out on disability due to stress! I loved my job…the most difficult thing about my job was dealing with all the politics and weak supervisors! Whats right is right! When the employee is right, supervisors..stand up! Don’t be such a pushover!
For Fulks comments: if our case was so important, you would think efforts to resolve this situation would have been priority…which apparently it wasn’t since we went months without any contact from the county! Over two years to be called back to work….gee whiz…that couldn’t have been figured out in the average 8-weeks like the other counties!!
thank the unions for this waste of money.
Bravo NCJ…this is the kind of community-interest reporting that wins subscriptions.
In response to the writer’s assertion that “private businesses just fire people”….this is exactly what the privatization movement adherents love to read!
Good luck filing a Public Records Act request against “Human Services Inc”!
The problem with many, not all, organizations is how top executive’s access to confidential information creates an environment of isolation that easily becomes an arrogance of personal “ownership” of the entity. Thus, employees are either team-players or they’re out! Employee due process rights are the only way employees feel safe to be whistle blowers.
Many of our local institutions, especially Humboldt State University are a treasure trove of similar cases where top execs ignore due process and tenure rights, using huge public settlements to eliminate perceived opponents.
Management claims its “efficient”, but the costs and risks are staggering. If management can make due-process ineffectual, institutional corruption is just a stone-throw away.
It’s back to the 1920’s….
Come on now, Mitch. Your personal animosity is making you stupid. Who thinks Phil Crandall puts people on administrative leave? Who thinks he determines how long an investigation takes, or how long the Human Resource director screws off with the paperwork? Anyone? Or maybe you think the county should fire people more quickly so that they can get sued for way more money than this, or keep people on the job during investigations so they can steal more public funds or whatever it is they’re doing. What we have here is a complicated situation given a simplistic treatment for the purposes of advancing an agenda that has nothing to do with the problem. That’s as true of Mitch as it is of Ryan Burns.
Well, I have had some personal feedback on this article so in turn, I would like to clarify. Yes, initially when I was put out on investigative paid leave I was upset, confused, and irritated. As I processed the situation and knowing I did absolutely nothing wrong….I waited patiently for the day to be called back to work, a day I knew would happen! And it did! I was called back to work and made an active decision not to return. So, as stated in the article, I was out partying and having a good time, that was to imply I was out moving forward with my life and refusing to allow the county to have control over my life since they believed they did. Not just my life but all of the people on that list. I worked at DHHS for about six/seven years and loved my job…it was the politics, lack of proper management, and BS that made the job difficult. The decision the investigation took so long and the decision to have everyone on the list paid while not working….belongs to the county! This entire situation was a result of mismanagement. And yes, I do recall Crandall’s signature being on documents I received during the investigation.
The main purpose of my involvement in this article was to bring insight to the mismanagement of the county, management, and monies. If other counties can resolve, on average, investigations in 8-wks, why can’t Humboldt!? I hope this article creates an investigation into the management and the decision making process….from an outside investigator!! I hope the changes that need to take place for Humboldt County do happen..and happen quickly!! Good Luck Humboldt County!
It’s good to see Phil Crandall has his defender. Too bad they’re so juvenile they think playing with someone’s name will impress people.
Hey Mitch….I wonder if that is Crandall responding! I wonder if they should call the IT guys in and check his computer for personal use! hahah
Hey maybe you could check, Dawn. Sounds like it would be your first contribution to society in eons.
Ha! You can thank the county for that and I am so sure you would have handled the situation differently!
It is very rare that an employee fights the institution and this is the only way to publicly expose the depths of mismanagement in top offices through subpoenas and depositions. However, when employees fight in court, most cases end in confidentiality settlements that seal the evidence of corruption and incompetence in exchange for much larger cash awards than what is exposed in this report, requiring tenacious investigative reporting,
The system is rigged for corruption.
Someone should at least submit this to the Grand Jury. A NCJ followup is unlikely.
“Litigation” is the right of every corporate and government entity to have their decade in court.
I formerly worked with DSM. She actually did her work and did it well. That she got to take a two year break: good for her. If you want to blame unions though, the union did not protect her. The fact is that DHHS has its own Employee Services Department. Phil has the power to hire/fire/and all the rest including those skelli hearings. Fulk should have said something. It is amazing he didn’t. Phil Crandell is a horrible person to work under. He makes decisions about the people who work under him without regard to any actual input from the people most effected. He is divisive and does not support them. He surrounds himself with psychophants. He maintains his job because through streamlining three depatments (Public Health/Social Services/Mental Health) he saves the county money– at the same time, the fact is that stream lining the programs the way he does dismisses a client centered approach and has caused greater problems with regard to homelessness and mental illness in our community. The Union isn’t the problem…The county’s personnel department’s allowance for DHHS to have their own Employee Services Department is one problem and the other is maintaining the problematic one stop shopping approach to these systems.
He probably did what bad CEO’s do everywhere: he created the illusion of saving money by making one number lower, knowing that the fools on the Board of Supervisors would not be capable of figuring out anything resembling the real bottom line.
The real bottom line includes the human disaster resulting from the lack of a functional Department of Health and Human Services.
One thousand people! A huge investment from the taxpayer in providing a safety net for the most vulnerable, all wasted because the people of this county don’t elect an intelligent and responsive group of people as Supervisors. We deserve Crandall, because we, essentially, elect him.
I don’t know about BT, Musselman, but I think most people have enough integrity not to do what you did. Not just me, not just some, but most. The story of your unappreciated good works for the county is the same story told by every jerk whose workplace genius goes unrecognized. Sounds like you should tie in with Mitch about that.
I hope the “personal feedback” you’ve gotten from this article includes some mention that the role you play in this story is that of an arrogant, entitled, bottom-feeder lacking even the ethics of a dirt clod who took took money she wasn’t entitled to and when that gravy train stopped running demanded more. It looks like the only thing your employment history has equipped you to do is apply for welfare. So good. We can continue supporting you for the rest of your life.
I know, I know: PARTY!!
Perhaps someday a Supervisor will demand a report on attrition rates at DHHS over Crandall’s term, as compared with attrition rates in departments in similar counties and in private enterprise. The cost of excess attrition alone is probably truly overwhelming.
I don’t that very seriously! Maybe a little arrogant since I knew I would be called back since this entire situation was BS. I understand your frustration! To think the county continued to pay me for what?? Funny how your frustration is towards me and not the county! So are you as frustrated with the rest of the folks who are on the list…..and have no control over the situation?? Now that is really funny!!
Those who stomp on the victims do so to feel better about their personal pain and unhappiness.
What’s the surprise over corrupt institutions abusing their access to public-funded attorneys, settlements, and excessive leaves, all thriving under the corrupt political system overseeing them?
ALAS: Thank you for being the word of wisdom in this terrible situation for the people of Humboldt County!
Wait. I never got the answer to the big question in this story – how do other counties keep their paid leave time so low? Comparing Humboldt to other counties is always hard to do because of the differences in our economies, property tax incomes, geography. The story says HumCo basically outsources it’s investigations and that a new guy took over human resources. Well, what do other counties do? Do they have the staff to carry out these investigations in house? How long have their HR people been in place? And what rules do other counties play by – what are their polices, procedures when it comes to discipline or investigations? Seems to me if you’re going to compare HumCo to other places, you’ve got to go beyond just population sizes.
great article, the big question is not Hum’s incompetent corrupt management relative to other counties but Hum’s corrupt incompetence.
Ryan you have just scratched the surface. I am sure the public would love to know more. You should compare org charts of administration at both DHHS and SSB from today and 3, 5, and 10 years ago and ask how was admin able to grow so much while denying IHSS workers raises?
How does Phil Crandall make more than the DA and only work 4 days a week?
WHAT?? Crandall only works 4-days a week!! First, I thought DHHS rescinded any/all 10-hr work shift for everyone! When a few folks applied for 4-10/hrs shift for childcare and family issues, they were denied due to all 4-10’s were no longer allowed!! Wow! Guess that didn’t apply to Crandall! While being out on paid leave, it was difficult to schedule a meeting with Crandall due to his schedule….now it makes perfect sense!!
Thanks for some solid reporting Ryan. Keep moving the bar up!
I’ve always been curious how the relatives and friends of Humboldt County’s oldest/wealthiest families always manage to cycle through top posts of local government agencies, departments, commissions, and committees.
You’d think it was Washington, D.C.!
I’m posting as Anonymous due to ongoing litigation.
I was employed @ DHHS years ago. I was unfortunately criminally assaulted & injured by a patient while preforming my professional duties.
Yet, instead of receiving proper medical treatment & some understanding; I was terminated from employment, demonized, & thrown under the bus by Crandall & DHHS.
Crandall, DHHS, & the Eureka police department covered up that crime. No arrest/charges were ever made.
This was even though I was asked at the time of the assault by responding officers if I wished to press charges (I responded that I did)…Fact: these same officers never even filed a report of responding to the incident …???
It’s evident that Crandall’s DHHS places pre-charged & current offenders under mental health evaluations @ semperviren instead of booking them into county jail.
This obviously creates a very dangerous situation for both employees and non-criminal patients in that non-secure environment.
Just another one of those hidden DHHS agenda’s with no public transparency?
This appears like more orchestrated financial scamming; instead of the cost of jailing suspected criminals; Crandall, DHHS, & the County are charging Medi-Cal & insurance companies for labeling offenders mentally Unhygienic.
So, instead of being criminally charged, going to jail, & going to court; many of these offenders are being released back into the community without any charges ever being filed after passing through Crandall’s labeling machine.
Gallegos & the Police department appear to be going along with this scheme, since it saves them MONEY. It also relieves them of those pesky jail or prosecution burdens/responsibilities.
The only ones that lose of course; are those employees & innocent citizens that become victimized & then re-victimized by this poorly conceived scheme.
There should be an independent investigation of these mounting numbers of dubious practices involving public officials. The greater public citizenry must have better transparency & reasonable levels of trust from our supposed public servants.
Have they somehow forgotten who they work for?
How does Crandall & other county management level cronies make more than the maximum allowed salary for their delegated positions in these times of severe budget cuts & direct service employee layoffs?
There are so many questions & so much stonewalling; yet so few answers.
Why?
Does Humboldt County have to become the next “Bell” fiasco before pertinent action is taken?
Great article. You could do an expose on this monthly for a year and barely begin to scratch the surface. The problem w/ DHHS is that it brings in 10’s of millions of dollars from the state and federal coffers. A lot of that money is used to staff unnecessary upper management positions (think Program Mangers that don’t mange any programs or the # of instances that there are 4 Supervisors to manage a staff of 6 employees.. There is no incentive for Mr. Crandall to care about the output of services rendered if the money keeps flowing in. That’s why there is no concern for the conctant turnover. Then there are the few mid level mangers that care about the product that they put out, but are railroaded anytime they speak against what the “administration” wants. If you want to succeed in DHHS employment you go w/ the flow; no exceptions. The Grand Jury should take a serious look at how the monies are being allocated w/in DHHS. It might also be worth their time to talk to staff down at Koster St. to find out how many times they have been instructed to fudge the truth, or out and out lie about a clients situation in order to keep said clients revealing aid (more clients receiving aid, the more money Phil brings in from the fed and state). I’d also look at how may of those damned RV’s the county sinks $400,000 a pop into that sit in the parking lot and never leave. Just heard they’re looking at buying another for the sole reason that if they don’t spend the money, they won’t get it next year. And one last suggestion, look at how many of Mr. Crandalls ex-Secretaries are now in positions which they have little to no qualifications to be in.
I am an IHSS Homecare Provider.
I have been asking the Board of Supervisors to take charge of their staff, (Mr Crandall) and find the money to give Homecare Providers a raise.
It is not like we are asking for much. We have never had a raise in over 2 decades.
DHHS is paying people to NOT come to work? GIVE ME A BREAK.
Write or call your Supervisor, or come to the Board of Supervisors meetings on Tuesdays at 1:30 at the courthouse. Tell them to Have a Heart for Homecare Providers.
I enjoyed reading this article which was very informative but what about some of the less obvious waste of taxpayer dollars. I wonder what it costs to hire a person, only to have them quit the first week because they were told untruths about the work environment and conditions of the job. What about the cost of the physical, the back ground check, the back x-ray(required), the drug test…oh wait a minute, the county does not drug test it’s employees, not even those working in a healthcare setting with access to medications and narcotics. Then there are the faithful employees that show up on time and display dedication and a good work ethic over many months/years and are summarily fired because they are just “extra help” employees and are easy to use as scapegoats. Why fix a broken system when you can blame the employee, fire them and take no responsibility for your own ineptitude as an employer/mis-manager? Why are so many put on administrative leave without so much as a conversation with the involved to discover the actual truth of the accusation? Why are false accusations and rumors which destroy careers tolerated by the county? How can so many managers of people be in positions over so many and be so ill suited to actually manage those people they supervise?? Its a mystery and I venture to say this mystery costs the taxpayers many more thousands or perhaps millions than we know.
I have been reading this thread and fuming over the information. I was hired as a social service aide for IHSS in July of 2011. I was discharged one day before my probation ended and was not given a reason why. I didn’t have any disciplinary actions taken against me and I had a good mid-evaluation. I resonated with clients and co-workers. I think I was a very good employee, I even received accolades from fellow employees. I have been struggling to make ends meet ever since I was discharged from the county. It is disheartening and frustrating to read about corrupt management and others who violate rules/regulations/boundaries, yet they still have jobs and are paid for staying home. What a nightmare!