Report 2023-112 Recommendation 4 Responses

Report 2023-112: Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program: The California Department of Housing and Community Development Must Improve Its Oversight of the Program (Release Date: December 2023)

Recommendation #4 To: Housing and Community Development, Department of

To ensure that LSPs are providing complainants with timely and effective services, HCD should, by March 2024, amend the LSP contracts and require the LSPs to provide complainants copies of invoices specific to their complaints.

6-Month Agency Response

HCD is unable to implement this recommendation as described,but will take action to ensure that LSPs are providing complainants with timely and effective services. Original LSP contracts expired in 2024; seven of the ten contracts were extended for one-year. The extended contracts will expire in 2025 and under contract rules may not change the scope of work or add additional required deliverables. HCD is in the process of updating regulations and will solicit new legal service contracts through the 2027 sunset date of the program. For increased transparency, HCD will include provisions in the new contracts requiring LSPs to provide complainants copies of invoices specific to their complaints upon request.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Will Not Implement

We disagree that HCD is unable to implement this recommendation. As we identified in our report, the State Contracting Manual does permit HCD to amend its existing LSP contracts.

60-Day Agency Response

HCD will accept the risk of not implementing this recommendation because current contracts expire in 2024 and HCD has taken action to extend current contracts by one-year to provide continuity of services while soliciting new legal service contracts through 2027. Current contracts allow amendments of up to one-year extensions; this recommended amendment expanding the scope of work of the contracts would require a completely new solicitation or use of the NCB process resulting in a lapse of service to complainants. HCD will consider adding the provision requiring LSPs to provide complainants copies of invoices specific to their complaints into the solicitation package of future contracts but implementing this recommendation as written would create additional risks without providing enhanced improvements

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Will Not Implement

Although HCD indicated that it will not implement this recommendation, as we identified in our report we believe that HCD can seek to amend its existing contracts. In fact, we noted in our report that the HCD contracts with the LSPs specifically allow for amendments so long as the amendments comply with the State Contracting Manual (SCM). The SCM permits amendments to contracts as long as the amendment complies with specific criteria, such as occurring before the expiration of the original contract and, in some cases, receiving approval from the Department of General Services, among other requirements.

All Recommendations in 2023-112

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.