2015-041 - Status of Recommendations - Table 2

2. To demonstrate its willingness to fairly evaluate regional expenditures, Education should allow San Joaquin to reimburse its general fund for the vehicle purchase Education incorrectly disallowed.

3. To improve its understanding of regional expenditures, Education should increase the level of detail required in its quarterly expenditure reports. The level of detail should allow Education to select expenditures for review.

4. For regions that have not recently received a federal monitoring review, Education should use the detailed expenditure reports to select a sample of expenditures, request supporting documentation from the regions, and then review the expenditures to determine if they meet applicable federal and state criteria.

5. As part of the reviews based on quarterly reports, Education should verify that regions are using the appropriate accounting codes to classify their expenditures.

11. Once it has addressed the underlying issues with regional accounting, provided direction to regions about which expenditures it will consider administrative, and obtained accurate expenditure data, Education should review its administrative cost goal to ensure that this goal is reasonable given the requirements of the migrant program.

12. To address past federal findings that are not yet resolved, Education should respond as recommended in Appendix B of this report.

13. To determine if the statewide migrant education program is effective, Education should finalize its current evaluation of the program and begin developing the capacity to produce a more robust annual evaluation of the program.

14. To address a lack of detailed migrant program service and outcome data, Education should either expand the capabilities of its existing statewide databases or implement additional systems that would allow regions to capture more detailed data about migrant students.

17. To provide stronger leadership with respect to school safety and nondiscrimination laws, Education, with direction from the superintendent of public instruction, should prioritize the review of parent, student, guardian, or interested party appeals to ensure that the EO office follows state regulations by processing appeals more promptly, notifying LEAs of when appeals are filed, and obtaining the investigation files and other documents when reviewing complaint appeals.

19. To provide stronger leadership with respect to school safety and nondiscrimination laws, Education, with direction from the superintendent of public instruction, should use data from the kids survey and reported suspensions and expulsions to evaluate the levels of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying students encounter and to determine the effectiveness of its own and the LEAs' efforts, and report the results to the Legislature by August 1, 2014.

21. To provide stronger leadership with respect to school safety and nondiscrimination laws, Education, with direction from the superintendent of public instruction, should within the next six months and annually thereafter, update and replace the resources on its Web site to provide more relevant information on best practices, such as preventing and responding to incidents related to a protected characteristic or that occur through cyberbullying, the U.S. DOE report on state bullying legislation, and best practices in other states, such as the Massachusetts law on LEA staff training requirements.

1. To make its strategic plan a more useful mechanism for accomplishing its mission, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (commission) should ensure that, to the extent possible, its goals have timelines and are measureable. Further, the commission should periodically evaluate and track its progress towards meeting its goals.

8. To help ensure that university faculty and staff do not mishandle student reports of incidents, all faculty and staff should receive training annually, consistent with their role, on their obligations in responding to and reporting incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence.

20. All universities should provide their education on sexual harassment and sexual violence to incoming students as close as possible to when they arrive on campus but no later than the first few weeks of their first semester or quarter. Further, universities should provide periodic refresher educational programs, at least annually, to all students on campus to ensure that they are aware of how to handle and report incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence.

24. All universities should provide supplemental training on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including sexual assault, for all student athletes on an annual basis. Further, the universities should provide supplemental training on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including rape awareness, to all student members of fraternities and sororities on an annual basis. The universities should also determine which student organizations participate in activities that may place students at risk and ensure that they receive annual, supplemental training on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including rape awareness. Each of the trainings should be focused on situations the members of the respective student groups may encounter.

58. All universities should ensure that the differences between an informal or early resolution process and a formal investigation process are clearly explained to ensure that students know what to expect from each process. Further, they should explain that students whose cases are being handled under an informal or early resolution process have the right to move to a formal process at any time.

70. To identify ways to better serve their students, all universities should create a summary of student incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence reported to the various departments on campus. Each university should evaluate its summary data to identify trends specific to the demographics, as well as the timing, location, and frequency of incidents, to better inform its strategies to protect students and direct its outreach efforts.

4. The Office of the Chancellor should direct all of the universities within the CSU system to comply with the recommendations in this audit report. Also, to ensure that its universities are complying with Title IX requirements, the Office of the Chancellor should conduct routine Title IX reviews. When conducting these compliance reviews, the Office of the Chancellor should determine whether universities have implemented this report's recommendations.

4. Within six months of the date the Legislature clarifies its intent regarding California Education Code, Section 89708, the Chancellor's Office should develop and issue final guidance to campuses regarding supplanting, including identifying appropriate oversight mechanisms for ensuring campuses' compliance with this law.

18. All universities should provide their education on sexual harassment and sexual violence to incoming students as close as possible to when they arrive on campus but no later than the first few weeks of their first semester or quarter. Further, universities should provide periodic refresher educational programs, at least annually, to all students on campus to ensure that they are aware of how to handle and report incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence.

68. To identify ways to better serve their students, all universities should create a summary of student incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence reported to the various departments on campus. Each university should evaluate its summary data to identify trends specific to the demographics, as well as the timing, location, and frequency of incidents, to better inform its strategies to protect students and direct its outreach efforts.

1. To ensure that colleges receive consistent and fair treatment and are able to address deficiencies, the chancellor's office should work with the community colleges and request clearer guidance from the commission regarding what actions would allow for the full two-year period in which to remediate concerns and what actions would constitute good cause for extending the time an institution has to address deficiencies beyond two years. In doing so, the chancellor's office should also encourage the commission to specify in its policies those scenarios under which it would exercise the good cause exception so that institutions would have a better understanding of when they might reasonably expect additional time to address deficiencies.

2. To ensure that community colleges and the public are fully informed regarding the accreditation process, the chancellor's office should assist community colleges in communicating their concerns to the commission regarding its transparency and in developing proposals for improving the commission's transparency policies and practices. The chancellor's office should also encourage the commission to publish policies describing the role of its staff in the commission's decision-making processes.

3. To make certain that institutions receive fair treatment in appealing decisions that terminate their accreditation, the chancellor's office should work with the community colleges to advocate that the commission change certain aspects of its appeal process. Specifically, in keeping with the spirit of accreditation, when institutions have taken steps to correct deficiencies that led to the decision to terminate accreditation, the institutions should be allowed to have information on those corrections heard as evidence in their appeal. Further, the commission president's involvement in selecting the appeal panel's counsel should be revisited.

4. To strengthen institutions' understanding of what they must do to comply with standards, and to provide them with the opportunity to address certain issues that could jeopardize their compliance, the chancellor's office, in collaboration with the community colleges, should encourage the commission to develop formal opportunities for institutions to communicate with and receive feedback from the commission on institutional self-studies and other reports before a formal evaluation takes place. In doing so, the chancellor's office should consider the practices of other regional accreditors and identify those that would best meet the needs of California's community colleges.

5. Community colleges, as members of the commission, should communicate their concerns about and ideas for improvement of training on the accreditation process to the commission. To provide assurance to colleges that they may suggest this information freely, the chancellor's office should coordinate communication between the commission and the colleges. Further, in order to build collegial relationships, engage new people in the accreditation process, and extend additional training to those already involved in accreditation, the chancellor's office should encourage the commission to develop an annual conference focused on accreditation and oversight.

7. To allow colleges flexibility in choosing an accreditor, the chancellor's office should identify other accreditors who are able to accredit California community colleges or who would be willing to change their scopes to do so.

8. To allow colleges flexibility in choosing an accreditor, the chancellor's office should assess the potential costs, risks, and feasibility of creating a new independent accreditor.

9. To help ensure that university faculty and staff do not mishandle student reports of incidents, all faculty and staff should receive training annually, consistent with their role, on their obligations in responding to and reporting incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence.

21. All universities should provide their education on sexual harassment and sexual violence to incoming students as close as possible to when they arrive on campus but no later than the first few weeks of their first semester or quarter. Further, universities should provide periodic refresher educational programs, at least annually, to all students on campus to ensure that they are aware of how to handle and report incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence.

25. All universities should provide supplemental training on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including sexual assault, for all student athletes on an annual basis. Further, the universities should provide supplemental training on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including rape awareness, to all student members of fraternities and sororities on an annual basis. The universities should also determine which student organizations participate in activities that may place students at risk and ensure that they receive annual, supplemental training on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including rape awareness. Each of the trainings should be focused on situations the members of the respective student groups may encounter.

59. All universities should ensure that the differences between an informal or early resolution process and a formal investigation process are clearly explained to ensure that students know what to expect from each process. Further, they should explain that students whose cases are being handled under an informal or early resolution process have the right to move to a formal process at any time.

71. To identify ways to better serve their students, all universities should create a summary of student incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence reported to the various departments on campus. Each university should evaluate its summary data to identify trends specific to the demographics, as well as the timing, location, and frequency of incidents, to better inform its strategies to protect students and direct its outreach efforts.

7. To help ensure that university faculty and staff do not mishandle student reports of incidents, all faculty and staff should receive training annually, consistent with their role, on their obligations in responding to and reporting incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence.

19. All universities should provide their education on sexual harassment and sexual violence to incoming students as close as possible to when they arrive on campus but no later than the first few weeks of their first semester or quarter. Further, universities should provide periodic refresher educational programs, at least annually, to all students on campus to ensure that they are aware of how to handle and report incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence.

69. To identify ways to better serve their students, all universities should create a summary of student incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence reported to the various departments on campus. Each university should evaluate its summary data to identify trends specific to the demographics, as well as the timing, location, and frequency of incidents, to better inform its strategies to protect students and direct its outreach efforts.

1. To address the variations in per student funding of its campuses, the university should complete its reexamination of the base budgets to the campuses and implement appropriate changes to its budget process. As part of its reexamination of the base budget, it should:
• Identify the amount of general funds and tuition budget revenues that each campus receives for specific types of students (such as undergraduate, graduate, and health sciences) and explain any differences in the amount provided per student among the campuses.
• Consider factors such as specific research and public service programs at each campus, the higher level of funding provided to health sciences students, historical funding methods that favored graduate students, historical and anticipated future variations in enrollment growth funding, and any other factors applied consistently across campuses.
• After accounting for the factors mentioned above, address any remaining variations in campus funding over a specified period of time.
• Make the results of its reexamination and any related implementation plan available to stakeholders, including the general public.

8. To ensure that campuses do not inappropriately use revenues generated from student fees imposed by referenda, the university should ensure that it, the regents, and the campuses do not expand the uses for such revenues beyond those stated in the referenda.

23. To address the improper acts we identified, the university should collect $1,802 from the official for the wasteful expenses he claimed for lodging and meals during his trip to England, the expenses he incurred within the vicinity of his headquarters, and the business meal expenses.

27. The university should revise policies to establish defined maximum limits for the reimbursement of domestic lodging costs and establish controls that allow for exceptions to the limits under specific circumstances only.

5. The Office of the President should direct all of the universities within the UC system to comply with the recommendations in this audit report. Also, to ensure that its universities are complying with Title IX requirements, the Office of the President should conduct routine Title IX reviews. When conducting these compliance reviews, the Office of the President should determine whether universities have implemented this report's recommendations.

49. The Office of the President should clarify in the UC policies that a complainant must have and be informed about the right to end the early resolution process at any time and request that his or her complaint be handled under the university's formal process.

51. The Office of the President should clarify in the UC policies that if university officials approve an extension to an investigative timeline, the extension should be restricted to a single extension of no more than 30 days, except in limited circumstances that are beyond the university's control.

2. To comply with federal requirements, Covered California should develop a plan and procedures for monitoring, recertification, and decertification of qualified health plans.

3. To ensure the success of its outreach effort, Covered California should track the effect on enrollment figures of its planned outreach and marketing activities and of its assister program.

4. To ensure financial sustainability, Covered California should conduct regular reviews of enrollment, costs, and revenue and make prompt adjustments to its financial sustainability plan as necessary.

1. To ensure that consumers receive high-quality, cost-effective services that meet the goals of their individual development plans (IPPs) consistent with state law, Developmental Services should require the regional centers to document the basis of any IPP-related vendor selection and specify which comparable vendors (when available) were evaluated.

2. To ensure that consumers receive high-quality, cost-effective services that meet the goals of their IPPs consistent with state law, Developmental Services should review a representative sample of this documentation as part of its biennial waiver reviews or fiscal audits to ensure that regional centers are complying with state law—and particularly with the July 2009 amendment requiring selection of the least costly available provider of comparable service.

3. To ensure adequate guidance to OPS personnel, once the department has amended OPS's policies and procedures to reflect the recommendations we have included here, the department and OPS should place a high priority on completing and implementing its planned updates to the OPS policy and procedure manual.

11. To minimize the need for overtime, the department should reassess its minimum staffing requirements, hire a sufficient number of employees to cover these requirements, and examine its employee scheduling processes.

13. The department should create specific measurable goals for OPS that include existing and new measures associated with each one, such as staffing, overtime, and the timely completion of investigations. In addition, the department should perform a regular review of the quality of OPS's activities and investigations to achieve those goals. The department should track progress in quality measures over time and adjust its training plans to increase OPS law enforcement personnel's skill and compliance with established policies and procedures.

2. To ensure that Medi-Cal recipients receive timely access to prescribed drugs, Health Care Services should abolish its policy of responding to drug TARs by the end of the next business day and should instead ensure that prior-authorization requests to dispense drugs are processed within the legally mandated 24-hour period. Alternatively, it should seek formal authorization from CMS to deviate from the 24-hour requirement, and should seek a similar modification to state law. In addition, Health Care Services should begin recording the actual time it receives paper TARs so that it can begin to measure accurately its processing times.

3. To ensure that Medi-Cal recipients are receiving timely medical services from providers, Health Care Services should start tracking prior-authorization medical TARs separately and should ensure that such TARs are processed within an average of five working days. Although state law and regulations specifically require prior authorization for certain medical services, Health Care Services generally does not require prior authorizations in practice. Consequently, Health Care Services should seek legislation to update existing laws and amend its regulations to render them consistent with its TAR practices.

1. To the extent that Public Health continues to fund its various contracts, it should establish clearer expectations with its contractors concerning how much money is to be spent directly on the different aspects of the EWC program and should monitor spending to confirm that these expectations are being met.

2. To ensure better public transparency and accountability for how the EWC program is administered, Public Health should comply with state law to develop regulations, based on input from the public and interested parties, that will direct how Public Health administers the EWC program. At a minimum, such regulations should define the eligibility criteria for women seeking access to EWC screening services.

4. Caltrans, the Energy Commission, Food and Agriculture, and Health Care Services should put in writing those policies and procedures related to intellectual property that they believe are necessary and appropriate to enable their staff to identify, manage, and protect their intellectual property.

6. Health Care Services should ensure that it performs annual medical audits of local initiatives as required by law.

2. To ensure that it monitors counties to the fullest extent as the MHSA specifies and that it implements best practices, Health Care Services should conduct comprehensive on-site reviews of county MHSA programs, including verifying county compliance with MHSA requirements.

3. To ensure that counties have the needed guidance to implement and evaluate their MHSA programs, Health Care Services should coordinate with the Accountability Commission and issue guidance or regulations, as appropriate, for Facilities programs and for other MHSA requirements, such as a prudent reserve.

5. To ensure that counties have the needed guidance to implement and evaluate their MHSA programs, Health Care Services should collaborate with the Accountability Commission to develop and issue guidance or regulations, as appropriate, to counties on how to effectively evaluate and report on the performance of their MHSA programs.

6. To ensure that Health Care Services and other state entities can evaluate MHSA programs and assist the Accountability Commission in its efforts, Health Care Services should collect complete and relevant MHSA data from the counties.

7. To ensure that Health Care Services and other state entities can evaluate MHSA programs and assist the Accountability Commission in its efforts, Health Care Services should resolve all known technical issues with the partnership and client services systems and provide adequate and expert resources to manage the systems going forward.

18. Health Care Services should develop standardized data collection guidelines or regulations, as appropriate, that will address inconsistencies in the data that counties report to the State. In developing these guidelines or regulations, Health Care Services should consult with the Accountability Commission to ensure that data collected reasonably fulfill statewide evaluation purposes.

19. To help ensure county compliance with stakeholder regulations, Health Care Services should provide technical assistance to counties on the MHSA local planning review process and ensure that its guidance to counties is clear and consistent with state regulations.

1. To ensure that the providers receive reimbursement for only valid services, Health Care Services should immediately coordinate with the appropriate counties to recover inappropriate payments to ineligible providers and for services purportedly rendered to deceased beneficiaries.

2. To ensure that the providers receive reimbursement for only valid services, Health Care Services should immediately develop and implement new procedures for routinely identifying and initiating recovery efforts for payments that it authorizes between the effective date of a provider's decertification and the date it became aware of the decertification, in addition to the payments it authorizes between a beneficiary's death date and its receipt of the death record.

3. To ensure that the providers receive reimbursement for only valid services, Health Care Services should immediately direct its investigations division to determine whether it authorized any improper payments to program providers for deceased beneficiaries outside of our audit period. It should also determine whether it authorized such payments through its other Medi-Cal programs. Health Care Services should initiate efforts to recover such payments as appropriate.

4. To ensure that the providers receive reimbursement for only valid services, Health Care Services should immediately direct its investigations division to determine whether it should recover any overpayments for the high-risk payments we identified in Table 7 on page 28 and Appendix A beginning on page 63. It should also take the appropriate disciplinary action against the affected providers, such as suspension or termination.

6. To ensure that the providers receive reimbursement for only valid services, Health Care Services should immediately direct its fiscal management and accountability branch to work with Fresno, Los Angeles, and Sacramento counties to recover the specific overpayments we identified during our visits.

10. To ensure that the providers receive reimbursement for only valid services, Health Care Services should immediately ensure that Los Angeles County strengthens its provider contract monitoring process, including fully implementing its RATE system to track and respond to provider deficiencies, and that it imposes appropriate responses when warranted, such as withholding payment or suspending or terminating a contract.

18. To prevent the certification of ineligible providers, Health Care Services should immediately ensure that its enrollment division conducts LEIE and EPLS database searches of program providers at least monthly.

20. To prevent the certification of ineligible providers, Health Care Services should immediately establish a mechanism to identify the number of program sites the provider applicants' medical directors work at, and ensure that the physician ratio does not exceed 1-to-3 in accordance with state law and the certification standards.

21. To prevent the certification of ineligible providers, Health Care Services should immediately identify and perform an immediate recertification of providers that signed the Compliance Agreement to ensure that these providers are currently meeting all program requirements.

24. To prevent the certification of ineligible providers, Health Care Services should immediately develop a schedule for recertifying all program providers every five years.

25. To prevent the certification of ineligible providers, Health Care Services should immediately continue its implementation of an automated provider enrollment system.

26. To prevent the certification of ineligible providers, Health Care Services should immediately complete its program recertification on or before March 24, 2016, as federal regulations require.

27. To prevent the certification of ineligible providers, Health Care Services should immediately establish a plan for eliminating its backlog of applications for new sites and services and changes to existing certifications.

33. To improve the coordination between its divisions, branches, and units and ensure that it addresses allegations of fraud in a timely manner, Health Care Services should fully implement the investigations division's recommendations shown in Appendix B. If it chooses not to implement a recommendation, it should document sufficiently the reasons for its decision.

9. To ensure that counties have needed guidance to implement and evaluate MHSA programs, the Accountability Commission should issue regulations, as appropriate, for Prevention and Innovation programs.

11. To fulfill its charge to evaluate MHSA programs, the Accountability Commission should undertake the evaluations specified in its implementation plan.

1. To ensure that citation review conferences are completed expeditiously, Public Health should continue to take steps to eliminate its backlog of appeals awaiting a citation review conference.

2. To increase revenue for the penalty accounts, Public Health should seek legislation authorizing it to revise periodically the penalty amounts to reflect an inflation indicator, such as the CPI.

3. To increase revenue for the penalty accounts, Public Health should ensure that it conducts all state surveys of facilities every two years, as required by state law.

4. To ensure that it complies with current state law and increases transparency, Public Health should adopt regulations for the administration of temporary management companies.

5. To increase revenue for the state account, Public Health should seek legislation authorizing it to require facilities that want to contest the monetary penalty to pay the penalty upon its appeal which could then be deposited into an account within the special deposit fund. The original monetary penalty deposited, plus interest accrued in the account, should then be liquidated in accordance with the terms of the decision.

6. To ensure consistency with federal guidance related to federal requirements, and that it is not creating incentives for facilities to appeal citations issued for noncompliance with state requirements, Public Health should provide guidance to its staff that discourages settling appealed monetary penalties for a better term than had the facility not contested the citation and paid the penalty within the time frame specified in law to receive a 35 percent reduction. If Public Health believes instances occur when it is appropriate to reduce a monetary penalty by more than 35 percent, it should document which statutory or regulatory factors that formed the basis for concluding that the original class of citation and corresponding monetary penalty amount were no longer considered valid or relevant.

7. To increase revenue for the penalty accounts, Public Health should seek legislation specifying a time frame within which facilities with nonappealed citations that do not qualify for a 35 percent reduction must pay their monetary penalties and allowing Public Health to collect interest on late payments of monetary penalties.

15. To conduct licensing surveys at required intervals while minimizing additional workload, Public Health should explore further opportunities to coordinate the licensing and certification surveys. If Public Health questions the value of these surveys, it should seek legislation to modify the surveying requirements.

17. To ensure that investigations are conducted on a timely basis across priority levels, Public Health should develop and implement target time frames for the priority levels that lack them. Public Health should ensure that the timelines are being met and, if not, explore new ways to increase efficiency and manage its workload, thereby facilitating timely investigations.

18. To improve its enforcement, each year Public Health should evaluate the effectiveness of its enforcement system across all types of health facilities, including those in developmental centers, prepare the required annual report, and, if called for, recommend legislation to improve the enforcement system and enhance the quality of care.

1. To protect the health, safety, and well-being of residents in long-term health care facilities, Public Health should improve its oversight of complaint processing. Specifically, by January 1, 2015, Public Health should establish and implement a formal process for monitoring the status and progress in resolving open facility-related complaints and ERIs at all district offices. This process should include periodically reviewing a report of open complaints and ERIs to ensure that all complaints and ERIs are addressed promptly.

2. To protect the health, safety, and well-being of residents in long-term health care facilities, Public Health should improve its oversight of complaint processing. Specifically, by January 1, 2015, Public Health should improve the accuracy of information in the spreadsheet that PCB uses to track the status of complaints against individuals and review the reports of open complaints to ensure that all complaints are addressed promptly.

3. To protect the health, safety, and well-being of residents in long-term health care facilities, Public Health should improve its oversight of complaint processing. Specifically, by May 1, 2015, Public Health should establish a specific time frame for completing facility-related complaint investigations and ERI investigations and inform staff of the expectation that they will meet the time frame. Public Health should also require district offices to provide adequate, documented justification whenever they fail to meet this time frame.

4. To protect the health, safety, and well-being of residents in long-term health care facilities, Public Health should improve its oversight of complaint processing. Specifically, by May 1, 2015, Public Health should develop formal written policies and procedures for PCB to process complaints about certified individuals in a timely manner. These policies and procedures should include specific time frames for prioritizing and assigning complaints to investigators, for initiating investigations, and for completing the investigations. Public Health should also inform staff of the expectation that they will meet these time frames. It should require PCB to provide adequate, documented justification whenever PCB fails to meet the time frames.

5. To ensure that district offices address ERIs consistently and to ensure that they investigate ERIs in the most efficient manner, Public Health should assess whether each district office is appropriately prioritizing ERIs. Specifically, it should determine, on a district-by-district basis, whether district offices' assigning ERIs a priority level that requires an on-site visit is justified. This assessment should also determine whether each district office is prioritizing ERIs appropriately when determining that on-site investigations are not necessary.

6. To ensure that district offices address ERIs consistently and to ensure that they investigate ERIs in the most efficient manner, Public Health should use the information from its assessment to provide guidance to district offices by October 1, 2015, on best practices for consistent and efficient processing of ERIs.

7. To ensure that district offices address ERIs consistently and to ensure that they investigate ERIs in the most efficient manner, Public Health should review periodically a sample of the priorities that district offices assign to ERIs to ensure compliance with best practices.

8. To protect the residents in long-term health care facilities from potential harm, Public Health should ensure that its district offices have adequate staffing levels for its licensing and certification responsibilities, including staffing levels that allow prompt investigations of complaints. Specifically, Public Health should continue working with CalHR to complete the reclassification of district offices' investigator supervisor and manager positions and then quickly fill the vacant positions at district offices.

9. To protect the residents in long-term health care facilities from potential harm, Public Health should ensure that its district offices have adequate staffing levels for its licensing and certification responsibilities, including staffing levels that allow prompt investigations of complaints. Specifically, Public Health should complete by May 1, 2015, a staffing assessment to identify the resources necessary for district offices to investigate open complaints and ERIs and to promptly address new complaints on an ongoing basis. Public Health should use this assessment to request additional resources, if necessary.

10. To protect the residents in long-term health care facilities from potential harm, Public Health should ensure that its district offices have adequate staffing levels for its licensing and certification responsibilities, including staffing levels that allow prompt investigations of complaints. Specifically, by January 1, 2015, Public Health should establish a time frame for fully implementing the recommendations that its consultant identified related to the processing of complaints about long-term health care facilities.

11. Public Health should take steps to ensure that PCB has the resources necessary on an ongoing basis to complete investigations of complaints against individuals. Specifically, Public Health should assess whether the temporary resources it has received are adequate to reduce the number of open complaints to a manageable level. This assessment should also determine whether permanent resources assigned to PCB are adequate to address future complaints. Public Health should use this assessment to request additional resources, if necessary.

12. To ensure that its district offices properly investigate complaints and ERIs, Public Health should make certain that all district offices follow procedures requiring supervisory review and approval of complaint and ERI investigations. If the district offices do not have a sufficient number of supervisors to review investigations they did not conduct, Public Health should arrange to assist the districts until such time that they do have a sufficient number of supervisors.

13. To make certain that its district offices comply with federal requirements regarding corrective action plans, Public Health should establish a process for its headquarters or regional management to inspect district office records periodically to confirm that they are obtaining corrective action plans according to the required time frame and verifying that facilities have performed the corrective actions described in the plans when required.

14. To ensure that it has closed complaints and ERIs appropriately, Public Health should take steps by April 2015 to verify that complaints that its field operations branch closed administratively were closed appropriately. For example, it could request the district offices to verify that the closures were appropriate.

16. To better protect the safety of residents in long-term health care facilities, Public Health should direct its district offices to comply with required time frames for initiating and closing completed investigations. If a district office lacks sufficient resources to initiate or close investigations within those time frames, Public Health should arrange to assist that district until such time that the district complies with the statute.

17. To make certain that it complies with statutory time frames for adjudicating appeals related to individuals, Public Health should establish a process to monitor its contractor's performance with contract terms.

2. To make certain that counties receive the greatest benefit from the resources they spend on antifraud efforts related to CalWORKs and food stamp cases, Social Services should, using the results from the recommended cost-effectiveness analysis, determine why some counties' efforts to combat welfare fraud are more cost-effective than others.

3. To make certain that counties receive the greatest benefit from the resources they spend on antifraud efforts related to CalWORKs and food stamp cases, Social Services should seek to replicate the most cost-effective practices among all counties.

4. To make certain that counties receive the greatest benefit from the resources they spend on antifraud efforts related to CalWORKs and food stamp cases, Social Services should continue to address the recommendations of the steering committee and promptly act on the remaining recommendations

7. To ensure the accuracy and consistency of the information on welfare fraud activities that counties report and that Social Services subsequently reports to the federal government, the Legislature, and internal users, Social Services should continue with regular meetings of its workgroup to further its efforts to clarify its instructions for completing the counties' investigation activity reports.

8. To ensure that counties are consistently following up on all match lists, Social Services should remind counties of their responsibility under state regulations to follow up diligently on all match lists. Further, it should work with counties to determine why poor follow-up exists and address those reasons.

9. To ensure that counties are consistently following up on all match lists, Social Services should revive its efforts to work with counties and federal agencies to address the counties' concerns about match list formats and criteria.

10. Social Services should track how counties determine prosecution thresholds for welfare fraud cases and determine the effects of these thresholds on counties' decisions to investigate potential fraud, with a focus on determining best practices and cost-effective methods. It should then work with counties to implement the consistent use of these cost-effective methods.

11. Social Services should either ensure that counties follow state regulations regarding the use of administrative disqualification hearings or pursue changing the regulations.

14. Recognizing that the deterrence effect is difficult to measure, Social Services should develop a method that allows it to gauge the cost effectiveness of SFIS. Social Services should include in its efforts to measure cost effectiveness the administrative cost that counties incur for using SFIS. Based on its results, Social Services should determine whether the continued use of SFIS is justified.

2. To encourage more effective communication from county CWS agencies regarding its licensees, Social Services should specify in regulations what types of situations or allegations the agencies should forward to its licensing division.

3. To ensure that rates paid to foster family agencies are appropriate, Social Services should analyze the rates and provide reasonable support for each component, especially the 40 percent administrative fee it currently pays these agencies.

4. Social Services should create and monitor compliance with clear requirements specifying that children placed with foster family agencies must have elevated treatment needs that would require a group home placement if not for the existence of these agencies' programs. Specifically, Social Services should revise its regulations so licensed foster homes have higher priority than foster family agencies for children that do not have identified treatment needs.

5. Social Services should require county CWS agencies to file in CWS/CMS a detailed justification for any child placed with a foster family agency.

6. Social Services should create a mechanism by which it can efficiently check for compliance with the needs-justification requirement.

8. To determine whether the hold harmless provision has been effective in reducing caseloads and whether it should be revised or rescinded, Social Services should refine and use CWS/CMS to calculate and report county CWS caseloads.

9. To encourage county CWS agencies to conduct formal internal death reviews, Social Services should revise its annual report on child deaths resulting from abuse or neglect to provide information on whether county CWS agencies conducted such a review of child deaths with prior CWS history. To obtain this information, Social Services should revise its regulations to require all county CWS agencies to not only report child deaths resulting from abuse or neglect but to also require a subsequent report indicating whether an internal child death review was completed.

11. To provide more useful information in its annual report, Social Services should provide child death information broken out by county, not just statewide totals. Further, Social Services should provide more analysis, such as comparing child death information over multiple years and presenting each county's child deaths as a percentage of its total child population.

40. To promote continued improvement in the CWS system, Social Services should encourage each county CWS agency to designate personnel to update regularly their policies and procedures, to include a detailed description of the need for ongoing supervisory reviews of key aspects of their respective service processes and incorporate that description into their policies and procedures, and to designate personnel to perform regular quality assurance reviews.

41. To promote continued improvement in the CWS system, Social Services should ask each county CWS agency to report to Social Services on the status of these efforts within 60 days, six months, and one year from the publication of this audit report.

2. To eliminate duplicative effort and increase efficiency, Corrections should not make unnecessary referrals to Mental Health. Corrections and Mental Health should jointly revise the structured screening instrument so that the referral process adheres more closely to the law's intent.

6. To reduce costs for unnecessary evaluations, Mental Health should either issue a regulation or seek a statutory amendment to clarify that when resolving a difference of opinion between the two initial evaluators of an offender, Mental Health must seek the opinion of a fourth evaluator only when a third evaluator concludes that the offender meets SVP criteria.

1. To improve the usefulness of its reports so that they can be used to assess the outcomes of realignment, the board should work with counties and relevant stakeholders, such as the committee that established performance outcome measures for the block grant, to determine the data that counties should report. To minimize the potential for creating a state mandate, the board should take into consideration the information that counties already collect to satisfy requirements for other grants.

2. To improve the usefulness of its reports so that they can be used to assess the outcomes of realignment, if the Legislature chooses not to change the law as suggested, or if the counties are unable to report countywide statistics, the board should discontinue comparing outcomes for juveniles who receive block grant services to those who do not in its reports.

3. To maximize the usefulness of the information it makes available to stakeholders and to increase accountability, the board should create policies and procedures that include clear, comprehensive guidance to counties about all aspects of performance outcome and expenditure reporting. At a minimum, such guidance should include specifying how counties should define when a juvenile has received a service and whether certain services, such as training, should qualify as serving juveniles.

4. To maximize the usefulness of the information it makes available to stakeholders and to increase accountability, the board should publish performance outcome and expenditure data for each county on its Web site and in its annual reports.

5. To maximize the usefulness of the information it makes available to stakeholders and to increase accountability, the board should consider verifying the counties' data by conducting regular site visits on a rotating basis or by employing other procedures to verify data that counties submit.

6. To increase the amount of juvenile justice data the counties make available to the public, the board should work with counties on how best to report these data.

12. To ensure that counties do not maintain excessive balances of unexpended block grant funds, the board should develop procedures to monitor counties' unspent funds and follow up with them if the balances become unreasonable.

5. To determine whether the additional expansion of telemedicine is cost-effective within the California correctional system, Prison Health Care Services should identify and collect the data it needs to estimate the savings of additional telemedicine through an analysis of the cost of specialty care visits currently provided outside of the institution that could be replaced with telemedicine.

5. To ensure that it can better monitor how its medical staff and contractors adhere to the informed consent requirements of Title 22, sections 70707.1 through 70707.7, the Receiver's Office should develop a plan by August 2014 to implement a process by December 2014 that would include working with Corrections to establish a process whereby inmates can have witnesses of their choice when consenting to sterilization, as required by Title 22, or working to revise such requirements so that there is an appropriate balance between the need for secure custody and the inmate's ability to have a witness of her choice.

11. To ensure that inmates receive only medical services that are authorized through its utilization management process, the Receiver's Office should ensure that the computer system it procures includes functionality to electronically link medical scheduling with authorization through the utilization management process to prevent all unauthorized procedures, regardless of whether they may result in sterilization, from being scheduled.

1. To address the erroneous sentencing information and inappropriately assigned convictions in its data system, Corrections should complete its cleanup of data that will be transferred into the new system, ensuring that this review includes a detailed evaluation of convictions that have been assigned outdated sentencing information as well as deleting erroneous sentencing information, before it begins using its new data system.

1. Corrections should take appropriate disciplinary actions against the employee and pursue collection efforts for the compensation she did not earn.

6. As Corrections prepares to move CalParole data into the Strategic Offender Management System (SOMS), it should modify existing employment-related fields and add to SOMS new fields that are currently not available in CalParole so that Corrections can minimize the opportunity for erroneous data entries and make employment data more reliable.

3. To eliminate duplicative effort and increase efficiency, Corrections should not make unnecessary referrals to Mental Health. For example, Corrections should better leverage the time and work it already conducts by including in its referral process (1) determining whether the offender committed a predatory offense, (2) reviewing results from any previous screenings and evaluations that Mental Health completed and considering whether the most recent parole violation or offense might alter the previous decision, and (3) using STATIC-99R to assess the risk that an offender will reoffend.

4. To eliminate duplicative effort and increase efficiency, Corrections should not make unnecessary referrals to Mental Health. Corrections and Mental Health should jointly revise the structured screening instrument so that the referral process adheres more closely to the law's intent.

1. To ensure that the State does not spend additional resources on COMPAS while its usefulness is uncertain, Corrections should suspend its use of the COMPAS core and reentry assessments until it has issued regulations and updated its operations manual to define how Corrections' use of COMPAS will affect decision making regarding inmates, such as clarifying how COMPAS results will be considered when sending inmates to different prison facilities, enrolling them in rehabilitative programs to address their criminal risk factors, and developing expectations for those on parole.

2. To ensure that the State does not spend additional resources on COMPAS while its usefulness is uncertain, Corrections should suspend its use of the COMPAS core and reentry assessments until it has demonstrated to the Legislature that it has a plan to measure and report COMPAS's effect on reducing recidivism. Such a plan could consider whether inmates enrolled in a rehabilitative program based on a COMPAS assessment had lower recidivism rates than those provided rehabilitative programming as a result of non-COMPAS factors.

4. Once Corrections resumes its use of COMPAS core and reentry assessments, it should develop practices or procedures to periodically determine whether its staff are using COMPAS core or reentry assessments as intended. Such a process might include performing periodic site visits to corroborate that COMPAS is being used as required.

5. Once Corrections resumes its use of COMPAS core and reentry assessments, it should develop practices or procedures to periodically compare the demand for certain rehabilitative programs, as suggested by a COMPAS core assessment, to the existing capacity to treat such needs.

2. Conduct an audit of the leave accounting system during the past three years to identify instances of nonmanagerial, exempt employees working an alternate schedule at an adult correctional facility being charged incorrect amounts of leave for missed days of work.

4. Adjust current employees' leave balances in the leave accounting system to correct any improper charging of leave identified by the audit.

6. In instances where the audit has determined that an employee's leave balance was mischarged but the employee subsequently departed state service, take appropriate measures to remedy any resulting incorrect compensation of the employee for unused leave upon his or her departure, including by seeking repayment of any amount overpaid to the employee.

1. To ensure that it can respond adequately to funding levels that may vary from its business plan, the Authority should develop and publish alternative funding scenarios that reflect the possibility of reduced or delayed funding from the planned sources. These scenarios should detail the implications of variations in the level or timing of funding on the program and its schedule.

3. To avert possible legal challenges, the Authority should ensure that the review group adheres to the Meeting Act or seek a formal opinion from the Office of the Attorney General regarding whether the review group is subject to this act.

1. To ensure that it can respond adequately to funding levels that may vary from its business plan, the Authority should develop and publish alternative funding scenarios that reflect the possibility of reduced or delayed funding from the planned sources. These scenarios should detail the implications of variations in the level or timing of funding on the program and its schedule.

3. To avert possible legal challenges, the Authority should ensure that the independent peer review panel adheres to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act or seek a formal opinion from the Office of the Attorney General (attorney general) regarding whether the panel is subject to this act.

7. To add clarification to the first recommendation we made in our prior report that stated, “To ensure that it can respond adequately to funding levels that may vary from its business plan, the Authority should develop and publish alternative funding scenarios that reflect the possibility of reduced or delayed funding from the planned sources. These scenarios should detail the implications of variations in the level or timing of funding on the program and its schedule,” the Authority should also present viable alternative funding scenarios for phase one in its entirety that do not assume an increase in the federal funding levels already identified in the 2012 draft business plan. If the Authority does not believe that such alternatives exist, it should publicly disclose this in its 2012 final business plan.

9. To ensure that the public and the Legislature are aware of the full cost of the program, the Authority should clearly disclose that the 2012 draft business plan assumes that the State will only be receiving profits for the first two years of operation in 2022 and 2023, and potentially not again until 2060 in exchange for the almost $11 billion the Authority assumes it will receive from the private sector over a four-year period.

1. To ensure that programs supported by special plates receive appropriate amounts of revenues due to them, Motor Vehicles should annually collect all fees for special plates that are no longer on a vehicle but are retained by the plate owner.

2. Motor Vehicles should ensure that the fees it lists in its application for special plates, as well as any other publications, are supported by the appropriate statutes.

3. Motor Vehicles should assess the extent to which it has charged fees for special plates that are not consistent with those prescribed in statutes and take appropriate action.

1. To ensure that it collects fair market rents for the SR 710 properties on the State's behalf, Caltrans should, using the fair market rent determinations for all SR 710 properties it recently prepared and excluding those in its affordable rent program, adjust the tenants' rents to fair market after providing them with proper notice.

2. To ensure that it collects fair market rents for the SR 710 properties on the State's behalf, Caltrans should make only limited exceptions to charging fair market rent and document the specific public purpose that is served in any case that it does not charge fair market rent.

39. To comply with the 2007 court ruling and the APA until such time as the Legislature may choose to act, Caltrans should establish regulations to govern the sales process for the SR 710 properties affected by the Roberti Bill.

40. To pursue alternatives to its management of the SR 710 properties, Caltrans should prepare a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the State would save money by hiring a private vendor to manage the properties. If such savings would occur, Caltrans should seek an exemption under Government Code, Section 19130 (a), to hire a private vendor.

15. To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Resources should use all appropriate funding sources to pay for any expenses that benefit multiple programs in proportion to the benefits these programs actually receive. Further, it should ensure that its allocation of such expenses to different funds is equitable and supported.

16. To ensure that the governor and Legislature have sufficient and appropriate information with which to make decisions on the most effective use of environmental fund money, Resources should submit to the governor and Legislature the annual and triennial reports containing the information that state law requires.

7. To ensure that the Legislature has the information necessary to meet the State's restoration goals and to plan for the State's future financial obligations related to mitigation, the Resources Agency should work with Fish and Wildlife and Water Resources to do the following:
-Meet with the Legislature regularly to provide updates on the status of its restoration efforts and the feasibility study to ensure that the Legislature has the information necessary to make funding and other informed decisions.

8. To ensure that the Legislature has the information necessary to meet the State's restoration goals and to plan for the State's future financial obligations related to mitigation, the Resources Agency should work with Fish and Wildlife and Water Resources to do the following:
-Develop an estimate of the costs, adjusted for inflation, that the State may incur for fulfilling its financial obligations related to mitigation under the QSA. The Resources Agency should include this information in the feasibility study so the Legislature is fully aware of the estimated costs and timing of the State's future financial obligations.

14. To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Parks and Recreation should ensure that environmental fund money budgeted to its offices is supported by the proportion of the offices' activities that state law allows.

2. To reduce duplicate expenditure tracking and increase the effectiveness of its budget process, the department should develop procedures requiring the districts to prepare and submit spending plans and to periodically submit their total expenditures after reconciling them with the FTS. The procedures should specify how often districts should provide this information to the department to ensure that the budget office and park management can appropriately oversee the districts' budgets and spending.

4. To ensure that it can comply with state law in the event that it must close parks or reduce park services in the future, the department should improve its methodology for developing individual park unit budgets and determining and tracking park-level costs. Specifically, the department should develop specific time frames and deliverables for the completion of phases two and three of its plan. These time frames should include specific completion dates for each key component of the phases.

6. To ensure that it can comply with state law in the event that it must close parks or reduce park services in the future, the department should improve its methodology for developing individual park unit budgets and determining and tracking park-level costs. Specifically, the department should determine how it will define service levels and measure whether those levels are being met so it can provide budgets for each park unit, as phase three of its process requires.

8. To prevent unauthorized leave buyback transactions, the department should provide training by December 2013 to all department managers and personnel staff who might be involved in leave buyback transactions to ensure that they understand the State's requirements regarding leave buybacks.

11. To prevent unauthorized leave buyback transactions, the department should limit access for keying transactions to the payroll system only to authorized personnel staff.

15. To improve the effectiveness of the EPRC, the department should establish a process by March 2014 through which the director's office provides formal direction to the EPRC regarding staffing priorities.

12. By February 2015 the Science Center should provide training to all of its personnel specialists on the number of leave hours employees earn for working on holidays.

1. When the commission determines that it will pursue delinquent lessees itself, it should use a collection agency or a program such as the Franchise Tax Board's Interagency Intercept Collections Program.

2. To ensure that it receives rent from the lessee that reflects the approximate value for the State's property at those times when a lessee disputes a modification to the rental amount after the commission exercises its right to perform a rent review or because the lease expired, the commission should include in its lease agreements a provision that requires lessees to pay the commission's proposed increased rental amount, which would be deposited into an account within the Special Deposit Fund. The increased rental amounts deposited, plus the corresponding interest accrued in the account, should then be liquidated in accordance with the amount agreed to in the final lease agreement.

21. To ensure that it manages delinquent leases in an effective and timely manner and collects all the amounts owed to it, the commission should develop and adhere to policies and procedures that incorporate the administrative manual’s guidance, including the steps staff should take when a lessee is delinquent, time standards for performing those steps, and a process for consistently tracking the status of delinquent leases between divisions.

24. To ensure that as few leases as possible go into holdover, the commission should consistently assess the 25 percent penalty on expired leases.

4. To provide the public with accurate and complete information on the bond-funded projects it administers, Water Resources should develop and consistently use a formalized, documented review process that will provide greater assurance that project information posted to the Bond Accountability Web site is regularly updated and contains accurate information.

4. The department should weave benchmarks, coupled with metrics to measure the quality of its activities, into the strategic plan for the beverage program to allow it to better measure progress in meeting goals.

5. The department should ensure that the strategic plan incorporates all relevant activities of the beverage program.

19. To improve oversight of grants and ensure that the intended value is received from the grant funds it awards, the department should implement policies to ensure that cities and counties spend grant funds for recycling purposes by requiring periodic reporting of expenses or reporting of how funds were used after the grant ends.

6. When regional water boards include staff enforcement costs in the penalty actions they issue, the state water board should require that they use a systematic method for tracking the hours staff spend on enforcement activities related to penalty actions and maintain documentary support for these staff enforcement cost calculations.

7. If regional water boards continue to include staff enforcement costs in the penalty actions they issue, the state water board should revise its staff cost rate to reflect actual staff salaries and overhead cost for the certification program.

8. To ensure it loads only accurate billing data into FI$Cal, the department should continue evaluating projects with outstanding costs in its billing system to meet the July 2015 implementation date.

16. To ensure that all designated parties complete statements of economic interests as the law requires, Consumer Affairs should improve its policies and procedures to ensure that it identifies any incomplete statements and promptly notifies the Fair Political Practices Commission when necessary.

1. The physical therapy board should explore the feasibility of establishing a state position to perform the duties of its current in-house consultant at a reduced cost.

10. To comply with state law and to ensure that it effectively manages
its inspections of institutions, the bureau should prioritize its announced and unannounced inspections to focus on those institutions that have a higher risk of noncompliance.

2. To ensure its future financial stability, the commission should work with Consumer Affairs to establish a long-term financial plan that contains the following:
• A reasonable annual budget with an accurate forecast of planned expenditures. The commission should determine this budget based in part on its ability or inability to meet the expenditure limitations stipulated in the solvency plan.
• The number of inspectors necessary to regulate each type of event. In establishing this number, the commission should take into account the varying size and complexity of the events. It should also determine the cost for each inspector to regulate an event.
• An estimate of its costs to regulate different types of events. To arrive at a reasonable estimate, the commission will need to track at least six months of actual expenditures.
• The number of staff necessary to perform all of the commission's necessary functions. The commission will need to conduct a workload analysis as soon as possible to determine how many staff it requires and adjust its planned expenditures accordingly.
• Funds for athletic inspectors' training that are sufficient to meet the requirement that inspectors receive training within six months of an event that they are scheduled to work.
• Strategies to increase revenue. The commission may need to conduct analyses to determine whether the opportunities it is currently considering are legally permissible and fiscally prudent. If so, the commission should take steps to implement those strategies, including seeking any necessary legislative changes.

7. To ensure that it adequately tracks critical information related to its basic functions and mission, the commission should work with Consumer Affairs to ensure that the new online program will meet its needs and requirements. Once the program is in place, the commission should use it as its central means for tracking its operations.

9. To ensure that it accurately collects revenue, the commission should calculate the pension assessment by counting all the complimentary tickets issued, except for working complimentary tickets, not merely the complimentary tickets that are redeemed. If the commission does not agree that it should calculate the pension assessment by counting all the complimentary tickets issued, it should seek a change in its regulations to calculate the fee based only on the number of complimentary tickets redeemed.

22. The commission needs to establish regulations that describe its process for determining its ticket assessment for the neurological account so that it avoids the use of underground regulations.

25. To operate the pension plan effectively and maximize boxers' benefits, the commission should create policies and procedures for its administration to ensure that it transfers funds on a regular basis from the pension fund's state account into its investment account.

28. To comply with state law governing the pension plan, the commission needs to, after it has an accurate and complete listing of all licensed athletes and box office information by event type, conduct the analysis to determine the feasibility of expanding the pension plan to cover all athletes and report the results to the Legislature.

4. As part of an overall strategy to limit the number of calls it receives while still providing timely and effective customer service, the department should use existing data and additional data from the new phone system to gain a better understanding of why people request to speak to an agent. Using this information, the department should further develop strategies and measurable goals related to achieving a reduction in call volumes. For example, to ensure that virtually all calls are able to gain access to the voice response portion of its new phone system, the department should monitor the volume of blocked call attempts and work with its phone system vendor if necessary to increase the system's capacity.

5. To evaluate the effectiveness of its other efforts to provide services to claimants in ways that do not require them to speak to agents, such as Web-Cert and Tele-Cert, the department should periodically summarize and assess the more robust management information available under its new phone system.

4. To assist the state board and other workforce investment partners in the development and implementation of state-specific performance measures, EDD should ensure that it works with the state board to develop procedures for approving the addition of data elements to its Web-based system and for the exchange of data between EDD and the state board.

5. To identify ways to better serve veterans in California, the department should assess the success or struggles of veterans within demographic categories in finding employment, such as age, race, or educational attainment, by comparing veterans' performance to that of nonveterans in the same demographic categories and across demographic categories and use this analysis to determine whether specific populations of veterans could be better served through more targeted efforts and to identify best practices for improving employment outcomes for these specific populations. Further, the department should provide the results of this analysis annually, beginning in 2014, to stakeholders, including local workforce agencies, the state workforce board, the interagency council, the Legislature, and the public.

7. To better optimize its leadership role in the interagency council's employment workgroup, the department should ensure that the employment workgroup develops a timeline for completing its action items and develops a process for measuring its success in improving employment outcomes for veterans. Specifically, the department should take the lead for establishing a time frame for evaluating tools to help assess and translate military skills into finding civilian jobs and establishing a transition assistance program for veterans.

1. To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, the Employment Development Department (EDD) should do the following: Change its practices to ensure that its staff have demonstrated that all of the necessary elements of a false statement are adequately supported before disqualifying a claimant for unemployment benefits or assessing the associated 30 percent penalty on that basis. To do this, EDD should update its training to further emphasize that false statement disqualifications, especially those resulting from wage reporting, cannot be assessed unless all of the elements are present.

2. To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, EDD should do the following: Revise its Web site and the materials that accompany the continued claim form to provide specific instructions to claimants on how to avoid common errors that claimants make when reporting wages, such as the error of applying some wages to the incorrect week.

3. To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, EDD should do the following: Ensure that determinations are supported by sufficient fact-finding and relevant evidence by increasing the required number of attempts to reach claimants by telephone or e-mail before making a determination.

4. To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, EDD should do the following: Allow additional time for its staff to process misconduct and voluntary quit cases, especially those that involve complex issues.

5. To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, EDD should do the following: Improve its due diligence during the pre-appeal review process by considering appellants' reasons for appealing and by contacting claimants, employers, and third parties when necessary to obtain clarifying information that could result in a redetermination, which could eliminate or reduce the need for some appeals board hearings.

6. To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, EDD should do the following: Identify those types of appeals that could be most influenced by EDD staff attendance at the appeal hearing, and analyze the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of participating in those hearings by telephone.

8. To identify and correct any policies, procedures, or practices that may be contributing to avoidable appeals filed by claimants and employers and thereby provide eligible claimants with unemployment benefits in a timelier manner, EDD should do the following: Using the appeals board's data from fiscal year 2013-14, EDD should identify the legal issues where its determinations are most frequently overturned, and use these data to establish initial performance benchmarks. In addition, similar to the review that EDD's audit and evaluation division performed in 2012, EDD should then review samples of its overturned determinations and the appeals board's decisions on these legal issues to identify trends in the reasons the appeals board cites for overturning EDD's determinations. With this information, EDD should review its policies, practices, and training related to these areas and identify and correct any weaknesses that may be contributing to the overturning of determinations. By April 1, 2015, EDD should report to the Legislature on the results of this review and any changes it plans to make to its determination process.

9. To identify and correct any policies, procedures, or practices that may be contributing to avoidable appeals filed by claimants and employers and thereby provide eligible claimants with unemployment benefits in a timelier manner, EDD should do the following: EDD should use the semiannual data that the appeals board provides to determine whether changes it makes to its process result in reductions in the percentage of its determinations that are overturned on appeal. EDD should also review these data to determine whether it needs to conduct additional reviews of its determinations and the appeals board's decisions to identify additional opportunities for improvement. EDD should report these results to the Legislature annually.

2. To assist the governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system, the state board should collaborate with state and local workforce investment partners to promptly develop and implement a strategic workforce plan as state law requires. The strategic plan should include, at a minimum, the following elements: clear roles and responsibilities pertaining to the state board, EDD, and other state and local workforce partners; clear definitions for terminology used in the strategic plan, such as quality services; performance measures that are specific to California for evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of WIA-funded programs and activities; and procedures for approving the addition of data elements to EDD's Web-based system and for the exchange of data between EDD and the state board to facilitate the development and implementation of performance measures that are specific to California.

1. To ensure public safety and provide public assurance that school districts construct projects in accordance with approved plans, the department, in conjunction with the division, should pursue legislative changes to the Field Act that would prohibit occupancy in cases in which the division has identified significant safety concerns.

37. To ensure that the construction unit complies with the State's procurement laws and policies, General Services should continue its efforts to implement regulations that govern the small business certification process related to defining and enforcing violations of commercially useful function requirements.

5. To ensure that resources are spent wisely, General Services should seek the funding and approval needed to analyze whether keeping or selling the BOE building would be in the State's best financial interest. As part of that analysis, General Services should conduct, or contract for, appraisals to assess the value of the building with and without the repairs to determine whether making the repairs is in the best interest of the State. If continued ownership of the building appears to be prudent, General Services should evaluate potential productive uses for the building should BOE move to a new facility. General Services should report the results of its analysis to the Legislature no later than September 2015.

2. To correct the erroneous leave hours we identified in our analysis of the leave accounting system, CalHR should work with the state controller and all state agencies under its authority to review and take the appropriate action to correct the errors by January 2015.

7. To ensure that state agencies accurately account for their employees' leave benefits, CalHR should consolidate guidance by January 2015 regarding the appropriate amount of leave that employees should earn each month and provide these criteria to the state controller to use when developing the leave accounting system's monthly exception reports. For example, CalHR should identify the number of holiday credit hours that employees covered by each collective bargaining agreement should receive for working on a holiday.

9. To ensure that state agencies accurately account for their employees' leave benefits, CalHR should establish general parameters and issue guidance to state agencies by January 2015 on how to account for the leave hours for employees who work alternate work week schedules.

10. To ensure that state agencies accurately account for their employees' leave benefits, CalHR should provide additional guidance to state agencies by January 2015 on interpreting the provisions of the collective bargaining agreements related to the amount of leave employees earn. For example, CalHR could provide scenarios to illustrate the number of hours employees should earn under common circumstances.

1. To enhance the value of the Bond Accountability Web site, Finance should require administering agencies to provide information about the actual amounts of bond funds spent on posted projects at least semiannually.

2. To enhance the value of the Bond Accountability Web site, Finance should develop a tracking and review process to periodically assess the completeness of the project information posted to the Web site. Such a process should include a review of whether state agencies are describing, in terms the public can easily understand, the expected or realized benefits of bond-funded projects.

2. The commission should determine the cause of its lack of compliance with state law requiring it to issue award decisions within 75 days of the date an intervenor submits a compensation claim, and it should determine what actions to take to rectify the problem. The commission should ensure that it has sufficient information, such as detailed tracking information regarding claims, to identify where in the process delays are occurring. If the commission determines that the current 75-day statutory period is unreasonable, it should seek a change in state law.

5. To comply fully with state law, the commission should conduct a comprehensive market rate study and update it periodically.

14. The commission should follow the requirement in state law to inspect and audit the accounting records of utilities it regulates within required time frames. If the commission chooses to continue to meet this requirement through the general rate case process, it should ensure that all utilities file a general rate case on a regular schedule so as to comply with the state law's audit requirement. However, the commission should follow alternate methods to comply with the audit requirement when a utility will not be filing for its general rate case in time to be audited within three or five years, depending on the timing of the required audit for that utility.

2. To ensure that it resolves complaints against passenger carriers in a timely manner, the commission should establish a method for prioritizing complaints and it should implement a policy specifying the maximum amount of time between the receipt of a complaint and the completion of the subsequent investigation. Further, the commission should require branch management to monitor and report regularly on its performance in meeting that policy.

6. To ensure that the branch conducts thorough investigations of passenger carriers, the commission should implement a formal training program to ensure that all investigators have adequate knowledge and skills related to regulating passenger carriers.

7. To better ensure passenger carrier and public safety, the commission should create a system to determine when a carrier merits a penalty and what the magnitude of the penalty should be. In addition, to be an effective deterrent, the amount of such penalties should be more consistent with what state law permits.

8. The commission should require staff to examine and formally report on the feasibility of impounding the vehicles of passenger carriers that refuse to comply with commission orders or that refuse to pay citation penalties and also on the feasibility of making use of the Tax Board's program for intercepting income tax refunds, lottery winnings, and unclaimed property payments to collect unpaid citation penalties.

9. To ensure that passenger carriers submit accurate fee payments, the commission should require its fiscal staff to implement a process to verify passenger carrier fee payments and associated revenue.

10. To ensure that it complies with state law and uses passenger carrier fees appropriately, the commission should implement a process to ensure that passenger carrier fee revenues more closely match related enforcement costs.

12. To detect and deter carriers from operating illegally at airports, the branch should use as intended the five positions added for passenger carrier enforcement at airports. If the branch chooses not to designate five positions solely for this purpose, then it must be prepared to demonstrate regularly that an equivalent number of full-time positions are working on this activity.

13. To strengthen its leadership and ensure passenger carrier and public safety, the branch should produce a draft strategic plan by December 31, 2014, with a final strategic plan completed as the commission specifies. The strategic plan should include goals for the program; strategies for achieving those goals, including strategies for staff development and training; and performance measures to assess goal achievement.

7. To further its mission to obtain the lowest possible rates for reliable and safe utility service for ratepayers through its reviews of balancing accounts, Ratepayer Advocates should use the commission's list of balancing accounts to guide its selection of the number, size, and type of balancing accounts to review so that its review coverage is more proportional across all utilities.

8. To further its mission to obtain the lowest possible rates for reliable and safe utility service for ratepayers through its reviews of balancing accounts, Ratepayer Advocates should document the method used for its selection of balancing accounts to review.

2. To ensure that it maximizes its ability to generate revenue at all the veterans homes and better cover the costs of providing care to its members, CalVet should analyze its cost-recovery model, including an evaluation of the state laws that limit the amount of revenue that CalVet can collect for the care it provides to its members at the veterans homes.

5. To better utilize unused space at the veterans homes, and to serve more veterans within legal restrictions, CalVet should use the information in the Yountville veterans home master plan to develop a plan for using unused space at that home to generate revenue and/or serve more veterans.

11. To ensure it is maximizing its ability to serve veterans in the State's veterans homes, CalVet should follow through with its plan to assess the bed capacity of the homes for veterans' needs after the homes in Fresno and Redding are licensed, to determine the most appropriate number of beds for the different levels of care offered at each home.

14. To ensure that it is providing the highest quality of services to veterans, CalVet should improve its tracking system policy by developing oversight controls so that the system is used consistently by all of the veterans homes.

15. To allow for public input and to prevent any legal challenges that its policy of capping members' fees, its $165 monthly income-retention policy for members, and its age and admission policy are unenforceable underground regulations, CalVet should adopt these policies as regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act.

16. To more effectively and efficiently meet state purchasing and procurement requirements, CalVet should analyze its current purchasing model to ensure that it is the most efficient and cost-effective to use when purchasing non-IT goods and services for the veterans homes.

17. To more effectively and efficiently meet state purchasing and procurement requirements, CalVet should continue implementing quality assurance policies to strengthen its oversight of its purchasing practices, including conducting on-site reviews of the purchasing practices of the veterans homes.

1. For all contracts that involve recreation fund moneys or involve recreation fund enterprises, as a best practice, institute policies that require the contracts be awarded and administered in a manner consistent with the policies and procedures set forth in the State Administrative Manual and the State Contracting Manual.

3. For all contracts that involve recreation fund moneys or involve recreation fund enterprises, institute policies that require the contracts to be reviewed and approved by the secretary of Veterans Affairs, or upon delegation of the authority to do so, by a deputy secretary, prior to the contracts being executed.

4. Institute a policy that requires all payments of recreation fund moneys to a person or business in the amount of $5,000 or more during a fiscal year and any contract involving recreation fund enterprises be presented to the recreation fund advisory board (now known as the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Committee) at a public meeting for an advisory vote prior to the payment being made.

5. Institute a policy that requires any expenditure of recreation fund moneys to a person or business in the amount of $5,000 or more during a fiscal year be listed as a separate line item in the budget of the recreation fund as presented to the secretary for approval.

7. Consider legislation to establish increased statutory controls over the management of the recreation fund maintained by each of the veterans homes to require that the funds be managed by the secretary of Veterans Affairs, in consultation with the administrator of each home, and be managed in a manner that is transparent to the public, takes into account the feelings of veterans, is consistent with the mission of the veterans homes, and is fiscally prudent.

1. To make certain that emergency response agencies receive reimbursements on time, Cal EMA should establish procedures to ensure that paying entities do not delay reimbursements.

4. To make certain that local agencies calculate correctly their average actual hourly rates, Cal EMA should audit a sample of invoices each year and include in the review an analysis of the accuracy of the local agencies' average actual hourly rates reported in the agencies' salary surveys.

5. To make certain that local agencies calculate correctly their average actual hourly rates, if Cal EMA determines that the local agencies' rates are incorrect, it should advise the agencies to recalculate the rates reported in their salary survey. Local agencies that fail to submit accurate average actual hourly rates should be subject to the base rates.

7. If FEMA determines that the calculations and claims identified in the Office of Inspector General's audit report were erroneous, Cal EMA should modify the time sheets to track the actual hours that the responding agency works as well as the dates and times that the agency committed to the incident and returned from the incident.

8. If FEMA determines that the calculations and claims identified in the Office of Inspector General's audit report were erroneous, Cal EMA should ensure that the replacement for its current invoicing system can calculate the maximum number of reimbursable personnel hours under both FEMA's policy and the CFAA.

11. To make certain that money from the special plate funds pay only for allowable and supportable activities, Cal EMA should maintain documentation to support its charges to the antiterrorism fund. For example, it should ensure that employees submit signed time reports to support the time they spend on antiterrorism-related activities.

23. To reduce the risk that it may not identify an armed prohibited person, Justice should revise its electronic matching process to use all personal identifying numbers available in its databases.

24. To ensure that timely information is available for its efforts to identify armed prohibited persons and confiscate their firearms, Justice should manage staff priorities to meet both its statutory deadline for firearms background checks and its internal deadline for initially reviewing potential prohibited persons. Justice should report annually to the Legislature about the backlog of unreviewed potential prohibited persons and what factors have prohibited it from efficiently reviewing these persons.

28. To ensure that it meets its goal of eliminating the historical backlog of reviewing firearms owners by the end of 2016, Justice should manage its staff resources to continually address the backlog, and should notify the Legislature if it believes that it will not be able to fully process this backlog by its goal date. To help guide this effort, Justice should establish benchmarks that will indicate whether it is on track to meet its goal.

33. Justice should update and maintain its system documentation for the mental health and APPS databases to ensure that it can efficiently and effectively address modifications and questions about these databases.

34. To ensure that it fully supports its decision to apply federal prohibition terms to individuals, Justice should review all applicable federal and state laws and continue to seek clarification from the ATF and any other appropriate federal agencies to determine whether California's firearms restoration process meets federal criteria and, if not, why it does not. Justice should issue a report to the Legislature, within one year, detailing the results of its review and, if applicable, communicate why California's restoration process does not meet federal criteria and the impact that it has on prohibited persons who live in California.

4. To report to the Legislature about the effectiveness of its RADS program and to better inform decisions about expanding the number of analyzed sexual assault evidence kits, Justice should amend its agreements with the counties participating in the RADS program to require those counties to report case outcome information, such as arrests and convictions for the sexual assault evidence kits Justice has analyzed under the program. Justice should then report annually to the Legislature about those case outcomes.

4. To enhance the value of the HAVA spending plan as a transparency and accountability tool for the Legislature, the Office should make the following modifications to its annual HAVA spending plan:

Clearly state the methodology used to report prior HAVA expenditures in the HAVA spending plan. Such a methodology should use the financial information contained in its accounting system.

Reconcile the prior HAVA expenditures with the year-end financial reports the Office provides to the California State Controller's Office.

Present prior HAVA expenditures by activity and by specific appropriation.

5. To ensure the State complies with the NVRA, the Office should take all necessary steps, including seeking any necessary legislative changes, and work with the DMV to modify the driver's license application so that it may simultaneously serve as a form for voter registration.

1. To more clearly demonstrate its case for a new facility, BOE should ensure that it has a supportable rationale for the assumptions underlying its analysis of the costs and benefits of moving to a new consolidated facility.

2. To more clearly demonstrate its case for a new facility, BOE should continue its plans to conduct a study to identify inefficiencies in its current spatial configuration and how its operations could improve with a new consolidated facility.

3. To more clearly demonstrate its case for a new facility, BOE should incorporate staffing growth into its analysis of costs and benefits, using projections based on long-term historical data.

4. To ensure that it can accurately estimate any shifts in worker productivity and state revenue, BOE should strengthen its current methodology by analyzing the productivity and revenue
collection of its employees and by monitoring those metrics at least semiannually. Additionally, BOE should support its methodology with documentation.

4. To improve the accuracy of information in the leave accounting system and to ensure that agencies do not improperly credit employees with leave in the future, the state controller should implement additional controls by June 2015 to prevent the leave accounting system from processing the types of inappropriate transactions we identified in our statewide electronic analysis. For example, it could develop cost-effective controls in the leave accounting system that would prevent employees from receiving annual leave and sick leave during the same pay period.

6. To improve the accuracy of information in the leave accounting system and to ensure that agencies do not improperly credit employees with leave in the future, the state controller should, using criteria provided by CalHR, develop monthly exception reports that identify transactions in the leave accounting system that are inconsistent with the guidelines established in state law and collective bargaining agreements, such as instances in which state employees receive too many personal holidays or too much holiday credit. By June 2015 begin providing each state agency's human resources management with the transactions identified in the exception reports for review and correction as necessary.

6. To make certain that the FCS evaluators are qualified, the Sacramento family court should develop processes to ensure that it signs all FCS evaluator declarations of qualifications annually.

7. To make certain that the FCS evaluators are qualified, the Sacramento family court should ensure that its unlicensed FCS evaluators complete the licensing portion of the annual declarations of qualifications.

8. To make certain that the FCS evaluators are qualified, the Sacramento family court should identify the training each of the FCS evaluators need to satisfy the court rules' requirements and ensure that they attend the trainings.

10. To make certain that the FCS evaluators are qualified, the Sacramento family court should develop processes to ensure that evaluator declarations of qualifications include all relevant information, such as the evaluator's experience.

12. To make certain that the FCS evaluators are qualified, the Sacramento family court should take all reasonable steps to ensure its FCS evaluators meet the minimum qualifications and training requirements before assigning them to any future Family Code Section 3111 evaluations. If necessary, and as soon as reasonably possible, the court should require the FCS evaluators to take additional education or training courses to compensate for the minimum qualifications and training requirements that were not met.

16. To verify that its private mediator and evaluator panel members meet the minimum qualifications and training requirements before appointment, the Sacramento family court should obtain any missing applications and training records for private mediators and evaluators on its current panel list before appointing them to future cases.

20. To verify that its private mediator and evaluator panel members meet the minimum qualifications and training requirements before appointment, the Sacramento family court should reinstate its local rules for private mediators and evaluators to provide a minimum of three references, and for private evaluators to provide a statement that they have read the court's evaluator guidelines.

23. To make sure that the minor's counsel it appoints meet the additional standards required by the superior court's local rules, the Sacramento family court should obtain any missing applications for minor's counsel before appointing them to any future cases.

42. To strengthen its accounting process for California Family Code Section 3111 evaluations, the Sacramento Superior Court should update its accounting procedures related to billing FCS evaluation costs to include steps for verifying the mathematical accuracy of the FCS summary and the proper allocation of costs between the parties.