The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will return to the dais Tuesday after a little summer vacation. What’s on this week’s agenda, you ask? Let’s have a look.

Civil Grand Jury Recommendations

The board will review and respond to recommendations made in two recent reports from the 2023-24 Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury concerning county facilities.

In the first report, “Humboldt County Facilities: Owning vs. Leasing,” the Civil Grand Jury analyzed the county’s real estate portfolio and determined that the county pays too much in rent – over $556,000 per month. The county currently has over 80 active leases across the county, some of which are “net” leases, meaning the county pays the property taxes, not the property owner, adding another $9,000 to the monthly total.

The Civil Grand Jury’s report asks: “Would the money be better spent in the long run by owning these facilities instead?”

“The County currently leases more properties than they own,” according to the report. “Fifty-three percent of the buildings used are leased, not owned. Long-term leasing tends to be more expensive than building and owning facilities. The trend towards leasing has not been cost-effective for the citizens of Humboldt County. … Most of the leased properties have been under lease for 25 years or more by the County.”

The report also suggests that the county could save money by consolidating some of its facilities. The 2020 Facilities Master Plan calls for building and consolidating operations. However, the Civil Grand Jury says “progress has been slow.”

“Consolidating County operations into fewer buildings can lead to greater efficiencies,” the report continues. “The County provides services to residents all over the county, so consolidation is not a viable option everywhere, but it is in Eureka, where the County operates in almost 50 different sites.”

Most of those sites are occupied by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), which actually consolidated some of its family-serving operations at Humboldt Plaza ten or so years ago. Doing so “improved customer service” at DHHS because residents were able to “accomplish more in a single stop at a facility that is easily accessible by car or public transit.”

Combining operations into fewer buildings would also “allow for better communication” among staff and “ease daily operations between agencies.”

The report includes three recommendations:

• To update the Facilities Master Plan by Mar. 31, 2025, to incorporate achievable implementation goals.
• By no later than July 1, 2025, to evaluate funding alternatives for future property acquisitions.
• To accelerate consolidation of county operations rather than leasing new facilities.

The second Civil Grand Jury report, “Humboldt County Custody & Corrections Facilities,” calls for upgrades to several aging county facilities, including the jail and juvenile detention center, the animal shelter, Sempervirens Psychiatric Health Facility, the Coroner-Public Administrator’s office, as well as the state-run Eel River Conservation Camp and the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (SWAP).

“We observed common issues at several facilities including serious needs for repairs, maintenance and upgrading of buildings,” the report says. “Some physical structures are relatively new. Others are many decades old. Despite these conditions, facilities appear to be functional and serviceable. … We also noted significant understaffing, leading to substantial amounts of required overtime. These issues, along with working in already stressful positions, lead to staff fatigue.”

The 2022-23 Civil Grand Jury issued a similar report – “Custody and Corrections, and Other Humboldt County Facilities” – that called out “appalling and dangerous conditions” at the animal shelter. The county’s responses to the report were “positive in terms of making changes to address problems,” but some of the recommendations still haven’t been implemented. “In some cases, the issues already documented have become worse because of delayed actions.”

The Civil Grand Jury issued the following recommendations for each of the facilities in question:

• Humboldt County Animal Shelter: To repair the roof and repair or replace inoperable outside lights by Oct. 31, 2024.
• Eel River Conservation Camp: To ensure that all fire safety equipment and facilities are in working condition by Nov. 30, 2024.
• Humboldt County Juvenile Detention Center: To adjust the pay scale for juvenile correctional officers by July 1, 2025, to be more competitive with correctional deputies. To coordinate with Public Works to install a rain gutter “above the walkway by the grass area” by Oct. 1, 2024.
• Humboldt County Jail: To repair leaks in the roof by Dec. 31, 2024. To repair or replace “the padded parts of the wall-mounted parallel bar exercise equipment” by Oct. 31, 2024.
• Humboldt County Coroner-Public Administrator: To create a policy and procedures manual for the coroner’s portion of the position by Dec. 31, 2024. Install a keypad lock on all doors accessing areas of the office that store property or evidence by Dec. 31, 2024. To develop or purchase a computer system to inventory and trace deceased people’s personal property (not criminal evidence) by July 1, 2025. To repair walls in the evidence room to protect exposed electrical components by Dec. 30, 2024. To replace all work surfaces in the autopsy room with stainless steel by June 30, 2025.
• Sempervirens: To fill “at least half” of the vacant positions at the facility by Jan. 1, 2025.
• SWAP: To install a secure fence with a locked gate around the drainage pond by July 30, 2025. To adequately staff the SWAP Farm with a minimum of six deputies by Dec. 31, 2024.

The board will also return to the topic of oversight of the Sheriff’s Office. During its July 23 meeting, the board discussed the formation of a civilian oversight committee, as recommended by the Civil Grand Jury, to enhance transparency within the department. The board was divided on the topic and, without Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal present for the discussion, decided to revisit the topic at a future meeting. 

The board will discuss the Civil Grand Jury’s recommendations for each report during Tuesday’s meeting. County department heads will likely weigh in as well.

###

Those are the big-ticket items on this week’s agenda. The county’s agenda management system is on the fritz this week, which means our AgendaBot Gennie won’t be able to deliver summaries and clever renditions of each agenda item that we’ve all come to know and love. Sad. Maybe next week.

The Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday at 9 a.m. in board chambers at the Humboldt County Courthouse – 825 Fifth Street in Eureka. Click here for the full agenda.