2023-134 Los Angeles County
It Has Yet to Spend Tens of Millions of Dollars Intended to Provide Services to Realigned Youth
Published: August 20, 2024Report Number: 2023-134
Audit Recommendations Disclosure
When an audit is completed and a report is issued, auditees must provide the State Auditor with information regarding their progress in implementing recommendations from our reports at three intervals from the release of the report: 60 days, six months, and one year. Additionally, Senate Bill 1452 (Chapter 452, Statutes of 2006), requires auditees who have not implemented recommendations after one year, to report to us and to the Legislature why they have not implemented them or to state when they intend to implement them. Below is a listing of each recommendation the State Auditor made in the report referenced and a link to the most recent response from the auditee addressing their progress in implementing the recommendation and the State Auditor’s assessment of auditee’s response based on our review of the supporting documentation.
Recommendations to the Legislature
Recommendation 1
To ensure that the State has access to information about realignment block grant spending that could provide accountability and inform future decisions about funding levels, the Legislature should amend state law to require counties to include in their annual realignment block grant plans the amount of realignment block grant funds they have spent by fiscal year, as well as their total amount of unused block grant funding. The law should also require OYCR to report this information to the relevant budget subcommittees of the Legislature.
Status:
pending
Recommendations to Los Angeles County
Recommendation 2
To ensure that it is spending realignment block grant funding, Probation should do the following by September 2024:
- Project the estimated dates by which it expects to finalize agreements with service providers.
- Begin regularly reporting its progress in securing these agreements to the realignment subcommittee.
Status:
Fully implemented
Date of implementation:
Oct. 2024
State Auditor assessment status:
Partially Implemented, Department did not address all aspects of the recommendation
60-Day Agency Response
Probation has projected estimated dates by which each proposed SYTF services contract will be completed so that services can be implemented. We consider the recommendation implemented when we convene a JJRBG Subcommittee meeting so the Subcommittee can concur with our reporting format and frequency. Arrangement are in progress for an upcoming Subcommittee meeting.
6-Month Agency Response
Probation agrees with the Auditor’s recommendations. We previously reported to the Auditor that in April 2024 Probation established a weekly youth programs work group focused on programs for its two largest facilities: Barry J. Nidorf-SYTF and Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. Probation shared with the Auditor’s team the goals of the working group including convening contracting and procurement experts with operational leads to rapidly diagnose and resolve acquisition of programs, maintaining an inventory of implemented programs at each facility, and monitoring the timing of milestones link to finalizing program agreements. Probation’s work group actions are consistent with the Auditor’s first recommendation.
The work group’s achievements have resulted in a more robust inventory of implemented programs for youth, as well as proof of practice in the form of status tracking and problem resolution for emerging programs. A refreshed spreadsheet of programs is provided at each work group convening. The maturity of the work group has resulted in the pace of meetings being scaled to every-other week with a focus on the status of and problem solving for emerging youth programs. The work group’s SYTF programming inventory will continue to be provided to the JJRBG Committee quarterly.
Public Reasoning Behind Assessment
Probation has begun estimating the dates by which it expects to finalize agreements for programs it administers, but has not done so for all of its programs. As such, we conclude Probation has partially implemented this recommendation.
Recommendation 3
To ensure that it addresses the significant amount of unspent realignment block grant funds, the realignment subcommittee should include as part of its next annual spending plan a detailed approach to the timely and effective use of those unspent funds that it has already received and for the additional funding it expects to receive each year from the State. The plan should include provisions for avoiding an excessive reserve, and it should consider the extent to which the county should use this funding to address not-yet-fully implemented recommendations from the December 2020 YJR report.
Status:
Not fully implemented
Date of implementation:
Aug. 2025
State Auditor assessment status:
Pending
60-Day Agency Response
See attached.
Recommendation 1 is directed at the State Legislature.
Recommendation 2 not fully implemented regarding informing the JJRBG of pending contracts for youth programs is in-progress. We have issued two of these lists of pending contracts. The recommendation is “in progress” because the JJRBG has not met since the State Auditor’s report was issued. Implementation date will be when the JJRBG next meets. We’re pushing for a meeting as soon as possible in November 2024.
Recommendation 3 not fully implemented. As the attached describes, Probation has a strategy to push for reallocation of unspent funds. The recommendation is not fully implemented because the JJRBG has not met since the State Auditor’s report was issued. We need JJRBG concurrence of our strategy to reallocate funds and for opportunities for additional providers to become involved. Implementation of a reallocation strategy depends on what is considered implemented. If a plan is what determines implemented, we intend to discuss that plan next JJRBG convening hopefully in November 2024. JJRBG meetings are subject to the Brown Act and need a quorum.
6-Month Agency Response
As of this sixth-month status report, the subcommittee has conducted analysis of funded programs that appear to be underspending, solicited requests for new or modified funding, and is deliberating about its FY 2025-26 spending plan. The results of the subcommittee’s efforts will inform the County’s response to the next status report to the Auditor.
