John,

Are the problems with the Public Guardian's office getting better?

Hi John,
This is a really good crowd. Some tough questions, but you have been around the block a a few times so this will be a breeze for you. We missed you at the 118 Ground breaking today....

Supervisor Flynn:

While I know this topic doesn't necessarily fall under an eastern Ventura County issue, I'm interested in Farmworker Housing programs.

It's my understanding that farmworkers typically make about $17,000 a year and there are about 20,000 farmworkers in Ventura county where the price of affordable units is well out of that range. This forces farmworkers to pool their resources, but creates major overcrowding issues.

I'm specifically interested in what types of innovations you support, have supported, and have accomplished in the planning process to make it easier for farmworkers to have an affordable place to live?

Second, while there seems to be projects specifically oriented around farmworkers, what initiatives do you support or have accomplished when dealing with service workers who make about the same as farmworkers, but do not have the the farmworker title when dealing with housing challenges?

I second Brian's question. Last I had heard there was suppose to be an audit of the Public Guardian's office. When can the public expect to know the results of that audit?

Hey JOHN,
ARE YOU THERE???? HELLO???? CAN YOU SPEAK ????

Thank you Barbara. I will do my best.

Dear Scott

Farm worker housing

I have worked at this for a long time. In 1986, I was the swing vote that put a big development of farm worker housing between Piru and Fillmore. It helped to replace housing at Rancho Sespe.

It was, as you can see a tight vote.

It is interesting to note that today there is cooperation among lots of organizations and people, including Ag Alliance, to built farm worker housing. The Farm Bureau and the UFW are working together to provide this housing.

This is an amazing development. The people and organizations of Ventura County are together and supportive of this issue.

Through the years I have supported Cabrillo Economic Development Corportation with votes to provide money from various grants to build housing for farm workers.

A project I am working on now is to buy some land from the Santa Clara Church located in Oxnard to build farm worker housing and work force housing. We have submitted through Cabrillo a proposal to the Pastor at Santa Clara Church in Oxnard. I am working with Cabrillo on this project.

One of the issues: land is scarce and expensive.

I am going to sign off as am due at an Eagle Scout Court of Honor at 2 this afternoon. John

John called and said he was in a rush but he would look into more of the issues on Monday including the Public Guardian's office.

John thanks for opening yourself up to community members across Ventura County in a new way.

Maybe Mr. Flynn should watch this video and tell us why gang members are allowed to operate in the open in Oxnard.

I thought being in a gang was illegal? Do they tolerate gangs in Oxnard? In these videos gangs are open showing off their gang tattoos, announcing what gangs they are members of, showing guns, smoking dope, and even taunting the police!

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1822626086

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs4XvtwRcM0

Enjoy!

The gang problem in Oxnard is Oxnards problem, not John Flyn's. He a County Supervisor and has no jurisdiction in the City of Oxnard. I suggest you ask this question of the City Council in Oxnard and their Police Department.

So, I take it you didn't see the video?

I can't imagine why all the other issues the county deals with is more important than urban street terrorists announcing it is not safe for lawful citizens to travel across Ventura County. Why do we have to go to their courthouse for jury duty when they allow gang members to brag online about carrying guns, taunting police, selling drugs, and the such.

Maybe Simi valley should secede and create our own county.

John, shouldn't your number one priority be stopping these thugs?

Dear Brian,

I want to get you the latest information on the status of the Public Guardian office. This morning I wrote an e-mail to Larry Matheney about the status to correct the problems in the Public Guardian's office. He wrote immediately and said that he will accommodate my inquiry sometime today.

I am asking Mr. Matheneny to do this because he is an elected official and one of his jobs is to operate the Public Guardian office. He is responsible to the voters of Ventura County. Once I receive his comments I will answer the question. John

Hi John!

Thank you for answering questions.

What is the likelihood o the County opening a level twelve residential treatment center for either 11-13 years olds or 14-17 years olds.

Many children are being placed outsdie of our County including in Utah. Last time I heard we had 250 children in residential placment in our County. VCBH is having to pay to fly therapists to these facilities to monitor them at a great expense to taxpayers. When a therapist has to take a day off to visit a far away facility they are also unable to treat as many individual locally. In some cases the County is also having to pay for families to travel (air fare, hotel)to participate in therapy and family reunification.

It would seem to me to be a great benefit to have our own facility locally.

Dear Donna, You identify a great need. Please take the idea to the Mental Health Advisory Commission and ask them to find a way to make this happen. It is a large emotional/love expense to parents whose child lives to far from Ventura County. Parents are needed in the recovery of their chldren.
The monetary expense deserves a careful study to make such a program cost effective. Included in the study should be the cost of additional time a child is isolated from his/her parents. Parents are a major part of the therepy, part of recovery.
Donna, you are one of my heros along with the parents who never give up on their children. Linda Parks serves on the Commission and she would want to hear your views. John

Here is the answer that I received From
Larry Matheney, who is
an elected official. I know that it is long but I
hesitate to shorten it.

As promised, here is my follow up response.
Rather than put you in the
awkward role of editor, I prefer laying this out
in a way that you can
use as THE response from me to the person making
the inquiry:

The Public Guardian's office has made great
headway in the rebuilding
process. The areas that were in need of
improvement can be fairly
broken into the categories of (1) Security of
Property, (2) Safety of
Clients, (3) Oversight of Staff, and (4) General
Operational
Effectiveness. I'll address the present status
of each separately.
Security of Property. We now have a dual control
system that is in
place from the moment that we receive a new case,
and continuing through
each phase in which the PG staff has physical
contact with client
property. At the input stage, two (or more)
staff members enter the
client's residence with a digital camera to make
a permanent record of
their observations for the file. Bulky items
having value, such as
furniture, are placed in a segregated (by client)
unit at a local
storage facility. We do not allow the property
of our clients to be
commingled with that of other clients. For
smaller items, we have
installed separately locked cages in our
on-campus warehouse, allowing
us to fully segregate the property of our
clients. When items are
placed in storage, or moved, or otherwise
accessed, two members of the
PG must be physically present at all times.

Safety of Clients. A key element for ensuring
that our clients are
receiving adequate care is the regular visitation
of the client by a
member of the PG staff. A schedule is now in
place to make such visits
a matter of routine. Most of those visits are
made by our Community
Service Workers. We have two such employees,
each working half-time.
We have good success with our clients who are
housed within Ventura
County.

We also have clients placed in Kern, Los Angeles
and San Bernardino
Counties (among others). For out-of-county
placements, the visitation
schedule is generally acceptable, but incomplete.
I characterize the
achievement as "incomplete" for several reasons.
The first involves the
primary objective of the Community Service
Workers, which is to
transport clients to court for hearings. On
average, each of our 250 (+
or -) mental health clients has averaged more
than two court appearances
a year, making transportation a vital function.
While such client
interaction gives my employees an opportunity to
make some observations
about care, it is not at a level of review that I
would like. A second
reason, which we are in the middle of addressing,
is that we believe
that staff is capable of producing better results
than our experience
has so far shown. In addition, there are some
very practical issues
blocking better access to the out-of-county
clients. Some clients are
housed in high security facilities, such as
Patton State Hospital, where
my staff would be exposed to unacceptable risks
of physical harm. In
addition, the amount of round trip drive time
represents a significant
allocation of some very limited staff resources.
We have developed a
"cluster" plan that allows us to be as effective
as presently possible
by making LA County visits to clients that are in
geographical proximity
to each other.
Oversight of Staff. All performance evaluations
are now up to date.
Written policies and procedures are now in place.
While labeled
"Draft", the procedures are being enforced and
modified as experience
with the documents reveals better methods of
handling the particular
situations. All deputies recently attended an
intense 4-day training
session in Sacramento and will be receiving
additional training (both
on-site and off) into the future. The training
includes courses in
ethics, checks and balances, and legal standards,
among other things.
There is also in place a system of rotating staff
members between the
various assignments to achieve several results,
including better
cross-training and putting more eyes on a given
client's files to allow
more scrutiny.

General Operational Effectiveness. This category
is a much more
subjective area to report on. We have received
the benefit of a couple
of extra positions at the Senior Deputy level.
It took us longer than
anticipated to find qualified individuals,
leading to the present
situation of one Senior Deputy position being
filled and the other one
used for hiring at the deputy level. At an
appropriate time in the
future, we anticipate being able to have two
qualified Senior Deputies
in position and the supervisory functions in the
office handled by such
people. Thus, it is significantly better than
the former flat structure
was, but not as good as it will be. Our fiscal
unit is functioning with
checks and controls in place, but needs a
stronger level of supervision.
I will be seeking budget help to beef up this
important part of the
operation during 2007/08. We also intend to give
greater concentration
next year in making better use of our revenue
sources. During this
rebuilding process, I elected to place less
emphasis on the revenue side
and greater focus on getting operations to a
place where we can be proud
of the level of service we provide. I also
intend to seek funding in FY
07/08 for an internal audit as a method of
verifying for all that our
changes have been integrated into regular
operations and to have the
opportunity for fine tuning our procedures to
keep the standards high.
I also will ask for funding for a new
case-management and accounting
software package to replace the antiquated system
now in place.

Audit Reports. My understanding is that the
audit firm who was
retained by the CEO will be presenting its
reports on the final two
phases of the review sometime within the next ten
days. Those reports
are expected to be combined and will be presented
directly to the CEO
for distribution to the Board members, my office,
and the other parties
of interest.

Why the county supervisors have been worried about trivial things check out this link.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=52120124

The gang members in Oxnard will supply you with an entire list of their gangs membership, what "crew" they are with and their real names.

They even list their occupation as gang banging.

Why? Because they have no fear of the government. They know the government hasn't stopped them.

A gang of urban terrorists have taken over Oxnard and brag about their lawlessness and yet we do nothing.

John Flynn, how long until a major crack down makes it so Oxnard is safe from these problem?

Why isn't this the number one issue on the agenda of the Board of Supervisors.

And why are they allowed to openly operate. Why don't they fear the police?

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=16489905

In that profile the gang member's name is F the pigs.

Can the cops not stop this madness?

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65625156

In this profile the gang member admits to selling drugs and carrying a gun.

He even has pictures of his guns.

Remember folks, in Oxnard this is not the top of every elected persons agenda.

Mr. Flynn, How is Peter Foy's gang task force going?

The Gang comments and question.

The city of Oxnard has taken action to put certain gang orgainzations under the control of an injunction.The injunction restricts gang members activities.

Chief Crombach, Oxnard Police Chief, says the the injunction is having a positive impact. There are considerably less homicides.

The city and county are developing a prevention program that will give young people a different more healthy path to follow. Supervisor Foy and I are working with other community leaders to form Boy Scout troops. These will be organized around soccer but will also include the tradition Scout values development.

Our aim along with leaders in this city is to make the city safe.

Hi John,

Thank you for your response and your knd words.

Reading your post in regards to the public guardians office illustrates that placing clients outside of the County is a systemic problem with children and adults, tough challenge with cost of housing etc.

I will follow up with Pam Roach, Chair of the Children's Committee and also Dr. Borchard to see if developing a RTC level 12 is on the radar possibly with funding through the MHSA. After I talk to them I will give Sup. Parks a call.

Thank you John for your public service, your kindheartedness for the down trodden has always shown through.

Has Peter Foy spoken to you about his plan to create term limits for supervisors?

What do you think of his plans?

Also, has he spoken to you about the need for ethics reforms in the county? Where do you see the most pressing need?

Term limits. It's a little late to be asking me this question. However, I think 36 years could be a good limit. John

Has Peter Foy mentioned it to you?

What exactly is the reason for term limits again? Is it to stop the voters from getting their way too long or what? Watch this video if your Republican... If you feel the need to switch parties contact Brian Dennert and he will get a voter registration form out to you as soon as possible.

The fact of the matter is the Ventura County Probate and Conservator department would still be ripping off disabled and dead people if they did not get caught by a private attorneys investigator. It was not just the conservator side of Mr. Matheneys department that were actively using the taxpayers money to embezzle their "clients" it also happend on the probate side.
Mr. Matheney,
Don't even bother running. You will be lucky if your not in prison let alone running for anything. I hope someday you understand how much pain you caused your "clients".
Burn in hell you incompendent douchebag.

WHAT