Sacramento County treats its coronavirus problem by funding police. That’s malpractice
I’ve been a working journalist for more than 30 years and I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a bigger clown show than the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting this week.
It was nothing less than governmental malpractice. The County of Sacramento received $181 million in federal dollars to combat the coronavirus pandemic. And where did $104 million of it go? For salaries and benefits in the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
And when Nav Gill, the county CEO, was asked to justify it, he said he did it as a money “swap” that kept the county budget whole while also addressing COVID-19.
Every department that needed help fighting COVID-19 would get it, Gill said. Just tell us what you need.
Except that isn’t true.
Did Gill lie? Well, some members of the public think he did and said so during public testimony. At the least, he such a sloppy leader that this whole situation blew up like a stink bomb on his watch. He said he was embarrassed. And whether he lied, his county health department badly the money to fight COVID-19 but were confused about how much they could or should ask for.
Olivia Kasirye, the county health officer, said her department (at 5:29 in the session) was told it could only ask for $1.8 million. It did, but didn’t get all of it. She said the county denied it $125,000 in overtime expenses. She said the department was told to get that from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Kasiyre said she was later told she could ask for more. She identified $90 million in needs but cut the figure to $45 million. She said her department prepared a proposal for $45 million but fiscal analysts within her department waved her off.
“We were told they (the county) were not accepting requests,” Kasirye said.
Why did officials within county health believe they couldn’t ask for the money specifically set aside for COVID-19 emergencies? We don’t know.
But we know this health officials are working day and night to fight the war of COVID-19. They are exhausted. The fault of this clown show falls on the county CEO, who makes in the neighborhood of $400,000 a year.
County needed CARES money
Keep in mind that Sacramento County is not flattening the curve on COVID-19 because we don’t have enough testing, we don’t have contact tracing and test results aren’t coming back fast enough to determine who is sick.
Because of this, county schools will not open this fall. Because of this, county businesses are getting crushed because they can’t open.
The federal funds of $181 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, signed in March by President Donald Trump, that was supposed to address a public health emergency turning our lives upside down.
And Gill put most of it in the budget of Sheriff Scott Jones.
Kasirye was asked when she was turned down for the money. In July, she said. And Supervisor Don Nottoli seemed to wonder if that was because a new fiscal year had begun.
But here’s the rub: There was no such deadline imposed by the CARES Act. By the way the act is written, Kasirye should have gotten millions by now. What did she want to use it for?
She proposed that $23 million go to improving the county lab that conducts between 300 and 400 COVID-19 tests a day on its best day, a number that everyone agrees is too low.
She wanted $35 million to add more staff so more tests can be done and more people can be safe.
“We’ve been very dependent on the assistance of volunteers,” Kasirye said. “Our staff are working long hours, sometimes seven days a week. People are really exhausted.”
As I was watching this play out, it was dawning on me that my kids won’t be in school this fall when they need to be – and my friends are losing their jobs and businesses – because COVID-19 has shut down our county.
The COVID shell game
And much more could have been done about that but the damned money is in Scott Jones’ budget.
Kasirye’s boss, Dr. Peter Beilenson, said his department has only received “3 or 4 or 5 million” in CARES Act money.
When asked to explain, Gill stuck to his “there is no impediment” to the health department, or other departments, getting more money to fight COVID-19.
Again, Kasiyre said differently.
“I have to disagree,” she said. “We did not get everything we need.”
When she said this, it was like a secret had been revealed. In a sense, it had been.
Supervisors were apparently caught flat-footed by all of this. They unanimously authorized Gill to distribute CARES Act funds in April with the hope that by doing so, the county would be “nimble” in responding to the virus.
It has not been nimble.
The virus has overwhelmed the county health department and the entire county by extension.
Gill’s shell game is a culprit and it was done with no oversight from the supervisors the public elected to be its representatives.
“Shell game” are not my words.
“This does look like a shell game to me,” Supervisor Patrick Kennedy said of Gill’s handling of CARES Act money.
By the time Kasirye finished talking, members of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors seemed incredulous.
Kennedy quoted numbers from the Los Angeles County usage of CARES Act money. He said of the $1.2 billion L.A. County received, more than $600 million went to public health measures. He said $200 million went to rent relief.
“It seems like much more of it went directly to where it was intended,” Kennedy said.
You think?
“I’m trying to reconcile the different stories without calling people liars,” County Supervisor Phil Serna said.
During public commentary, people did not hesitate in calling Gill a liar.
“Public health clearly needs more money,” said Flojaune G. Cofer, senior director of policy at Public Health Advocates. “Nav Gill is outright lying to public officials.”
Cassandra Jennings, president and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Urban League, said: “How did a pandemic turn into a law enforcement issue?”
By the end of the meeting, Serna moved to have the supervisors distribute the rest of the CARES Act money.
But about only $20 million is left. The damage has already been done.
Where was the oversight in distributing CARES Act money when COVID-19 was overwhelming Sacramento County?
The answer is, there wasn’t any.
So several issues come to mind now:
First, supervisors need to fire Gill for bungling the county’s response to COVID-19, for funneling CARES Act money to Jones and for possibly lying about it.
Supervisors need to find the county health department the money it needs from the general fund.
And lastly, the public needs to wake up to the clown show that is Sacramento County government.
There is a public health emergency, there was money to fight it more effectively and the health officials didn’t get it.
That’s what they call a scandal.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 11:25 AM.
CORRECTION: This story was changed to clarify County Health Officer’ Olivia Kasirye’s request for CARES Act funds and Sacramento County CEO Nav Gill’s role in that decision.
