(FOX40.COM) — The Placer County Grand Jury announced on Monday that they have received responses to their final report findings that were issued in June.
Some of the investigations included in the grand jury’s report were the budgetary concerns of the South Placer Fire District and the spending on homelessness within Placer County.
The grand jury is made up of 19 jurors who have been Placer County residents for at least one year and is tasked with investigating complaints submitted by citizens.
South Placer Fire District
Some of the key findings by the grand jury include:
• Existing revenue streams are insufficient for the district to maintain its operations
• Parcel assessment is insufficient for the division to maintain current operation levels
• Constituents seem unaware of the district’s performance and operating needs
In response the fire district said they disagree that the current revenue streams were insufficient if the grand jury was basing their opinion on actions the fire district took prior to September 2022.
In September, FOX40.com reported that the South Placer Fire District, which covers part of Granite Bay, Loomis, Penryn and Newcastle, would be closing stations due to budgeting shortfalls.
The closures included stations 19 in Granite Bay and relocating personnel and equipment from Station 15 along East Roseville Parkway in Granite Bay to Station 16 along Olive Ranch Road, also in Granite Bay.
They also closed down a truck company that specialized in search and rescue, ventilation and auto extraction because it lacked sufficient capabilities of delivering water to fires.
“It is the District’s position that these changes were necessary to provide a service level consistent with revenues, and in making these changes, the District will be in a more solid financial position in the future,” the fire district wrote in their response.
The fire district did agree that they believe the general public is mostly unaware of the financial struggles they are facing and how that continues to risk the operational success of the district.
In response, the district has strengthened its social media presence, organized quarterly open houses, participated in public events and meetings, collaborated with the chamber of commerce and is bringing back public annual reports.
Homelessness Spending in Placer County
The grand jury investigated the county-wide spending on homelessness from July 2021 to March 2023 and looked at the county’s five cities and one incorporated town.
Their investigation revealed that county-wide spending on homelessness in that time period was around $80 million.
The key findings from this investigation were:
• There is little communication between the cities, towns and the county on homelessness funding and expenditures
In response to the grand jury’s five total findings they only agreed with ‘Finding 4’ that “Funding for homelessness services comes from various sources including city, town, county, state and federal governments and non-profit organizations.”
The county said they disagreed that $80 million was spent county-wide on homelessness within the time period that the grand jury investigated.
Replicating figures, lack of detailed spreadsheet’s and methodology is why the county thinks the grand jury came up with their sum of $80 million.
The county also said that “key informants” were not provided an opportunity to check the grand jury’s final calculation before the report was published.
Although the county disagreed with the counties $80 million figure, the Town of Loomis and the cities of Roseville and Rocklin agreed with the multi-million spending figure.
Auburn and Lincoln did not include responses to the amount spent in the given time period and the City of Colfax did not submit a response by the Oct. 1 deadline.
The county and the cities of Loomis, Rocklin and Roseville disagreed either wholly or partially that the different governments do not communicate with each other on how they are spending their homeless funding.
