Los Angeles County
Probation Workers Escaped Discipline Because of Missed Deadlines. Los
Angeles County's Office of Independent Review, asked in March by the Board of
Supervisors to examine the internal investigation functions of the Los Angeles
County Probation Department, has found that the department has "a number
of significant problems," including employee discipline cases that had to
be dropped due to missed deadlines.
"Our review of this 6,000-member department revealed a
number of significant problems in the units most directly involved with
internal investigations and administrative discipline," the panel said.
"We discovered inordinate delays in completing and reviewing internal
investigations. As a result, in at least 31 cases over the past two calendar
years, the department may well be unable to discipline sworn employees who
violated policy because it was unable to complete the cases on time."
The review said those cases "are only emblematic of a
wholesale systems breakdown in which over half of all disciplinary cases were
completed five days or less shy of the statutory one-year deadline." This
caused victims, complainants, subject employees, and department managers in
over half the cases to wait almost a year before the cases were finalized.
"The bottlenecks that caused the delay derived primarily from bureaucratic
inefficiencies, insufficient tracking, and weak case management," the
review found.
In the Internal Affairs unit, the review found "quality
deficiencies in the investigations and a clear need for training in basic
investigative skills to professionalize their methods and work product."
In the Performance Management unit, the review found "significant holes in
documentation and an obscure, inconsistent process of case evaluation and
discipline decision-making."
"When we asked why some seemingly counterproductive
procedures exist, we often heard, 'That's the way we've always done it,'"
the report said.
On the plus side, the investigators stated: "During our
review, we observed a department already actively engaging in reforms on many
fronts with the assistance of the County offices of the CEO, the
Auditor/Controller and Human Resources. The Probation Department's managers
have already modified some aspects of their process during our review as a
result of our continuing dialogue with them. We hope that the receptive
attitude we encountered from its leaders will continue to sustain the
Department through this dynamic period of challenge and reform." (Source:
"Evaluation and Recommendations
Concerning Internal Investigations at the Los Angeles County Probation
Department – A Special Report by the Office of Independent Review, County of
Los Angeles," June 2.)
Cal-TaxReports, June 21, 2010
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