It would give you an early-warning system that we don't now have. The state already rejected this advice once, however. In 1991, a Department of Social Services internal task force recommended that group homes be required to submit annual certified audits to the state. Instead, the task force, which helped shut down a rash of group homes, was disbanded and largely forgotten. The directors are supposed to review all financial operations of the homes, but in numerous cases are not kept abreast of daily operations.
Some directors live in other counties or even other states, according to state records.
Just how costly this lapse can be for taxpayers can be found in the case of Heart to Heart Youth Services in Sacramento County. The other corporate directors, meanwhile, all of whom were volunteers, did not participate in decisions involving major fiscal and program matters, state records show. One man listed in Heart to Heart documents as a director told state investigators he had not heard of Heart to Heart and was never a board member. Directors also could not recall being told that Kubiak and Montague rented the properties that housed the children to the corporation, or what the rents were. Larryl Lynch, an independent filmmaker who was on the board from 1994 until 1996, told The Bee that he did not have time to understand Heart to Heart's finances.