Report I2022-1 Recommendations

The Department of Parks and Recreation (State Parks) should take appropriate corrective or disciplinary action against the district administrative officer and the district superintendent for their failures to follow state law and civil service rules when they assigned the employee to perform duties of a classification other than one to which her position was allocated.

State Parks should take appropriate corrective or disciplinary action against the HR liaison who violated the law by breaching the confidentiality of our investigation.

State Parks should provide training to all relevant staff about the confidential nature of the State Auditor's work specific to whistleblower investigations.

State Parks should recover the amount improperly paid to the employee to the extent permitted by state law.

The California State Lottery (Lottery) should take appropriate corrective or disciplinary action against the managers involved to ensure that they provide adequate supervision of their subordinates in the future.

The Lottery should initiate and pursue reimbursement, whether through direct payment or reduced leave balances, from Employees A and B for the hours for which they were paid but did not work.

The Department of Developmental Services (Developmental Services) should create written procedures to ensure compliance with the FLSA and include instructions specific to submission of the renewal application to the U.S. Department of Labor. The procedures should also include instructions for the required corrective actions related to retroactive payments when errors are identified.

Developmental Services should provide formal training pertaining to compliance with applicable sections of the FLSA to all employees responsible for the wage program and submission of the renewal application, including supervisors and management. The training should include how to develop prevailing wage surveys, time studies, and wage rates, and how to maintain proper recordkeeping.

The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) should, within the next 60 days, work with the CalHR and the State Personnel Board to complete the process of voiding the junior manager's unlawful appointment to the midlevel manager position.

Cal OES should, by June 2022, conduct the planned training on the merit-based hiring process for all employees involved in Cal OES's hiring and selection process.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) should reconcile the unaccounted for or unapproved leave use that we identified for the eight employees whose records we reviewed to ensure that their union leave since January 2019 has been correctly recorded, supported with approved requests, and paid for by the correct source.

CDCR should require the state employees who work on the reconciliation of employee-funded union leave to routinely cross-check that hours used are supported by union leave requests. They should further ensure that the dates and hours requested are consistent by including and thoroughly reviewing union members' union leave requests as part of the reconciliation process.

CDCR should establish written policies and procedures instructing its individual institutions to reconcile employees' timesheets with union leave requests when the employees report taking union leave.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) should consider including notice of this investigation in the superintendent's personnel file.

Caltrans should calculate the cost of the vehicle misuse and pursue collection of the funds from the superintendent.

Caltrans should improve management oversight procedures as appropriate and take steps to ensure that the Caltrans employees who use state vehicles at the superintendent's facility are doing so for state business only.