Budget Conference Committee Restores $1.4M to CCLD Budget
The Legislative Budget Conference Committee, a joint panel of the Senate and Assembly, this week voted to add $1.4 million to the Community Care Licensing Division budget, the Sacramento Bee reports (Benson, Sacramento Bee, 6/8).
Officials "did a very poor job" last year of inspecting care facilities, performing fewer than half of the required inspections during the 2003-2004 fiscal year, Department of Social Services Chief Deputy Director Robert Sertich said in April.
The state this fiscal year will not visit 20% of assisted-living facilities and child care centers scheduled for inspection and likely will not perform 15% of random spot checks of facilities that are required by state law (California Healthline, 4/28).
The Bee reports that CCLD is "ignoring some arrests" of care workers for drug possession and other offenses. According to the Bee, "[t]housands of rap sheets" are "piling up" in the CCLD office.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) proposed allocating $19.5 million to CCLD, with a $2.6 million increase to help the agency perform scheduled inspections. Schwarzenegger also proposed a $1.4 million funding cut for CCLD in an undetermined area, which the budget conference committee rescinded.
Schwarzenegger could use a line-item veto to eliminate the $1.4 million from the final budget (Sacramento Bee, 6/8).