Board OKs Phase-out Of Overseas Firm's Oversight

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The Board of Supervisors Tuesday authorized the Riverside County Executive Office to take charge of coordinating most of the remaining reform initiatives started by an overseas firm hired at a cost of $40 million to make county agencies more efficient and less expensive.

Netherlands-based KPMG was retained in October 2015 to audit public safety agencies to determine where operations could be improved to net savings and increase productivity. A few months later, the board contracted with the company to handle an institutional revamp for public safety, as well as most general government agencies.

County Chief Executive Officer George Johnson and his staff received the board's approval to handle a series of transitions that largely remove KPMG from the "work stream" and put the EO in charge of managing "the various transformation initiatives" underway.

The EO stated in its brief to the board that the KPMG work had achieved $90 million to $100 million in savings during the last several budget cycles, primarily by denying or deferring requests for additional funding from the public safety units based on the reorganization that began in 2016. The projected annual savings going forward due to the changes implemented under KPMG's direction is $11.5 million, officials said.

One of the big pilot projects developed by KPMG is an efficiency plan for changing patrol operations at the sheriff's Jurupa Valley station, which not only serves the city, but also its neighboring municipalities of Eastvale and Norco, as well as a few surrounding unincorporated communities.

Johnson said $2 million had been reserved for the project, but Supervisor Marion Ashley advocated an additional $500,000 be spent, and his colleagues agreed.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who opposed the KPMG concept from the beginning because of the size of expenditures, questioned whether the Jurupa Valley initiative would suffice to serve as a model, saving the county from having to do similar projects elsewhere in the county.

Undersheriff Bill DiYorio replied that the effort should be enough to prove viability.

"We can take the data and use it without having to test everywhere," he said. "We can look at the data and extrapolate that out."

By winding down the KPMG contract now, the county will realize an immediate savings of $3 million, documents showed. However, there is still another $6.25 million owed the company. Expenditures to date total nearly $32 million.

The EO noted that the KPMG work has "yielded significant benefits over the last two and a half years, transforming county government in the process, identifying and implementing more efficient, cost-effective ways to deliver services to constituents and departments."

Sheriff Stan Sniff has challenged the firm's pilot programs, questioning whether they could remake the sheriff's department into the streamlined, lower-cost agency that several board members and Executive Office administrators believed possible.

In January, Sniff blasted a program designed by KPMG to optimize deputies' work schedules and better prioritize calls for service in the Hemet and San Jacinto valleys. Sheriff's officials complained that overtime expenses had shot up nearly 9 percent and deployment times had increased an average three minutes after KPMG's initiative went live.

The Executive Office countered that the pilot program succeeded in hastening deputies' responses to "priority one calls," or crimes in progress, and abridged residents' wait times for service across the board, even on weekends.

The chasm between Sniff's view of the KPMG undertaking and the board's objectives in pushing for it culminated in an open confrontation between Sniff and Supervisor John Tavaglione, a steadfast backer of the company's actions, who at one point referred to the sheriff as a "child" for his perceived resistance to the reformation plan.

Tavaglione is retiring in December, along with Ashley.

Candidates seeking both men's seats have generally denounced the KPMG contract as a boondoggle. Service Employees International Union, Local 721, representing clerks, nurses, social workers and others, has criticized it as a monumental waste of taxpayer funds. The union is attempting to stop the county from imposing its last, best and final offer on a new collective bargaining agreement and is seeking salary and benefits increases for all members.

The Executive Office said that thanks to KPMG's work, the sheriff's department's records management and jail information management systems have been upgraded, while efforts to improve jail utilization to conserve correctional space have had an impact, with projects to make the most of limited patrol deputy staffing in unincorporated areas moving forward.

The agency said that the District Attorney's Office and the Office of the Public Defender have benefited from KPMG pilot projects concentrated on shifting workloads to improve labor output.

The Department of Human Resources has initiated plans to reduce duplication of duties by personnel, credited to KPMG. There are also "performance dashboards" in place to ensure that "customers are receiving the best service possible," according to the EO.

The firm's recommendations based on analyses of operations in the Economic Development Agency and the Animal Services, Public Social Services, and Information Technology departments have further resulted in prospective cost-saving modifications, officials said.

— By PAUL J. YOUNG City News Service / Patch file photo by Renee Schiavone