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NOTE: Background entitled: Marshal's Office is Caught in Y2K Jam

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Title: Marshal's Department sees red

FINANCE: A basic accounting error is blamed for part of its almost $900,000 budget shortfall.

April 20, 2000

By CHRIS REED The Orange County Register

The Marshal's Department will need nearly $900,000 from the county general fund to balance its books for the current fiscal year  a shortfall blamed in part on a rudimentary accounting mistake.

The red ink was discovered during a review ordered last month after supervisors almost emptied the department's automation trust fund to cover $760,000 in Y2K-related computer bills that Marshal John E. Fuller couldn't pay.

Orange County budget analyst Steve Rodermund said Wednesday that about two-thirds of the newly found $870,000 shortfall resulted from overly optimistic forecasts of revenue the department would receive from the public in fees for serving legal summons and from the state for providing courtroom security.

But about $300,000 of the gap resulted from a basic error. Budget officials evaluating anticipated computer-related costs saw two entries of about the same size for fiscal 1999-2000 and deleted one.

"They thought they were one and the same thing," Rodermund said.

Supervisors were told of the shortfall in a blunt memo last week from county Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier, who decried the Marshal's Department's "ongoing inability ... to stay within its budget" and move ahead with its planned merger with the Sheriff's Department.

Fuller, who became marshal a year ago, said Wednesday that he resented Mittermeier's "innuendoes that ... I'm somehow shirking my responsibilities."

Fuller acknowledged the $300,000 accounting error. However, he said, the rest of the shortfall was because of factors beyond his control  vacancies in judgeships reducing state funding for court security and a downturn in legal filings cutting into fees.

He said that though revenue estimates were low, spending was also likely to be lower than the $34 million budgeted for his 460-employee department.

And the marshal said he and Sheriff Mike Carona had made considerable progress on merger plans.

Carona, who served as marshal before Fuller, was unavailable for comment.

In fiscal 1998-99, the last year in which Carona oversaw the Marshal's Department budget, the county had to cover a $255,000 shortfall.

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http://www.ocregister.com/community/marsh020w1.shtml

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 20, 2000

Answers

CORRECTION TO ABOVE LINK...Here is the story from March 10...

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Title: Marshal's office is caught in Y2K jam

COUNTY: Request is made for $760,000 to upgrade computers. Supervisor seeks accountability.

March 10, 2000

By CHRIS REED The Orange County Register

It turns out Y2K was a headache for Orange County's government after all  or at least the Marshal's Department.

The department's 11th-hour rush to ensure its new computer system was Y2K-compliant by Jan. 1 generated huge bills that it can't pay.

As a result, Marshal John E. Fuller has asked the Board of Supervisors for quick approval of a $760,000 transfer from his department's automation trust fund. The account, funded by fees collected with each civil-court filing, would be almost empty after the transfer.

But Supervisor Todd Spitzer says Fuller needs to explain why his department struggled to meet Y2K deadlines.

"Initially, it was represented as a $400,000 problem," Spitzer said. "I want to be sure they don't need more money."

The computer system  now 95 percent installed  keeps tabs on marshals' various duties, which include providing courthouse security, serving arrest warrants, seizing property to satisfy judgments, and other court-related services.

Fuller, who succeeded Mike Carona as marshal in February 1999, said the loss of key workers to other departments and to illness delayed crucial work on the computer system.

He said an "accounting faux pas" was to blame for his requesting Y2K- related funding weeks after 2000 began.

Carona, who is now sheriff, said the computer project was on track when he left.

Fuller "needs to own up" to his department's problems, Spitzer said. "This raises questions about oversight."

http://www.ocregister.com/community/marsh010w.shtml

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 20, 2000.