CSD Security Supervisor Explains Coverage Issues
Feb 21, 2024 01:12PM ● By Gail Bullen, River Valley Times Reporter, photo by Gail Bullen
RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Security was a topic at four different Rancho Murieta Community Services District (CSD) meetings in January, but Security Chief Kelly Benitez issued a warning about gate coverage at the Jan. 9 special board meeting.
Benitez told the board that even though the front gates were still operating 24/7, the pain of not having enough patrol officers was showing.
(Because of the lack of sufficient Measure J tax funding, CSD only employs three patrol officers. That compares to the past when five to six positions were funded because property taxes were used to make up the shortfall in the security budget. A 2023 Grand Jury finding criticized the district for using property taxes to shore up the security budget, saying it had jeopardized the financial stability of the district.)
Benitez explained that when a gate officer had an emergency in the past, a patrol officer would fill in. However, with security down to three patrol officers, with all out sick as of the Jan. 9 meeting, “The only person you have to come in for backup to is me,” he said. “These gates could be left open an hour or two hours until I get here (from town), and we keep coming close to that happening.”
When writing this story, the River Valley Times asked Benitez via email how many patrol shifts weren’t covered in January. He said only 28 were uncovered, which was a vast improvement over December when 38 shifts weren’t covered. In December, one officer was out for a month on vacation, another was injured and out for two months, and the third was sick for three weeks.
The primary issue at the January security meetings was how administrative overhead costs have affected the security budget. The resolution came at the Jan. 19 special board meeting when the board approved a new formula for allocating the overhead costs. Besides applying it to the current year, the board voted to apply it to the past three budgets that were still open to “right size” the financial records for those years.
Mark Matulich, the director of finance and administration, came up with the new formula for allocating administrative overhead at the request of Director Stephen Booth and General Manager Mimi Morris. Both had been concerned that the security burden had been too heavy under the prior formula.
Because the new formula showed that the security fund was in the black during the current fiscal year Director Randy Jenco asked Morris at the Jan. 19 meeting if that could mean another security position. Morris told him no. That’s because security is already operating a deficit, and the change to the indirect cost would just reduce the deficit, she said.
