HHSA’s New Chief Fiscal Officer Leaves Shasta County Employment After Only Two Months on the Job
Rahsaan Dean was hired to oversee the agency’s finances. He reported not to the Agency’s director but to the Administrative Branch Director.
7.30.24 11:58 am: We have updated the article to correct Dean’s title.
Rahsaan Dean started his new role as Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency’s Chief Fiscal Officer in late May. He lasted only two months in the role.
It’s not clear whether HHSA’s new CFO resigned or was fired. An email shared with Shasta Scout by sources inside the county indicate that HHSA Administrative Branch Deputy Director Trisha Boss informed other employees of Dean’s departure on Friday, July 26. The County’s Support Services Director Monica Fugitt said yesterday that she could confirm that the 26th was Dean’s last day but could not provide any additional information.
Dean was hired to manage and oversee all fiscal and accounting services agency-wide. He reported, not to HHSA Director Laura Burch but instead to a mid-level manager two levels down, Erinn Watts, head of HHSA’s Administrative Branch which manages HHSA’s fiscal planning, contracts, assets, audits, community relations, and medical billing.
HHSA has a budget of about $300 million consisting of both state and county funds, which is used to operate more than 100 programs and employ more than 1,000 staff. Questions about financial management have repeatedly plagued HHSA since Burch was appointed as the Agency’s director in late 2022.
Over the last several months, HHSA management has appeared before the county Board of Supervisors twice to ask for approval of budgetary adjustments totaling about $18M, some of which were not brought to supervisors’ attention for more than a year. Last year HHSA also received a legal warning from a state agency after failing to turn over $4 million in NorCal Continuum of Care funds to the City of Redding. Burch has still not supplied the NorCal CoC with related accounting documentation, despite repeated requests.
During June budget hearings, Burch painted a grim picture of HHSA’s financial future, saying saying downturns in the economy and proposed state budget cuts are coinciding with an increasing local demand for services, particularly assistance with food, jobs and housing.
Burch’s salary costs will rise over $29 million this year, despite a net reduction of eighty-one positions.
County CEO David Rickert confirmed for Shasta Scout in May that HHSA is experiencing financial issues, saying those issues relate at least in part to newly-hired mid-level managers who lack the expertise to make good financial decisions.
Watts and her Deputy Branch Director, Boss, were hired after the former Administrative Branch Director Megan Dorney and former Deputy Administrative Branch Director Michael Conti abruptly left HHSA last year, for unknown reasons.
Watts was promoted to Branch Director from her previous role as program manager. She’s supervised by Assistant HHSA Director Christy Coleman, who is filling a newly-created role as second-in-command over the agency. Both Watts and Coleman used to work with Burch in Child Support Services.
Burch did not respond to a request for comment on Dean’s departure.
Do you have a correction to this story? Information to share? Email editor@shastascout.org.
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Part of the budget increase is most probably due to the higher salaries being paid out. Megan Dorney’s salary was $142,206 when she left while Laura Burch got a great package with a salary of $185,875. It’s a huge 31% pay increase for a person newly hired for a job. Laura must have wowed the Board of Supervisors and brought exceptional skills and capabilities to merit the increase.
Rose, Laura and Megan held two different positions.
You’d compare Laura Burch’s salary with Donnel Ewert as HHSA Directors. Its not a perfect comparison as Mr Ewert was also the Mental Health Director. Megan Dorney’s would be compared with Erinn Watts as Directors of the Administration Branch within HHSA.
There isn’t anyone to compare Christy Coleman’s salary to as this position was created for her by Laura Burch
Looking for Light: Thanks for the time to clarify this for readers!
Illuminato – Here’s the thing: In a vacuum of information, people fill in the blanks with their best guesses. Often, those best guesses are based on past experiences. Many people have personally had bad experiences or have just had front row seats to the sh*t show Laura has created. Many people’s careers have been harmed by her actions. The community has been severely harmed by her actions and the people she has chosen to hand positions to. Call them haters, but it sounds like you haven’t walked a mile in their shoes so maybe don’t call people names here.
Sounds like Laura and her team made another costly screw up in hiring yet another person who was completely wrong for the position they were handed.
You seem to have information others don’t happen to have. Sounds as though you are saying CFO was fired. Who would you recommend people ask to get that information? Management doesn’t typically like to talk about firing someone, so that kind of informs isn’t usually shared. Even if someone is directly asked.
And actually, Laura herself has said she isn’t qualified for the BHSS position – she just happens to be able to fill in since it is her responsibility as the Agency Director. She would not pass the screening for that position.
Since you seem to be in the know, can you shed some light on the fiscal anomalies? Some of us may have been hoping he did leave voluntarily and that he might be willing to share what he might have found. So far we haven’t been able to get anyone to answer our questions. I think we will all be making our best guesses until someone finally provides actual answers.
Chill out? Rude.
there are a lot of comments here that are incorrect. it would be so much more productive if people really knew what they were talking about instead of spreading misinformation and lies (or even worse, providing false information because they really don’t know what they are talking about and just want to jump in on the hate wagon). I know for fact that the CFO was a BAD hire! he didn’t know what he was even doing and many of us could see it. I am glad they figured it out and didn’t waste anymore time with this phony. he talks a good talk but he didn’t contribute on damn thing. kudos to whoever made that decision. regarding ms burch as interim mental health director – she couldn’t be interim unless one of two things occur… 1. board approval AND 2. DHCS must approve it – she qualifies only because she has overseen the program since she has been the director. so, chill out, get your facts straight and stop the hate. if you want to know – ask the source. this is not the source. do better – be better
Nothing false about a huge loss of reputation, integrity and respect the Shasta HHSA had nationally and within the State. Must be just a coinky dink that this occurred during Laura` s watch and the BOS evaluation on HHSA “efficiencies”.
Miguel Rodriguez is head of shasta county children & family services he hasn’t done his job there either he’s left Tara Shanahan to do his job & sadly there’s a few corrupt social workers in the agency and the courthouse need a good clean out
Darius: I have edited your comment to remove the names of specific social workers.
Laura Burch interim mental health director…Give me a break, she hasn’t been to one meeting of the mental health, alcohol and drug advisory board. Directors Donnell Ewert and Marta Mckenzie were always there. She is NOT qualified to be the mental health director. The county is falling apart. Hopefully with new BOS come January, things will start to change.
Concerned Citizen: I did notice her on zoom at the last MHADAB meeting.
He must not have been a YES MAN!!
well i guess we can feel safe because our erstwhile supervisors –crye & jones– have protected our rights to keep and bare arms…and by golly they have stood up to that evil newsom in sacramento. by golly doing the will of out of county millionaires is way more important than taking care of the daily business of running a county government. this is the price we pay for allowing ideological dimwits to come to power.
When the HHSA was formed less than two decades ago, it immediately made a name for itself. The HHSA Director, the Branch Directors, Deputy Directors, Managers and Anaylysts were very well respected. They were sought ought by other Counties, State Agencies, Federal Agencies and Independent programs and contractors for their expertise. They served as mentors for other entity leadership teams. They had great influence with State and Federal legislative bodies as well as with Agency specific policy makers. They were asked by these folks to provide the knowledge of services, regulations, pitfalls, successes and failures. The influence little old Shasta County had was immense.
Now the HHSA is a laughingstock. The knowledge and expertise held no value to the Board of Supervisors and it’s newly hand picked Director and her friends. The impact and influence once held by the Shasta County HHSA has eroded and is almost non existence. Policy and lawmakers seek out the advice of others and do not want to be associated to this disaster. Shasta County no longer can provide insight on policies or legislation that will better serve it`s residents. No longer a leader within the field and no longer having a respected voice with those who impact change.
You are absolutely right! The agency went from being the core hub of the region, a proud voice for rural capacity, and support to all of neighboring counties. Now nothing more than a defunct laughing stock. We now have near zero operational capacity to support the people within the county let alone be a regional hub, or a North State advocate.
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS NEEDS TO TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION AND REMEDY THE FAILURE THEY HAVE CREATED.
Laura B was anointed Interim Branch Director as the Board proclaimed to the people that the HHSA would be evaluated on “efficiencies” during this upheaval. They did NO SUCH THING. Within a few months Laura was made permanent & lost the Interim title. She added a multitude of high salary positions in the executive team and staffed them with her friends, coworkers and real estate agent. She ran off Branch Directors, Deputy Directors, Clinical staff, Analysts, Managers, Accountants and direct service staff. She also added a lawyer.
The efficiencies DID NOT get better, they got WORSE. The HHSA EXECUTIVE TEAM and the BOARD OF SUPERVISORS need to take accountability for THEIR actions.
THIS DUMPSTER FIRE NEEDS IMMEDIATE ATTENTION.
It might have also been helpful to appoint an interim with actual mental health experience and clinical credentials. We have staff who meet those criteria. Laura Burch lacks any type of clinical experience that would qualify her to serve as the director of mental health. The last two HHSA directors had the appropriate credentials. Because Laura does not qualify to hold the director title for mental health the county had to significantly increase the salary for Miguel Rodriguez, the branch director, to hold that role. There was no corresponding reduction to her salary. So her lack of experience and qualifications are costing taxpayers more money. Not exactly sound fiscal management. Not to mention the mass exodus of skilled, knowledgeable staff that continues under her toxic reign of incompetence, and which has decimated the agency. Laura Burch and the current leadership of the administration branch have created extreme deficits on multiple fronts, all of which will be difficult to overcome even after she retires.
Throw the mid management under the bus, classy. No financial decisions are made, approved, or finalized without Coleman. Want to apply for money- she approves or most likely disapproves. Want to make your budgets right? Nope use this spreadsheet she created with numbers she plugged in and make it work even if its not right. Because she knows best with all that child support and housing supervisor experience she has that made her so qualified to go from monitoring a program to giving financial directions on a 300 mil budget. That 4 mil housing money will never be accounted for it’s under so many rugs it might as well be carpet mart.
Now that Laura will be serving as Interim Director of Mental Health (why not appoint someone who actually already works in that branch?) How many more millions of dollars and lives can she play with, without anyone keeping her in check?
Based on business as usual under Burch’s lead (and her pals’ backup) there aren’t likely too many employees surprised to hear the new CFO is already out.
When it is so crystal clear that something is very wrong going on, why do the people apparently have no power? Even when people risk their jobs and pensions to come forward with evidence and media shines a light on the disease infecting the County and the mismanagent of tax money we are required to pour into a broken organization, NOBODY IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
Kevin literally laughs in our faces and says/does anything he wants. Jones regularly breaks rules (and likely multiple laws). Laura and Christy and their entourage make sure they and their friends rake in the big bucks, “lose” and mismanage MILLIONS, cut jobs from the people trying to hold programs together, disenfranchise anyone who disagres with them, and get away with outrageously obvious unfair and damaging hiring practices. Then they walk away with an “atta boy” from Crye and Jones, who pave the way for them to continue to run rampant making incompetent and disastrous fiscal decisions.
Anyone with eyes is seeing the cancer eating away at the County. Does anyone know how to implement consequences? With the people causing the destruction sitting comfortably in positions of power, is it even possible?
Ok within the last few months Robin Schurig left after 20 years, Miguel Rodriguez after the org was restructured to accommodate for Laura not having sufficient qualifications to lead like Ewert did, now the new CFO after 2 months and Charlene Ramont another 20 year leader is on their way out in Aug. There are no directors or deputy directors remaining due to poor decisions made by Laura and Christy. The budgets are in shambles, staffing doing double work to cover positions deleted, fiscal staff left in droves. Nobody wants to be abused by these two anymore. They are completely incompetent. All those folks that wanted forensic audits, it would be wild to see what has been swept under the rugs at the Agency. Pull from one budget to pay back mistakes in others. Deleted positions to hide the severe staffing shortages. Inappropriate relationships, hiring besties to leadership… it’s like a bad netflix series all served with a side of toast and toxicity.
Shasta County.
It’s always Shasta with these incompetent grifters.
A national embarrassment.
No secret that the board of supervisors on down are unqualified and spend most of their time doing favors for each other and their cronies. Of course the wholly unqualified and unethical faction of the board would work with the unqualified and unethical folks they support in varios department. This man would not be the first to clearly see the corruption in shasta county and get the hell out. Good for him.
Recalculating my last comment over roughly 800 HHSA employees puts an increase at over $36,000 per employee. Still seems too high.
Ex-HHSA employee: I’ll double check with Ms Burch, those numbers are from her budget report to the board in June. I think though that the increase in cost has a lot to do with additional high level positions that have been added, as well as some mid-level. I’m working on documenting all the changes to HHSA org charts over the last two years.
Did read that right? 81 headcount REDUCTION and a $29 million payroll INCREASE…plus commentary from county CEO that mid-management can’t make good financial decisions?!?
This should be the trifecta that spawns a grand jury investigation!
Where else but government will you find inept hiring practices backed by salary increases for the CEO labeled incompetent?
Something is wrong there. That averages out to $358,000 per person. Even when adding benefits that’s just not possible. As an underpaid ex-HHSA staff I can vouch for that.
Look at HHSA’s Strategic Plan,
https://www.shastacounty.gov/health-human-services/page/strategic-plans
2017 — 2019 — 22 pages
2018-2020 — 23 pages (PUBLIC HEALTH BRANCH*)
2022-2025 — 1 page … only a colorful chart and bullet points, please check the pdf’s properties to see that the document was created on 7/11/2024, 8:57:18 AM and modified 7/12/2024, 8:34:08 AM
Veronica: Thank you.
It’s interesting to note that the current “strategic plan” is almost entirely about how the agency functions internally and has virtually nothing to say about serving the clients. Since Laura took over, the agency is no longer focused on serving clients or the community. It’s all about staff serving the leadership and making them look competent (they aren’t) and caring (they aren’t). The concept of leadership supporting managers and supervisors so that they can support line staff who actually fulfill the agency’s mission to serve and care for the community is foreign to them. They aren’t leaders. So the employees are left to try and survive on a rudderless, rapidly sinking ship. Burch, Coleman, Watts, and Boss are simply rearranging deck chairs on the titanic and hoping to be the first into the lifeboats while the rest of us fight to keep our heads above water.
Sounds like the new person found something rather serious and that triggered the departure or firing…just an outside guess ! Somebody better find something on the top 3 at HHSA before one of them retires in December. Where’s the investigators on this obviously troubled agency ?
When it comes to the County nothing surprises me anymore.
$4 million in Continuum of Care funds recaptured? EXPLAIN PLEASE!
I too would like to know where the Northern CoC funds are? Those funds go out to multiple counties as the Continuum of Care is in charge of distributing those funds to said counties. Something seems a little off here.
Dana and Mike: after the state’s legal warning the county transferred the NorCal CoC funds to the city as required. The story is linked in the article.
I speculate that it took 2 short months to see how much Burch and Coleman have mismanaged funds to realize legally and ethically he didn’t want to be a part of it.
Not Surprised- I think you are on to something here and I bet Crye has a lot to do with it since he works “closely” with Laura and Christy. Mismanagement of public funds and lack of expertise by those hired to take over departments is coming to roost. Why was professional help not sought to audit and discover these discrepancies in finances before they cascaded. Maybe because the board majority are too inexperienced and won’t admit it.
California is being forced to cut all kinds of state, city & county programs in order to fund the new clean up of the homeless push after billions was spent with no record or evidence of where it was sent, spent . There’s a huge failure of accountability to the taxpayers $$$’s at all levels of government.
So the CFO was reporting to someone junior to him? And we wonder why he left.
Plus…what economic turndown? Unless we are talking about the loss of funds from developer fees? Yeah that would be unfortunate.