Board directs staff to explore public guardian fee schedule after county discusses cost recovery

Social Services Assistant Director Laurie McGee presented a discussion item on whether Sierra County should establish fees for public guardian services to recover some costs and support indigent burial funding.

McGee told supervisors the public guardian program is currently an unfunded mandate and that surrounding counties have fee schedules (hourly charges or annual fees with exemptions). She said fees would generally be billed to a conservatee’s estate when funds exist but acknowledged many conservatees lack estates and that a substantial portion of current cases (she estimated 60–70%) lack funds to pay fees.

Nut graf: Supervisors gave staff direction to assemble a concise budget showing historical public guardian costs and to return with sample fee schedules and options for finance committee review so the board can weigh potential cost recovery against administrative burdens and equity concerns.

Discussion highlights: Board members noted concerns that fee collection costs could exceed recovered amounts for indigent cases and asked whether the county general fund had been subsidizing current services (McGee said social services is currently covering the costs). Supervisors expressed conditional support for exploring cost recovery and asked staff to bring examples from nearby counties and a one-page budget summary for the finance committee to review.

Decision/direction: Staff will prepare samples of fee schedules, cost history, and a finance review to return to the board for consideration; no fee schedule was adopted at this meeting.