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Public fiduciary asks board to extend benefits specialist position as caseload grows
Summary
The county public fiduciary told supervisors that rising caseloads, delays at Social Security and growing financial exploitation cases require extending a limited-term benefits specialist position through June 2026 and modest increases to indigent decedent payments.
Rashida, the county public fiduciary, briefed the Board of Supervisors on May 6 about workload and staffing needs in the office that manages guardianships, conservatorships and indigent decedent services.
Rashida told the board her staff oversees about 130 active clients with duties ranging from court-accounting filings to benefit applications and trustee operations. She said Social Security application times have lengthened and that delays could leave incapacitated wards without personal spending or bill payments until benefits are approved. “If it’s going to start increasing the lead time to a year, that presents a problem because our clients don’t have funds,” she said.
The public fiduciary asked the board to extend a three‑year limited‑term benefits specialist position for a fourth year, through June 30, 2026, and noted that the county has covered certain indigent decedent cremation rates at $750 per case since 2017. Rashida proposed raising that reimbursement to $1,100 to align the county with comparable Arizona counties and to keep local mortuaries willing to accept indigent cases.
Board members voiced support for the extension and asked staff to monitor Social Security backlog risks. Supervisors later approved the manager’s recommended increments that include a CPI adjustment and the one‑year extension recommendation as part of the FY26 manager package; the public fiduciary will return for any follow-up budgeting if new federal changes increase risk to services.
