Tulare County approves response to grand jury on special districts, board seeks state cemetery probe

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors on June 3 approved the county dministration raft response to the 2024 nd'025 Tulare County Grand Jury report titled "Failure of Oversight: Tulare County Special Districts" and directed staff to send a complaint to the California Department of Consumer Affairs, Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, asking it to investigate problems raised at the Tulare Public Cemetery.

The vote to approve the board response and to request the cemetery probe was unanimous among supervisors present, 4—or, 0 gainst, with Supervisor Dennis Townsend not voting because he was not in attendance.

The grand jury report found a pattern of limited financial transparency and noncompliance among some special districts, and the board's draft responses agreed with all four findings. Israel Sotelo, chief of staff to the board, summarized the county raft response and told supervisors the county would support limited pilot options to help districts comply with audit requirements while noting feasibility and cost issues must be further analyzed by the auditor's office.

Why it matters

Grand jury findings that special districts lack consistent audited financials or easy-to-find…