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Area Agency on Aging clears corrective action plan after state monitoring; registered dietitian hired
Summary
ACSSA staff reported California Department of Aging monitoring findings for the county AAA and described a corrective action plan addressing contracting, fiscal procedures, provider monitoring and the hiring of a registered dietitian; staff said they have implemented updated monitoring and will issue RFPs for contracts.
Faith Battles, assistant agency director for Adult and Aging Services, and Robert Wooley, Finance Director, briefed the committee on monitoring by the California Department of Aging (CDA) and the resulting corrective action plan.
CDA’s program monitoring (conducted last November) identified seven primary concern areas, including contract resolution, account reconciliation, fiscal policies and procedures, insufficient monitoring of subcontracted providers, late submissions of expenditures and closeouts, missing complaint and resolution procedures, and the absence of an on‑staff registered dietitian for nutrition programs. AAAs oversee senior nutrition programs that constitute the majority of the AAA budget.
County staff described steps taken to remediate findings: recruitment and hiring of a registered dietitian (Zalay Etienne) in July; updated fiscal and procurement procedures aligned with federal and state rules; resumption of onsite monitoring for 29 current contracts and a plan to monitor annually; and revised contracting templates (one‑year base terms with three one‑year options) to comply with CDA requirements.
Battles and Wooley said they will release nine RFPs covering roughly 90 contracts in the next procurement cycle and implement strengthened data reporting and service‑unit definitions to improve oversight. Supervisors asked about capacity, coordination with cities and culturally appropriate meal services; staff said many providers already deliver ethnically specific meals and the new RFPs will continue to prioritize culturally appropriate services where needed.
The presenters characterized the corrective action work as complete and ongoing — addressing past pandemic‑era relaxations of monitoring practices and restoring full compliance with CDA requirements.
