Amador County Grand Jury attacks ex-CAO Daly

By Kathryn Reed

The just released Amador County Grand Jury report rips Terri Daly for her ineptness when it comes to finances.

Daly is the current chief administrative officer for El Dorado County. She was CAO of Amador County from March 2007-10. The incident in the report occurred during her tenure in Amador.

Terri Daly

The report says, “Assuming $7.14 million in future indebtedness for $400,000 cash in hand is a very bad deal.”

The Amador report comes on the heels of the El Dorado County Grand Jury that called the county dysfunctional.

The Amador County issue involves the lease of the Health and Human Services buildings. There had been an agreement in place in 2006, but Daly renegotiated it in 2008.

“In the course of its investigation, the grand jury found flaws with literally every aspect of the lease negotiation process. The end result is a commitment to continue the current lease for five extra years at a cost of over $7 million, when a less expensive lease could have been obtained. Simple math would have identified the excessive costs associated with the lease,” the report says.

“The Amador Grand Jury Report is critical of the county’s handling of the Health and Human Services building lease for the entire project, not just during the time while I was CAO,” Daly told Lake Tahoe News. “As noted in the report, the project started in 2003, while I became CAO in March 2007. Neither the findings section nor the recommendations section cites the CAO specifically. The findings refer to systematic failures. While I was CAO, I worked to put in place practices and procedures, but clearly was unable to change the course of this project.

“I fully cooperated with the Amador Grand Jury in its investigation of this issue and agree with its findings.”

One of the findings by the grand jury is that “no county official, auditor, or controller has the official assignment to review fiscal commitments of the county prior to adoption and/or approval by the [Board of Supervisors].”

This is unlike El Dorado County where the elected auditor-controller does review financial documents and has a track record of not rubber-stamping what the CAO or supervisors want.