HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12061988 - S.1 To: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS +
Supervisor Tom Torlakson Contra
FROM: COSta
1 I
December 6, 1988 CountyDATE:
REVIEW OF SOCIAL SERVICE PROCEDURES FOR REFERRALS TO
SUBJECT: ROOMING HOUSES
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Direct. the Social Services Department
and County Administrator' s Office review and provide information on
the Department ' s current policies and procedures regarding how rooming
houses are investigated and selected for referral purposes, and how
these procedures can be improved.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: In light of recent investigations
into the possible murder of seven of her tenants by a Sacramento
rooming house owner, I believe a review of Social Services policies
and procedures regarding selection of rooming houses for referral to
clients is appropriate.
TT:cad
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE:
RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
APPROVE OTHER
SIGNATURE(S)
ACTION OF BOARD ON December 6, 1988 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER X
DIRECTED Social Services Director and County Administrator to review and report to
the Board on policies and procedures for investigation and selection of rooming
houses for Social Service Department clients, particularly -for::SSI recipients.
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
X UNANIMOUS (ABSENT — ) I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE
AYES: NOES: AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN
ABSENT: ABSTAIN: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD
OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN.
CC: 'So.c:01- Services-Dire ctory ATTESTED � ��i� 4, /47t.9Count.y.-_Administrator phI1g2tC e0�1 �t,Clef of the 13oard 0
Supervisors and County Administrator
M382/7-83 BY DEPUTY
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-AM—TheTimesSunday,-Novembei.-2O.-i9i8-_.'s'_--=
7- - c --a
Puente -.-..: cont ' cei. _- -_-
--- ocla mor :ers _.a - -yenrrs
By John Howard
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO',�=--.When hon r
_ ey=y.:-;
-voiced Dorothea Montaivo.-Puente- .
- strolled away from a Aetective Nov.._
11, it was only her latest -_escape
from the clutches of an,often bum- =x
bung officialdom-that_' missed:evi-:
�dence of wrongdoing.'- _. _ -
Puente fled to Los Angeles while
:Pu Ang
ponce dug up seven bodies in the
yard of her Victorian boarding-
house. Five days later, .after a = `
search in Nevada, California and
_.:.
Mexico, police arrested her and
charged her with one count of mur-
der.
ur der.
Prosecutors believe the victims
were elderly tenants killed for their...:
Social Security money, and said
they plan to file additional murder_,._,.
es against Puente, who in a
TV interview ada fitted cashing
checks but denied killing anyone. : ` Y
Puente, 59, was known to state,
federal,local and even private social = fated cress
services officials long before police
i unearthed the bodies. COS ANGELES POUC6.i' ars.prepare Io'trarrsptitt suspect, -.....
She served 2 z years in prison Dorothea Montalvo-Puente back to Sacramento on Thursday_ _ y
for drugging and robbing three el-
' deny men she met in a bar,.and is -''month but iiever-dis4i eyed she'had -county social workers had been re-
still on parole in a separate,1980 violated two key provisions of her fairing elderly people to her board-
case for forging a„government -parole-=handling Treasury-checks iiighouse.:The.:county Health De-
check belonging to an elderly.per- . ;.and associating with the elderly and .-Partment,.said '-Friday , 'it ...is
son. disabled. -She remains on parole investigating whether social`service
yI A partial list of the authorities through 1990. Charlie Varnon, Jus- and mental health workers should
M who had-contact with Puente reads lice Department chief probation of. have been 'aware that .Puentes'
like a "Who's Who” of government ,. Acer in Sacramento,..told the San --boarders were at,risk -.,.
bureaucracies: federal.-parole offi- Francisco Examiner that agents
vials, police, welfare workers, the never saw evidence indicating she * Neighbor's
complained to
;i Social Security Administration,.. had been running a boardinghouse,- -health officials twice'-in May and
county mental health officials, -but he acknowledged .they never —September,about a stench from,the
health inspectors and social work- •looked further .than her-upstairs . :grounds of Puente's boardinghouse.
-ers. apartment. Both times,'authorities found noth-
j They all apparently missed e - ` +Accusations-that Pueinte poi-"'Ring in the yard. The corpses .had
a: = -dence.of wrongdoing at - soned and robbed two elderly wom _.been in the ground as;long as 10
+inghouse. y -:en7Ied to an investigation that re-.---months;.:forensicanthropologists .
For example: ` - .; nsuited in,her-,aonviction-in'1982 on said.:.Puente-blamed the'sinill on a
e Federal -parole officials as- drug, forgery and theft charges in fish emulsion fertilizer."She said it
-signed to .-Puente because, of her 'the case involving the men die met ' was the fertilizer," said neighbor
1978 conviction for forging a U.S. --in a bar. She was sentencecr to five Will McIntyre,Another neighbor re-
+- 'Treasury check belonging to an el- years and was released in 1985. De- called that "flies were always all
Iderly person monitored her once a spite her criminal record, however, over the place."
z