Grand Jury Rips Sonoma County Health Services Over Fiasco with DEMA

gettyrf_72122_jurycourtroom281629936347
gettyrf_72122_jurycourtroom281629936347

The Sonoma County Civil Grand Jury is criticizing the Department of Health Services’ response to revelations about the county’s for-profit homeless services provider, DEMA. The grand jury published a report on Wednesday called “DEMA: Let’s All Play ‘Pass the Buck.'” Earlier this year, an outside accounting firm proved Sonoma County paid DEMA millions of dollars, despite the company never providing proper documentation for its billing. The report says several leaders of county agencies were not willing to take responsibility for the issue, but were willing to point out other department heads’ mistakes. The grand jury interviewed 18 current and former county officials and outside providers for its report.