Stanislaus loses out on state grant funds

Thirty counties in California applied for state grants to prosecute workers compensation fraud in the coming fiscal year. Only one of them didn't get the money: Stanislaus County.

Stanislaus County received $284,767 in grant funding from the California Department of Insurance during the past year and had requested $359,603 for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The county's exclusion reflects a shifting priority in a district attorney's office with limited resources and a heavy caseload, said Assistant District Attorney Carol Shipley.

In previous years, Shipley said, the grant has funded a three-person workers compensation fraud unit: a prosecutor, an investigator and a paralegal. But because they were funded by the workers compensation fraud grant, they couldn't work on anything else, Shipley said, and the number of cases didn't justify the staff time.

Worse yet, she said, the amount of the grant didn't completely cover the cost of the unit, so the county had to use general fund dollars to make up the difference.

"We have other needs in other areas, where our crime rate is: auto theft, homicide and gangs," Shipley said. "We had to finally make a decision to put our resources where the work is."

The county gets referrals of workers comp fraud cases from insurance companies, the Department of Insurance, workers and employees, Shipley said. Many of the cases don't have enough evidence to take to court, she said. About 25 percent to 50 percent of the cases referred in recent years were taken to court, according to figures from the district attorney's office.

The county applied for this year's grant on a "billable hours" basis, so the staff members would be available to work on other matters. The district attorney's office didn't send anyone to defend the grant before the Department of Insurance grant review panel.

That was a factor in the state turning down the grant, according to Jason Kimbrough, chief deputy press secretary for state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.

"The panel was unable to ask questions regarding the county's application," Kimbrough said in an e-mail to questions about the grant denial. "Consequently, the panel recommended zero funding. ..."

The county has been gradually reducing its workers comp program activity over the past year, Kimbrough said, and had told the department that it needed to reassign staff to handle more pressing needs.

"Based upon Stanislaus County's application, there was nothing to indicate that the county would be able to investigate or prosecute workers' compensation fraud," Kimbrough wrote.

Shipley said Stanislaus County will continue to evaluate workers comp fraud referrals and prosecute them when appropriate. "We are not going to refuse to do workers compensation cases," she said.

The district attorney's office has five or six deputy district attorneys who have worked in the workers comp unit and have the expertise to evaluate the cases, Shipley said.

Bee staff writer Tim Moran can be reached at tmoran@modbee.com or 578-2349.

This story was originally published June 21, 2008 at 5:16 AM with the headline "Stanislaus loses out on state grant funds."