DEMA employees vacate 2 Sonoma County homeless housing sites, leaving the health department suddenly in charge

DEMA employees suddenly vacated two housing sites under the company’s management Wednesday and Thursday, leaving the Sonoma County Department of Health Services in charge of the facilities and the homeless people staying in them.

Sonoma County Health Services Director Tina Rivera told The Press Democrat Thursday afternoon that DEMA staff were no longer working at Mickey Zane Place, a converted hotel, or the county’s emergency shelter site on its administrative campus.

Health Services is now running both sites, Rivera said in a statement.

Last month, Sonoma County supervisors directed the health department to find a way to replace the company. The action came in the wake of a Press Democrat investigation and a subsequent county financial inquiry that found the company failed to provide proper supporting documentation for millions of dollars it billed to the county.

The health department had planned for a May 31 transition, Rivera said, a date DEMA management was aware of.

It was not immediately clear Thursday whether staff departed on their own or at the direction of the company’s CEO, Michelle Patino.

In preparation for the May 31 transition, Health Services has had case managers deployed to both sites daily for the last three weeks, Rivera wrote, “to ensure no gaps in coverage, and right now we also have DHS leadership running the sites.”

Rivera said she is speaking to the labor unions that represent county workers who could staff the sites, and is contracting with Santa Rosa Community Health for mobile medical units.

“Continuity of care is our priority and we have prepared for this eventuality, though we, of course, didn’t expect it so soon,” Rivera said.

Unions representing county employees have told county supervisors their members want to provide staffing to the sites but need the county to hire more workers in order to cover the increased workload.

Patino did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment. The company’s website also appeared to be down.

In a subsequent statement made through a department spokesperson Thursday afternoon, Rivera told The Press Democrat Patino had called her to apologize for the lack of staffing at the sites.

The call was emotional, Rivera said. “She seems to be struggling and having a really difficult time,” she said of Patino.

Health Department officials were at the sites organizing and taking inventory, spokesperson Sheri Cardo said. “This is going to be a process,” she said.

DEMA had been running housing sites for the county since June 2020, quickly becoming a key service provider to the health department. The company billed more than $26 million to taxpayers within its first 26 months as it staffed housing sites with health care workers.

A July 2023 Press Democrat investigation, however, raised questions about the company’s three-year run of contracts, all of which were secured without competitive bidding during the pandemic. Sonoma County’s independent auditor opened an investigation into the company immediately after those stories published.

That investigation took months and ended with a report by a Santa Rosa accounting firm, hired by the county auditor, that found DEMA did not have supporting documentation for the work of any of its salaried employees. While that report did not uncover fraud, investigators found themselves unable to verify more than $2 million in DEMA’s billing over a selected five month period. That amounted to 40% of its billing for those five months. If the same rate held true over all of DEMA’s contracts with the county, auditor Eric Roeser estimated, it would amount to roughly $11 million in unverified billing.

As the investigation proceeded, Patino accused officials of discriminating against her and threatened repeatedly to sue Sonoma County.

On April 16, county supervisors directed the health department not to award DEMA any new contracts and to find a way to replace the company’s staff at its two remaining sites, with in-house employees or a new contractor if necessary.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on X (Twitter) @AndrewGraham88