Howle, 63, the state auditor for more than 21 years, has been the state’s independent voice, leading examinations of state agencies and winning both sharp anger and lavish praise from Assembly and Senate members.
A certified public accountant and a certified government financial manager, she became a strong voice over the past 18 months with her detailed looks at EDD as it struggled to deal with an overwhelming number of unemployment claims during the COVID-triggered economic crisis.
Many of her recommendations for EDD are now being implemented, and the Legislature passed several bills aimed at making the agency more efficient.
Monday, Howle told a joint legislative panel how she had recommended after the Great Recession of 2007-09 ways to improve how EDD deals with the public. Yet as the COVID-19 pandemic surged last spring, she found that many of the same problems were surfacing again.
Howle had found in a January audit that “EDD struggled to provide claimants assistance with their claims.”
After claims began to surge in March 2020, Howle’s audit said, EDD’s call center answered less than 1 percent of calls. The agency quadrupled its available call center staff to more than 5,600 people, “but these staff were often unable to assist callers and only marginally improved the percentage of calls it answered,” Howle said.
“Despite knowing for years that it had problems with call center performance, EDD has not yet adopted best practices for managing the call center, leaving it ill prepared to assist Californians effectively.” While EDD has made progress, the waiting period for an interview to determine eligibility is up to 26 weeks, and call center waits persist.
Among her findings in another January audit were that EDD’s response to massive fraud in unemployment claims was “marked by significant missteps and inaction.” That fraud has caused an estimated $11 billion in suspicious claims, the audit found.
Howle also produced an audit last year showing that the University of California admitted at least 64 wealthy, mostly white students who were well-connected to donors and well-known families.
The auditor’s office is nonpartisan, and its job is to provide performance reviews of state government as well as detailed looks at challenges to the system. In the last two months, for instance, it has issued reports on aspects of the state’s correctional, rental assistance and education systems.
