Resident alleges wrongful CalFresh termination; county counsel offers to follow up

A Kern County resident addressed the board on Jan. 6 to allege that the county's Department of Human Services improperly terminated her CalFresh (SNAP) benefits in contravention of a prior administrative law judge's (ALJ) fair hearing decision.

Thomasina Doreca Rivers said an ALJ had ruled in her favor that she should be treated as a separate household and cited a final decision dated Oct. 2, 2018; she argued the county cannot lawfully retroactively terminate CalFresh benefits by simply applying CalWORKs findings without a separate CalFresh eligibility determination. "Because doing so is violation of my due process rights and potential federal and state SNAP regulation," she said, urging the county to implement the ALJ ruling.

County Counsel Kendra Graham declined to comment on the merits at the public meeting because she said the speaker had threatened litigation, but she offered to have a staff member meet with the resident offline to review the claims and direct her to the appropriate claims process. "I'm happy to have someone from my office meet with her offline to go over what some of her claims are or to direct her to the right claim process," Graham said. The chair also invited the resident to leave contact information for follow-up.

The board did not take formal action on the complaint during the meeting. The allegation and the counsel office's offer to follow up were recorded in the public-comment portion of the hearing; no departmental representative provided an on-the-record response during the meeting.