KPBS Midday Edition

San Diego County Ends Controversial Fraud Inspection Program

By Maureen Cavanaugh / KPBS Midday Edition Co-Host, Brooke Ruth / Senior Producer, Radio News

Published May 10, 2021 at 11:15 AM PDT

This story was published more than 2 years ago.

The San Diego County Administration Building downtown is shown in this undated photo.

San Diego county supervisors last month ended a controversial program that had survived criticism and court challenges for more than two decades. Project 100-percent was the county’s effort to detect public assistance fraud through a process of unannounced home inspections. County workers could examine at will, the condition and contents of a recipient’s home and determine unilaterally, whether public assistance was valid. It was the only welfare fraud program with such broad powers in the country.

San Diego County supervisors ended a controversial program last month that had survived criticism and court challenges for more than two decades.

Project 100% was the county’s effort to detect public assistance fraud through a process of unannounced home inspections. County workers could examine at will the condition and contents of a recipient’s home and determine unilaterally whether public assistance was valid. It was the only welfare fraud program with such broad powers in the country.

An examination by The San Diego Union-Tribune found that the inspections had a traumatizing effect on people who lived through them and they were not as effective at finding fraud as the county claimed.

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Union-Tribune reporter Greg Moran joined Midday Edition on Monday to discuss the program and its demise.

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Maureen Cavanaugh

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Maureen Cavanaugh has been a familiar voice for KPBS listeners for more than 15 years, serving in a variety of capacities including announcer, host, and producer. As host of KPBS Midday Edition, Maureen has interviewed a wide range of notables, such as comedienne Sandra Bernhardt, actor John Lequizamo, author Chuck Palahniuk, composer Marvin Hamlisch, artist Robert Irwin, and designer Zandra Rhodes. But of all the interviews Maureen has conducted, her most special was with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Before joining KPBS in 1997, she worked as a news anchor for KSDO and KOGO News Radio in San Diego. While working for commercial radio stations in San Diego and in Salt Lake City, Utah, Maureen reported on both hard news and lifestyle features. Maureen has received three "Golden Mike" awards from the Radio and TV News Association of Southern California for economic reporting and breaking news. She has also received a "Best of Show" and “Best Radio Newscast” awards from the San Diego Press Club and the "Flo" Award from Public Radio Program Directors Association for Best Public Radio Announcer in a large market. Maureen is a native of Queens, New York, but after more than 20 years in San Diego she feels she qualifies as a real Southern Californian.

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Brooke Ruth

Brooke Ruth is the senior producer for KPBS Radio News. She previously served as a producer for "KPBS Midday Edition" and a web producer. Before joining KPBS, Brooke was a web editor for four newspapers and a local television station. She began her career in news at the Imperial Valley Press. She has also been part of the web teams at the Napa Valley Register, North County Times, and U-T San Diego. While pursuing her undergraduate degree at UCLA in psychology, she worked on the student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.

See stories by Brooke Ruth