Saturday, June 25, 2011

Grand Jury probe critical of Gridley energy project

By HEATHER HACKING-Staff Writer
Posted: 06/25/2011 12:14:49 AM PDT

GRIDLEY — A Grand Jury report concluded many mistakes were made in management of the Gridley Project, a 17-year effort to convert rice straw to fuel.

Public money was used, record keeping was "slipshod," audits were not timely and the project led to bad feelings among community members, the report states.

While many things have changed recently, including the proposed project losing funding and a new city manager, the Grand Jury recommends better record keeping, ethics and Brown Act training, an audit of conflict-of-interest decisions and improvements with dealing with the public.

The report was released Friday. City officials have 90 days to respond.

The investigation looked at an alternative fuel project (the Gridley Project) that had been under development.

Twenty-five interviews were conducted and thousands of documents were requested and reviewed. Some documents were never received, despite public records requests.

City Administrator Rob Hickey said the missing paperwork noted in the report was from before he took over the job in 2008.

One point in the report is that former City Councilman Tom Sanford was hired as the Energy Commissioner a week after he resigned from the City Council. There were no documents available to show there was a search to fill the position, the Grand Jury report states.

The position, paid through the city's Utility Fund, had existed previously, but no one had ever been paid to do the job, the report states. Pay and reimbursement was more than $500,000 over nine years.

The report states that Sanford was also paid more than $400,000 over nine years through the grant funds of the Gridley Project.

Sanford said none of his earnings came from city funding. "I'm not sure if the Grand Jury understood."

Sanford said contention on the City Council began when Dave Garner and Owen Stiles were elected. They did not understand the history of the project, nor how much it could benefit residents, he said.

The new councilmen "went out of their way to suggest the city of Gridley was paying for this rice research when it was all paid out of contracts," Sanford said, contracts "all approved in open meetings with proper notice, all subject to federal audits."

Questions were also raised about property purchased for the energy plant. The city paid $679,000 in 2008, but two months earlier the property had been appraised for $442,000, the Grand Jury report stated. There are also questions about how that property is zoned, and that it is outside of the city limits, as well as that none of the grants approved the purchase.

Further muddying this issue, the real estate agent who handled the transaction represented both the buyer and the seller, the report states. While not illegal, the Grand Jury said it didn't show diligence by the city to get the best price. Hickey said the land is now part of a solar installation project, which will help the city comply with rules for renewable energy.

Members of the grand jury also attended council meetings and reported that there were several times when both citizens and councilors were disrespectful to others.

Several other concerns were explored in the report.

Staff writer Heather Hacking can be reached at 896-7758 or hhacking@chicoer.com.

http://www.orovillemr.com/news/ci_18351898

No comments: