Tulare County Grand jury: Board of Supervisor's raises were 'public, legal'

Foreman explains report on supervisors, says ethics weren't for panel to decide

BY VALERIE GIBBONS • vgibbons@visalia.gannett.com • July 3, 2009

The foreman of the Tulare County grand jury said jurors' investigation of the county Board of Supervisors' 2008 pay raise began and ended with whether it was against the law.

The investigation found nothing illegal. But the jury's foreman, Gene Mooers, said any further recommendations from the three-month-long investigation would have had to be approved by the county counsel, Kathleen Bales-Lange.

"If we had tried to get that report to say anything stronger than that, we would have run into trouble with the county counsel's office," Mooers said.

Mooers said the jury's charge was not to decide whether the pay raises which supervisors ultimately voted not to accept were ethical or appropriate.

"The ordinance is very clear," he said. "What our supervisors did was totally legal."

On Sept. 30, the supervisors approved unanimously what was described on the agenda as "changes for employees in Units 9, 10, 11, 19, 20 and 21." It turned out that included raises for the county's elected officials.

What went unmentioned as the supervisors bundled the change along with 19 other items on a single vote was a county ordinance that gave supervisors automatic raises any time they approved them for other elected officials.

The raises, coming amid a budget crisis and layoffs of county employees, amounted to 4.56 percent and were disclosed only several months later in a legal notice the county was required to publish.

When the supervisors' raises became public, there was a sustained public outcry. The supervisors voted Feb. 10 not to accept the raises.

Phil Cox, the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, called the grand jury report on the matter accurate and thorough.

"I'm glad to see they found it was a legal and transparent process," he said.

All grand jury reports are approved by Bales-Lange, who is an employee of the Board of Supervisors, and Tulare County Superior Court Judge Melinda Reed, who oversees the grand jury, Mooers said.

Libel against public officials is a key concern for Reed. It played a major role in her instructions to this year's incoming grand jury on Wednesday.

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20090703/NEWS01/907030321/1002/Grand-jury--Board-of-Supervisor-s-raises-were--public--legal-