Redwood City wants grand jury leak investigated

By Shaun Bishop
Daily News
Posted: 08/31/2009 07:42:09 PM PDT
Updated: 08/31/2009 08:31:50 PM PDT

The Redwood City City Council wants the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office to find out who leaked a controversial civil grand jury report that criticized the process for awarding two major trash contracts.

The council also blasted the substance of the grand jury's criticism of the South Bayside Waste Management Authority — a joint agency that includes Redwood City, nine other Peninsula cities, the county and a sanitary district — during its discussion of the report earlier this week.

"While I have respect for the grand jury system and the fact that the grand jury members are all volunteers, they totally missed the mark," Council Member Jim Hartnett said at Monday's council meeting.

The report, released in July, said the authority used a flawed bidding process to award two 10-year contracts — one to Recology for curbside collection and the other to South Bay Recycling for operating the authority's processing facility. Both are scheduled to start in 2011. Together, officials say, they're worth about $60 million per year.

The grand jury said the authority "did not follow its stated goal to 'conduct the RFP (request for proposals) process with integrity and transparency,'" citing concerns about the scoring of bids, background checks and other issues.

Local newspapers obtained copies of the report July 8, two days before it was supposed to be made public, and published stories about it the next day.

The council voted 7-0 to approve a response stating it disagrees with most of the grand jury's conclusions.

The council also agreed to forward a request for an investigation to the district attorney's office. Mayor Rosanne Foust was reviewing the request Friday and said she intends to send it out soon.

The district attorney's office will review the request when it comes in, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Releasing confidential information from a grand jury without permission is a misdemeanor under the California penal code, punishable by up to six months in jail or a fine up to $1,000.

Even if it wasn't leaked, Foust said, the report contained numerous factual inaccuracies and its conclusions often weren't backed up with research, suggesting it was politically motivated.

Politics were present throughout the process, from then-Supervisor Jerry Hill publicly requesting the grand jury probe to the bidding companies running behind-the-scenes lobbying campaigns in an attempt to win the backing of Peninsula elected officials.

Foust said she has heard rumors that a grand juror leaked the report and wants to find out who did it and why.

"It's time that it should be looked into," Foust said. "We're all held to high standards."

Civil grand jury foreperson Virginia Chang Kiraly said she had "no personal knowledge whatsoever" of a juror leaking the report and would cooperate fully with any investigation.

Kiraly also defended the report's conclusions, saying it was not politically motivated.

"Every entity is going to have their own opinion on it, and we knew that because it was a controversial issue," Kiraly said.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_13242465