[San Joaquin County] SJ County cities lack ethics policies, civil grand jury finds

STOCKTON — Seven governmental agencies in San Joaquin County have been given until the end of October to develop and adopt ethics policies for not only elected officials, but administrative staff as well.

The San Joaquin County civil grand jury on Thursday released the results of a municipality ethics study of the county and seven cities within its boundaries.

In the grand jury’s findings, the city of Stockton was the only municipality to have an extensive and comprehensive ethics policy, which includes elected officials, appointed staff, appointed members to boards and commissions, and employees.

The grand jury, however, found that some city officials are uncertain of the policy’s existence, the report states. While all officials know they are required to complete a periodic ethics training course, they are uncertain about its frequency are rely on appointed staff to remind them.

The city was given until Oct. 31 to provide a copy of the ethics policy to all City Council members and have them attend a briefing about its contents.

While the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors has an ethics policy in place, the grand jury found there is no such policy for board and commission members. There also is no ethics policy for the county administrator, county clerk or their employees covered by a bargaining unit, the report states.

Much like the county board of supervisors, the cities of Lodi and Ripon have ethics policies in place for elected officials, but not for staff.

Conversely, the city of Escalon has an ethics policy in place for staff, but not elected officials, the reports states

The cities of Lathrop, Manteca and Tracy did not have such policies for either elected officials or staff members, the grand jury found.

In April 2017, a conflict of interest policy was presented to the Tracy City Council that would have required members to recuse themselves if a family member would benefit from a council decision. The policy was rejected by a 3-2 vote, the grand jury found.

Following that meeting, the grand jury received a complaint alleging a conflict of interest by a Tracy City Council member. The conflict ultimately was determined to be unfounded.

But the grand jury decided to investigate whether an ethics policy for the city of Tracy would prevent conflicts of interest — real or perceived — from happening in the future.

The grand jury then decided to investigate whether the other seven municipalities in the county had similar policies.

The board of supervisors and seven city councils have 90 days from the release of the report to submit responses to the grand jury’s recommendations to the presiding judge of San Joaquin County Superior Court.

Supervisors, along with the cities of Escalon, Lathrop, Lodi, Manteca, Ripon and Tracy must develop and adopt absent ethics policies by Oct. 31.

June 23, 2018

Stockton Record

By Wes Bowers