Blog note: this article references a June 2018 grand jury report that criticized the agency’s management practices.
The Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority Governing Board and Larry Cope, the agency’s executive director, retreated to a private meeting room away from public view shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Nearly three hours later, the group emerged together and announced there was no action taken during the closed meeting to discuss an ongoing lawsuit over public records and conduct a performance evaluation of Cope for the second time this year.
California law allows local government bodies to discuss certain confidential matters in closed sessions, such as personnel, litigation, and property or labor negotiations.
However, any action or vote taken during a closed session must be announced to the public either orally or in writing after the fact.
County Supervisor and TCEDA Board Chairman John Gray emerged from the closed meeting at about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday and announced to the two people remaining that there was nothing to report.
State law also prohibits anyone who was part of the closed session from publicly disclosing any confidential information they received, so the board members couldn’t discuss what they had talked about over the course of the two hours.
Cope declined to comment on the performance evaluation, his second by the board this year following an annual evaluation in March.
Three people gave public comments prior to the board going into the closed session.
John Flynn, of Sonora, accused the board of committing felonies and asked whether Cope would receive a “kickback” if he got fired.
County Supervisor John Gray, who serves as chairman of the TCEDA board, responded that he couldn’t answer that kind of question.
The agency and its board have come under fire since the release of a report by the Tuolumne County Civil Grand Jury in June that was critical of the agency’s management practices, recordkeeping, and oversight.
Among the findings were that Cope had been allowed to approve his own expense reports, claimed work time while in England for more than a month last year, and bought meals for elected officials and board members with money from the TCEDA’s budget that’s meant for entertaining clients.
Carol Doud, of Sonora, said she has attended many TCEDA meetings and never observed any violations of the state’s public meetings law, corruption, or scandals.
Ken Perkins, of Sonora, offered a way for the board to resolve the lawsuit he filed against Cope and the TCEDA in early June for withholding records he requested regarding businesses that the agency has helped over the years.
The TCEDA released heavily redacted documents on Aug. 17 in an effort to satisfy Perkins’ requests, though he’s rejected a settlement offer because he says the redactions prevent him from verifying the information was accurate.
Perkins asked the board on Tuesday to consider revealing the names of completed projects that were redacted in the documents released on Aug. 17.
One of the spreadsheets listed 84 completed projects said to have totaled $179 million in capital investment and created 1,548 jobs since the TCEDA was established in 2008 through a joint-powers agreement between the county and City of Sonora.
Projects were grouped by industry type, such as health care, agriculture and tourism, but all of the names were blacked out and no dates were provided.
The spreadsheet was not a complete record of the all projects the TCEDA has worked on over the years, which Cope has said does not exist.
“There’s no way to verify whether the spreadsheets made available to the public are accurate,” Perkins said. “There’s got to be a way to verify whether the information provided in a Public Records Act request is accurate.”
August 28, 2018
The Union Democrat
By Alex MacLean
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