Blog note: the major news source in the area weighs in.
STOCKTON — Multiple complaints of bad behavior and infighting between Tracy City Council members prompted a second investigation by the San Joaquin County civil grand jury aimed at bringing peace and stability to city administrators and staff.
The 16-page report “Tracy City Council: Restore the Public Trust” was released Thursday and outlined several suggestions for what the five-member council should do to “ensure a harmonious and productive city council.”
According to the document, this isn’t the first time a grand jury had to investigate misbehavior by Tracy City Council members. Two years ago it found that the lack of an ethics policy resulted in “conflict, mistrust, and allegations of misconduct.” The grand jury recommended that the city finalize and adopt an ethics policy by Oct. 31, 2018.
However, such a policy has still yet to be implemented. The Tracy City Council, consisting of Mayor Robert Rickman, Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Young and Council members Dan Arriola, Rhodesia Ransom and Veronica Vargas, has reportedly been unable to agree on content or language, the report said.
The City Council can submit a response to San Joaquin County Superior Court within 90 days on each finding and recommendation listed in the report.
“We are committed to conducting the public’s business in an effective and ethical manner,” Tracy City Manager Jenny Haruyama said in a statement.
“Our city council and staff understand the importance of civility and working together for the betterment of our community and are actively developing a code of conduct and council protocols for adoption. We appreciate the grand jury’s work on this matter and look forward to a full and thorough review of the report, coupled with the exploration of future actions to enhance the city’s governance processes.”
The grand jury found that the Tracy City Council had developed an unpleasant reputation for not working together as a cohesive legislative body.
The report names the sudden terminations or forced resignations of City Manager Troy Brown, an unnamed assistant city manager and Tracy Police Chief Larry Esquivel without the council ever publicly providing explanations. Nineteen months passed before the city hired a new city manager.
Esquivel can still be found listed as chief of police on the city’s website. At the same time, Alex Neicu has been serving as interim chief and city officials announced Thursday that two community forums will be held to discuss desired qualifications of the next police chief.
The meetings will be held at 7 p.m. June 14 at Tracy City Hall and at 10 a.m. June 15 at Kimball High School. A recruiting firm from Torrance is conducting the nationwide search.
The grand jury reported that the city of Tracy spent more than $400,000 on the three severance packages alone. In order to fill those openings, the city reportedly hired another search firm with a $30,000 price tag per position, according to the document.
The rash terminations were said to have created an unstable work environment inside City Hall. The report said that continued “interference” of council members into city business operations hurt overall morale.
According to the report, ugly personal attacks between council members became a common sight even as they sat on the dais. The behavior was so bad that the former city manager put together a special retreat for council members to rebuild relationships and find common ground.
Instead, nothing was accomplished and the retreat ended early because two unnamed council members kept exchanging foul language and insults, the report said.
“While the verbal sparring between council members in open meetings may seem remarkable, the gloves truly come off in closed sessions,” according to the document. “The grand jury heard many examples of yelling, name calling and outright hostility between council members in closed sessions.”
Personal attacks also spilled into the 2018 general election in the form of an eleventh-hour attack mailer criticizing those running for office. Then two unnamed council candidates reportedly complained that visitors to their campaign websites were mysteriously redirected to another candidate’s webpage, the report said.
Among several recommendations that the grand jury provided in addition to the much-needed ethics policy is for individual council members to tone down the hostility towards each other, which will show the public that they can work together effectively and with respect.
The grand jury also suggested that Tracy voters should have more control over how the council handles vacancies. Additionally, whoever serves as city manager and city attorney should be protected from “power politics” by requiring a supermajority vote for their termination, the report suggested.
June 6, 2019
Stockton Record
By Nicholas Filipas
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