STOCKTON — A month after the San Joaquin County civil grand jury released a report that looked into multiple complaints of friction and toxic behavior among Tracy City Council members, officials have reviewed the findings and sent responses.
“The city council is committed to conducting the public’s business in an atmosphere of respect and civility, while implementing good governance practices that promote transparency and collaboration,” Mayor Robert Rickman said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Tracy City Council examined the 16-page report “Tracy City Council: Restore the Public Trust” at a regularly scheduled council meeting on July 2. The report, published on June 6, 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, but such a policy has yet to be implemented.
The Tracy City Council, consisting of Rickman, Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Young and Councilmembers Dan Arriola, Rhodesia Ransom and Veronica Vargas, has reportedly been unable to agree on content or language, the report said. It does not name which council members have been in conflict with each other.
Ransom and Vargas have announced their candidacies for Bob Elliott’s District 5 seat on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and on Wednesday, Rickman became the third Tracy City Council member to join the race.
In its investigation, the grand jury held 17 interviews, reviewed agendas, minutes and videos of council meetings, the Tracy Municipal Code, and attended council meetings, Tracy city officials 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 the report said 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.
Immediately after the report had been made public, Councilman Dan Arriola said he was looking forward to addressing the grand jury’s recommendations.
“At the end of the day, the findings of the civil grand jury were many of the same reasons why I decided to run for City Council in the first place. ... It’s very humbling for the civil grand jury to conclude that my election to council and the hiring of our new city manager is a ‘reason for hope’ and ‘optimism’ in Tracy.”
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.
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.
July 11, 2019
Stockton Record
By Nicholas Filipas
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