[Alameda County] Alameda Council Could Push Back on Grand Jury Report

Last month an Alameda County grand jury concluded that two Alameda councilmembers violated the city charter by exerting undue influence on the city manager's decision to hire a new fire chief. The civil grand jury also faulted the city for allowing the councilmembers to edit the independent report on their alleged actions prior to its release to the public.

Next week, the Alameda City Council will begin the process of officially responding to the four findings and four recommendations laid out in the report, as required by law. And when it comes to the grand jury's most explosive finding, that Councilmembers Jim Oddie and Malia Vella violated the city charter by attempting to get the former city manager to choose a fire chief favored by the firefighters' union, both proposed city responses dispute the grand jury's finding on Vella.

A staff report prepared by City Manager Eric Levitt and City Attorney Yibin Shen in advance of Tuesday night's meeting offers two possible responses for councilmembers to choose. One gives the council the option to agree with the finding, but with a caveat when it comes to Vella. "While the City of Alameda agrees with this finding, it is important to point out that the City's independent investigator concluded that one Council Member, not two, violated the City Charter," the report said. An independent investigation by attorney Michael Jenkins found that Oddie violated the charter provision on council interference after he sent a letter supporting the union's candidate for fire chief. But the independent report did not find that Vella violated the charter.

Another option for the council is to "partially disagree" with the grand jury's charter violation finding. This possible response also disagrees that Vella violated the charter.

The grand jury also slammed the City Council for allowing Oddie and Vella to participate in closed-session discussions that involved editing the independent investigator's final report. The city argued at the time that Keimach's complaint letter asserting council interference never specifically mentioned which elected officials had allegedly exerted improper influence on her and, therefore, did not require any councilmembers to be recused.

Oddie and Vella are not expected to participate in the grand jury agenda item next Tuesday night.

July 17, 2019

East Bay Express

By Steven Taveras