The 2020-22 Tuolumne County Civil Grand Jury released its first report last Friday that covers how public agencies responded to findings and recommendations made by the previous grand jury.
It was also the first report
released by the citizen-led watchdog group since June 2020 due to the COVID-19
pandemic, which resulted in the previous jury’s term being extended until the
end of that year.
Each year, superior courts in all 58
California counties are required by state law to appoint a civil grand jury
consisting of ordinary citizens who volunteer their time for the purpose of
reviewing local detention facilities and investigating complaints against other
public agencies and officials.
Alicia Bergmann, foreperson for the
current county Grand Jury, said the group plans to release reports on its
investigations individually this year, as opposed to dropping them all at one
time as some had done in the past.
Bergmann said they have not
scheduled the dates for releasing the other reports.
The 28-page document released on
Friday is called a “continuity report,” which is produced by each year’s jury
to track the responses to the previous year’s jury’s findings and
recommendations.
Civil grand juries in the county
typically serve from July 1 one year to June 30 the following year, though the
county’s 2019-20 jury’s term was extended through Dec. 31, 2020, to give its
members additional time in light of complications caused by the COVID-19
pandemic.
The county’s current Grand Jury was
impaneled in February 2021 for a term that goes through June 30 this
year.
Seven investigative reports were
issued by the 2019-20 Grand Jury that covered the Amador-Tuolumne Community
Action Agency, the county government’s employment practices, fire safety in the
county, the jail, Sierra Conservation Center, the county’s transit program, and
Tuolumne Utilities District.
State law requires the governing
body of any public agency that a civil grand jury investigates to respond
within 90 days of the report’s release. If a department or agency is headed by
an elected county official, such as the sheriff for the jail, that elected
official must also respond within 60 days.
According to the continuity report
released Friday, the seven reports made a combined total of 29 recommendations.
The 2020-22 Grand Jury reviewed all responses from the investigated agencies
and found that all elected officials and governing bodies required to respond
did so on time.
“Many of the agencies accepted the
Grand Jury’s findings and took recommended corrective actions in a reasonable
time frame,” the continuity report released Friday stated. “When an agency
disagreed with the Grand Jury’s recommendations, they usually provided
explanations.”
One of the more attention-grabbing
investigative reports released by the 2019-20 Grand Jury was about Tuolumne
Utilities District, which included findings and recommendations related to the
water and sewer agency’s finances; a 2019 agreement to supply water for the Tuolumne
Band of Me-Wuk Indians’ Teleli Golf Club (formerly Mountain Springs Golf
Course) in Sonora; potential conflicts of interest involving a former TUD
director; membership to a private group that advocates on behalf of business
interests; and inconsistent verification of reimbursement claims made by
directors before they are paid out.
The district disagreed with all of
the jury’s findings and recommendations in a 17-page response that was drafted
by then-TUD General Manager Ed Pattison in coordination with the district’s
staff and approved by three out of the five members of the agency’s elected
board of directors at the time.
Two of the three directors that voted to approve the responses, Bob Rucker and Ron Kopf, are no longer on the TUD board.
Rucker decided to retire from the board that year. Kopf, who was the director
the jury found had “real and/or perceived” conflicts between his elected role
and personal financial and business interests, lost his bid for reelection that
November.
Prior to the November election, the
Tuolumne County Republican Central Committee sent a letter to the Tuolumne
County Superior Court requesting a review of the jury’s report on TUD.
The letter, which was signed by
former District 2 County Supervisor Randy Hanvelt, who was serving as chairman
of the local GOP committee at the time, pointed to discrepancies between the
report and TUD’s responses and argued that it had challenged the reputation of
the district’s leadership and “one board member in particular.”
A response from the court in October
2020 declined the committee’s request, stating that it must respect the jury’s
autonomy as a “statutorily created citizen watchdog body that is expected to
address controversial subjects in our community.”
Pattison’s employment contract was
prematurely terminated by a majority of the board in April 2021.
Barbara Balen, the TUD board
president, submitted a rare, formal response to the continuity report released
by the current jury to clarify the steps that are now being taken since the shake
up in the district’s leadership.
“This action in itself has
positioned TUD towards improving communication and inclusiveness,” she said of
the turnover in board members and the general manager position since the jury’s
last report.
Balen then went through the
recommendations that the district previously said were not warranted or were
not reasonable in its previous responses, which she disagreed with submitting.
With regard to TUD’s finances, which
the jury found were still falling short of revenue meeting expenses despite a
five-year rate increase, Balen said the district is embarking on a rate study
and will be working with water users to “make it as fair and transparent as
possible.”
The jury also recommended that the
TUD board should reevaluate its February 2019 approval of an agreement for
providing the golf course with raw or reclaimed water, which typically goes to
agricultural customers, after finding the deal was inconsistent with the
district’s rules and regulations.
While TUD’s original response
refuted the allegations and denied the recommendation, Balen wrote that the
district “has made enormous strides in recognizing the importance of delivering
reclaimed water to our agricultural community and not take water away from
anyone’s livelihood for recreational use.”
Balen further stated the district
was “making sure some of these fuzzy areas are cleaned up” as a “course
correction.”
Since the turnover in leadership,
Balen also said the TUD board has been “very diligent in recusing themselves”
when necessary and some of the potential conflicts of interest cited in the
2019-20 jury’s report have been resolved.
The response submitted by Balen to
the jury’s recommendation regarding memberships to outside organizations stated
that TUD has reviewed and dropped any groups that are not open to the public,
including the Tuolumne County Business Council, of which Kopf was serving as
executive director at the time that TUD was a dues-paying member.
Union Democrat
By Alex MacLean
February 17, 2021
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