Amador County – About 51 people attended a special Sutter Creek City Council meeting Monday to hear the council work on responses to the 2009-2010 Grand Jury report. City Manager Derek Cole recommended the council only take public comment, due to the number of people in attendance and try to avoid its tendency to have a dialogue during public comment. Mayor Gary Wooten led the discussion of the response, prepared by Mayor Pro Tempore Tim Murphy, Cole and acting City Manager Sean Rabe. Mimi Arata urged the council to not reject the Grand Jury opinion that they have the finance director report directly to the council instead of the city manager. The council stayed with Murphy’s recommendation to reject that idea. Councilman Pat Crosby spoke in support of former Finance Director Jeff Gardner, saying Gardner told him his finance reports were correct, and the council could not read them. Crosby said Gardner maintained that “his numbers did match the general ledger.” Murphy disagreed, saying the council “had data corrected at meetings,” and “frequently the numbers were changed in different reports,” but “that’s not to say it’s all wrong.” Wooten, and Councilwomen Linda Rianda and Sandy Anderson agreed. Crosby said he also thought the Grand Jury “rightfully said that we were mishandling” city government. Murphy in the prepared response criticized a comment by the Grand Jury that encouraged citizens to get involved, to “help the city government avoid defaulting to continued mismanagement.” Murphy in the draft response said it was “an unwarranted insult and below the professional standard expected of a Grand Jury recommendation.” Murphy said it was kind of a “cheap shot” by the jury, but he wouldn’t object if the council wanted to remove his comment. Murphy said some of the report’s issues were two years old or older. Some were brought to light months before the jury investigation began, and he thought “the Grand Jury should have recognized that.” Rianda said one person had thanked her for Murphy’s comment, saying it defended against a “slam of (citizens) by the Grand Jury.” But Rianda said “that last sentence may be a tad much.” Wooten said he was offended by the jury’s statement, inferring that city mismanagement still continued. Anderson said it was “a little emotional,” and recommended simply saying the Grand Jury comment was “unwarranted.” The council agreed, 4-1, with Crosby opposing. Anderson said Rianda and Murphy spent 20-30 hours on budget, audit and personnel committee work to address the issues, and “this is not mismanagement.” Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Wednesday, 01 September 2010 06:44
Sutter Creek preps response to Grand Jury report
Amador County – About 51 people attended a special Sutter Creek City Council meeting Monday to hear the council work on responses to the 2009-2010 Grand Jury report. City Manager Derek Cole recommended the council only take public comment, due to the number of people in attendance and try to avoid its tendency to have a dialogue during public comment. Mayor Gary Wooten led the discussion of the response, prepared by Mayor Pro Tempore Tim Murphy, Cole and acting City Manager Sean Rabe. Mimi Arata urged the council to not reject the Grand Jury opinion that they have the finance director report directly to the council instead of the city manager. The council stayed with Murphy’s recommendation to reject that idea. Councilman Pat Crosby spoke in support of former Finance Director Jeff Gardner, saying Gardner told him his finance reports were correct, and the council could not read them. Crosby said Gardner maintained that “his numbers did match the general ledger.” Murphy disagreed, saying the council “had data corrected at meetings,” and “frequently the numbers were changed in different reports,” but “that’s not to say it’s all wrong.” Wooten, and Councilwomen Linda Rianda and Sandy Anderson agreed. Crosby said he also thought the Grand Jury “rightfully said that we were mishandling” city government. Murphy in the prepared response criticized a comment by the Grand Jury that encouraged citizens to get involved, to “help the city government avoid defaulting to continued mismanagement.” Murphy in the draft response said it was “an unwarranted insult and below the professional standard expected of a Grand Jury recommendation.” Murphy said it was kind of a “cheap shot” by the jury, but he wouldn’t object if the council wanted to remove his comment. Murphy said some of the report’s issues were two years old or older. Some were brought to light months before the jury investigation began, and he thought “the Grand Jury should have recognized that.” Rianda said one person had thanked her for Murphy’s comment, saying it defended against a “slam of (citizens) by the Grand Jury.” But Rianda said “that last sentence may be a tad much.” Wooten said he was offended by the jury’s statement, inferring that city mismanagement still continued. Anderson said it was “a little emotional,” and recommended simply saying the Grand Jury comment was “unwarranted.” The council agreed, 4-1, with Crosby opposing. Anderson said Rianda and Murphy spent 20-30 hours on budget, audit and personnel committee work to address the issues, and “this is not mismanagement.” Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Latest from
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