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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 11232010 - SD.5RECOMMENDATION(S): 1. APPOINT Vickey Rinehart to the Trustee 3 seat on the Byron-Brentwood-Knightsen Union Cemetery District Board of Trustees, to complete the unexpired term ending December 31, 2013. 2. ACCEPT contingency nomination of Bailey Neff to the Trustee 3 seat should Ms. Rinehart decline the appointment or otherwise be unable to serve. FISCAL IMPACT: None. BACKGROUND: The Board of Supervisors accepted the resignation of Trustee 3 incumbent Carlos Taborini (who resigned on July 26, 2010) from the Byron-Brentwood-Knightsen Union Cemetery District (BBKUCD) Board of Trustees at its August 10, 2010 Board meeting (Item C.20) APPROVE OTHER RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE Action of Board On: 11/23/2010 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER Clerks Notes: VOTE OF SUPERVISORS AYE:John Gioia, District I Supervisor Gayle B. Uilkema, District II Supervisor Susan A. Bonilla, District IV Supervisor Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor NO:Mary N. Piepho, District III Supervisor Contact: JULIE ENEA (925) 335-1077 I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown. ATTESTED: November 23, 2010 , County Administrator and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors By: KATHERINE SINCLAIR, Deputy cc: SD. 5 To:Board of Supervisors From:David Twa, County Administrator Date:November 23, 2010 Contra Costa County Subject:NOMINATION FOR APPOINTMENT TO THE BYRON-BRENTWOOD-KNIGHTSEN UNION CEMETERY DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES and directed the Clerk of the Board’s Office to post the vacancy. BACKGROUND: (CONT'D) However, it was later discovered that the Clerk of the Board’s Office failed to post the vacancy as the Board directed and as required by law. Meanwhile, the District III Supervisor’s Office, which has had responsibility since 2002 for conducting outreach and recruiting for the BBKUCD Board of Trustees and making nominations to the Board of Supervisors for appointment, advertised the vacancy and received two applications from interested persons – one from David Piepho and one from John Quinn. Supervisor Piepho requested Supervisor Gioia, as Chair of the Board of Supervisors, to review the applications and make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors for appointment to the BBKUCD Board. Supervisor Piepho recused herself from the process because her husband, David Piepho, was one of the two applicants. The Board of Supervisors, on September 14, 2010, referred the matter to the Public Protection Committee (PPC) to discuss the issue of whether to develop a policy regarding the appointment of family members to boards and commissions and to consider the appointment process for the BBKUCD Board. While the Internal Operations Committee (IOC) normally conducts recruitment and makes recommendations to the Board of Supervisors for various Board advisory bodies and independent county districts, the Board asked the PPC to fulfill the role of the IOC in reviewing the Cemetery District applications because Supervisor Piepho currently serves on IOC and has recused herself on this matter. To remedy its failure to post the Trustee 3 seat vacancy, the Clerk of the Board's office posted the vacancy on September 22, 2010 and extended the application deadline for the seat to October 12, 2010. The Clerk’s Office compiled all applications to fill the vacancy that were received by any Supervisor’s Office and by the Clerk of the Board’s Office, including the two applications that were received prior to the vacancy being posted by the Clerk of the Board’s Office as well as eight additional applications received prior to the October 12 close of the application period, for a total of ten applications. Two of the applicants withdrew from the process, leaving eight remaining applicants. The current term of the Trustee 3 seat will expire on December 31, 2013. The PPC considered the Board of Supervisors' referral at its regular meeting on October 18, 2010. The PPC received a substantial amount of written and oral public testimony on the spirit of the Maddy Act and in support of the various candidates. The PPC limited its discussion to the process to be used to fill the BBKUCD Board vacancy and the broader policy issue of permitting Supervisors' family members to serve on Board advisory bodies, committees, and commissions or other public bodies for which the Board of Supervisors is the appointing authority. There was consensus among the Committee members that Supervisors' family members should not be automatically barred from participating on Board advisory bodies, committees, and commissions, but that nominations for appointment should result from an "arms length" process whenever a Supervisor's family member is a candidate. The Committee determined that, in the case of the Trustee 3 seat on the BBKUCD Board of Trustees, the nomination process should be delegated to a panel made up of subject matter experts from outside of Contra Costa County. The PPC took this recommendation to the Board of Supervisors on October 26, 2010, and the Board directed the County Administrator's Office to convene a panel of three individuals made up of trustees or district managers from cemetery districts outside of Contra Costa County, to evaluate candidates and nominate an individual to the Board of Supervisors, within 30 days, for appointment to the Trustee 3 seat on the BBKUCD Board. The County Administrator's Office convened a three-member panel in a meeting on November 10, 2010 to interview the eight candidates for the Trustee 3 seat on the BBKUCD Board. As a requirement for temporary bodies established under the authority of the Board of Supervisors, the committee's meeting was publicly noticed in accordance with the County's Better Government Ordinance, and was conducted in an open setting at the County Administration Building. The panel comprised individuals from the following three districts: Tracy Cemetery District (San Joaquin County), Kern County Public Cemetery District No. 1 (Kern County), and Rio Vista/Montezuma Cemetery District (Solano County). The panel interviewed seven candidates; one candidate did not appear. One member of the public, William Richardson, offered comment regarding an anti-nepotism policy and the need to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. At the conclusion of the interviews, the panel unanimously decided to nominate Vickey Rinehart for appointment to fill the vacant Trustee 3 seat. The panel also decided to nominate Bailey Neff on a contingency basis in the event that Ms. Rinehart is unable to serve. These nominations are presented for the Board of Supervisors' consideration today. The PPC will continue to work on the development of a broad policy and process for future instances where Supervisors' family members apply to participate on Board advisory bodies, committees, and commissions or other public bodies for which the Board of Supervisors is the appointing authority. Staff reported that none of the nine Bay Area counties has a written policy regarding appointment of Supervisors’ family members to Board advisory bodies and none of the other Bay Area counties appear to prohibit family members from serving. Contra Costa County has adopted some related policies, but nothing that pertains specifically to the appointment of Supervisors’ family members to Board advisory bodies. For example, the Board adopted a general guideline in Resolution No. 2002/377 “Board Advisory Body Procedures” that discourages simultaneous membership by more than one member of a family on a Board advisory body. Board Resolution No. 2002/376 also adopted the Common Law Policy on Conflicts: All Board Appointees should so conduct the public business as to avoid even any appearance of conflict of interest. The PPC is scheduled to discuss the broader policy issue at a special meeting scheduled for November 30. CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION: CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT: CLERK'S ADDENDUM David Twa, County Administrator, presented the staff report. Chair Gioia invited public comment. The following people spoke: David Piepho, former trustee; Ron Brown, resident of Contra Costa County; Bob Mankin, resident of Discovery Bay. Supervisor Glover said he is satisfied that staff fulfilled the requests made by the Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Bonilla noted that the process was not yet complete, that the Public Protection Committee would continue working to develop a policy regarding the appointment of family members to boards and commissions; Supervisor Piepho stated that she had many concerns. She said she believed the process to be fundamentally flawed, beginning with Clerk of the Board's initial failure to post the opening, and that when the posting was completed and it was identified that one of the applicants was one of her family members, the Board referred the issue to the Public Protection Committee (PPC), which then brought before the Board a recommendation to convene an ad hoc committee review panel to review applications and make a recommendation to the full Board. She said she believed the direction to the CAO office was to convene a panel of trustees. While there was discussion of participation of cemetery district managers, that was not a part of the motion and vote. She requested that County Counsel opine on the action of the Board versus the intent of the Board. She said that the review panel was provided with information in its packet that was not factually based nor timely to other materials of significance to an unbiased and neutral selection process. The packet included letters containing untruthful attacks on a candidates character, said packets were not distributed to the candidates at the meeting, many of whom were not aware of the negative letters and thereby unable to respond to any of the contents, and so there was no way to ensure an unbiased interview. She said the interviewers being from outside the County would have no knowledge of the history of the authors nor cemetery district board and therefore no context in which to assess the malicious correspondence. She said with these issues, it would be inappropriate to move forward today and she would not support the recommendations. Supervisor Piepho further remarked that it is very important on issues of importance to the County, its history and how the Board needs to perform and obey the laws, that what is being moved forward today she does not believe meets that criteria. Supervisor Uilkema observed that she believes that it was made clear what actions would be taken in regard to the PPC recommendations and that that is what occurred, and that the resulting 8 candidates indicates that dissemination of the opening on the cemetery district board was sufficient; Sharon Anderson, County Counsel said that after a review of the video and a transcript of the matter, that while not artfully done, the direction of the Board was to include managers as well as trustees in obtaining a review panel. Supervisor Gioia said he did not disagree that there were letters in the packet that included factual misstatements and some were particularly negative, as well as letters of recommendation. He request staff explain how the material was provided; Julie Enea, Senior Deputy County Administrator, clarified that there were materials received after the publication of the packet, including three letters of recommendation for David Piepho from two current and one former cemetery board members, that were provided to the panel members at the beginning of the meeting. Supervisor Uilkema called the question. On the motion of Supervisor Glover and seconded by Supervisor Gioia the Board: APPOINTED Vickey Rinehart to the Trustee 3 seat on the Byron-Brentwood-Knightsen Union Cemetery District Board of Trustees, to complete the unexpired term ending December 31, 2013; and ACCEPTED contingency nomination of Bailey Neff to the Trustee 3 seat should Ms. Rinehart decline the appointment or otherwise be unable to serve. ATTACHMENTS BBKUCD Interview Panel Agenda