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HomeMy WebLinkAbout101-Staff Report.pdf SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: June 6, 2007 AGENDA ITEM: ___________________ ORIGINATING DEPT: City Attorney CITY MANAGER: _________________ Dave Anderson PREPARED BY: Richard TaylorDEPT.HEAD: Richard Taylor SUBJECT: Response to Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury Report on North Campus Sale RECOMMENDED ACTION : Review Draft Response to Grand Jury Report and provide direction to staff and Mayor. REPORT SUMMARY: At its meeting of June 6, 2007 the City Council received and reviewed the report of the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury regarding its investigation of events surrounding the proposed sale of the North Campus. The City Council directed staff to prepare a response. A copy of the draft response is attached. Pursuant to state law, the City must respond to the findings and recommendations in the Grand Jury’s report. The City is not required to implement the recommendations but must respond to each recommendation and indicate agreement or disagreement with each finding. If there is disagreement, the City must explain its reasoning. The attached report reflects staff’s understanding of the Council direction on June 6, 2007. Council may wish to clarify that direction or suggest alternative wording to that proposed in the draft. FISCAL IMPACTS: N/A FOLLOW UP ACTION(S): Prepare final response based on Council direction. ADVERTISING, NOTICING AND PUBLIC CONTACT: Notice for this meeting. \[City of Saratoga Letterhead\] DRAFT RESPONSE June __, 2007 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury Office of the Civil Grand Jury Superior Court of California County of Santa Clara 191 North First Street San Jose, CA 95113 Re: 2006-2007 SANTA CLARA COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY REPORT REGARDING PROPOSED SARATOGA LAND SALE Honorable Members of the Civil Grand Jury: The City Council for the City of Saratoga has reviewed your April 24, 2007 report regarding the proposed Saratoga land sale involving the North campus (“Report”) and authorized me to provide this response. The City Council appreciates the thorough and deliberate work of the Civil Grand Jury and is pleased that your investigation confirmed that there is no evidence of collusion between any members of the City Council or City staff and the potential buyer of the property. As you know, the proposed sale was placed before the voters and rejected in June 2006. The City has recently made much of the facility available for increased public use and is pleased to be evaluating options for additional public use in the future. With respect to the specific findings and recommendations in the Report, the City’s response is set forth below: Finding 1. There is a lack of written policies and procedures defining how City Council and staff conduct official business. The City agrees. The City is in the process of adopting and/or updating a range of operational procedures. State laws and City ordinances provide considerable procedural direction regarding matters such as public meetings, contracting procedures, personnel matters, document management, municipal finance, and land use planning. The City Council recognizes, however, that customer service and public accountability can be improved by building on state and local laws with additional policy and procedure guidance. Finding 2. During the negotiation process in the sale of the North Campus property involving City officials and a private party, there was no documentation of meetings, discussions or decisions, either among City officials or between the City and the private party. The City agrees. The written record of negotiations consisted solely of contract documents negotiated by the potential buyer and the City’s authorized negotiators. Although the contract documents reflected the final outcome of the negotiations, no written record was maintained of the interim meetings, discussions, and decisions leading to the contract documents. Recommendation1. Commission an independent management audit of its official policies and procedures manuals for conducting government business and implement the audit recommendations. The City is in the process of updating and adopting a range of policies and procedures for conducting government business. In light of considerable fiscal constraints the City is performing this work using existing staff rather than retaining outside consultants. The City has recently adopted new purchasing procedures, a personnel manual, and City Council procedures. Each of these has been developed through a process of reviewing applicable state and local laws, model policies from similar jurisdictions, and staff and Council deliberations based on lessons learned from past practices in the City. As noted in the Report, the City’s independent auditors have made various recommendations and the City is in the process of implementing its responses to those recommendations. Recommendation 2. Adopt and enforce a policy that all City staff maintain a written record of meetings, decisions, and actions that implement policy. The City Council has concluded that the findings of the Report demonstrate the value that could be provided by written records of the type recommended in the Report. Accordingly the City Council has directed staff to prepare a policy that will require a written record of meetings, decisions, and actions related to contracts for goods, services, and property in excess of $2 million. This will ensure more complete recordkeeping for major programs such as the North Campus while not requiring undue staff time for documentation of more routine items of business. Thank you for your consideration of this response. Sincerely, Aileen Kao Mayor City of Saratoga 2 Cc: Members of the Saratoga City Council City Manager City Attorney 3