Modesto council disciplines city clerk

The Modesto City Council has issued a written reprimand and docked the pay of City Clerk Stephanie Lopez because city officials say she changed election paperwork that caused a ballot measure in the Nov. 3 election not to reach all of the voters.

City Attorney Adam Lindgren announced the discipline Tuesday night after council members came out of closed session. Council members, with the assistance of city officials, were investigating Lopez after the problem with the ballot measure surfaced in mid-October.

Lopez has been city clerk since May 2008 and her annual salary is $120,625, according to the city. Her salary will be reduced 5 percent from Nov. 17 until her next performance evaluation in May. Lopez has declined to comment and did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The council vote to discipline Lopez was 5-2, with council members Jenny Kenoyer and Dave Lopez – who is not related to the city clerk – voting “no.” Both said this was a serious matter and believed a reprimand was appropriate but did not support docking her pay. Lopez, who has served on the council for eight years, said Stephanie Lopez has been an exemplary city clerk and this was her first mistake.

A report of the council’s investigation says Lopez made the change on her own and took responsibility for her actions, but it also says she changed the paperwork after officials with the Stanislaus County election office expressed reservations about it. The paperwork was from Lindgren, and the report says Lopez did not check with him before making the change.

The election mishap involves Measure F, which the council put on the ballot at the request of Modesto City Schools. The measure asked voters whether the city should amend its charter so the school district could change how it elects board members. The city charter spells out how Modesto City Schools board members are elected. The measure was required to go to all voters in the school district, which encompasses the city and surrounding communities. But it only went to city voters because Lopez changed the paperwork to limit the measure to them, according to the report.

The paperwork that was changed was Lindgren’s impartial analysis of the measure.

According to the report:

▪  Lopez submitted the analysis and other paperwork to the county election office June 26. She told the council that from June 27 to Aug. 21 she was contacted on more than one occasion by a representative of the election office and that in those conversations, “county officials expressed reservations about residents outside of the city voting on city charter amendments and about the city’s authority to direct that the ballots be sent to voters in the school district but outside of the city.”

▪  She submitted an altered version of the impartial analysis to the election office Aug. 21.

▪  She did not speak with Lindgren or any member of his staff during this time. Lopez said she was under a time crunch to meet deadlines to submit election documents. Modesto had three council races, a mayor’s race and three other ballot measures on the Nov. 3 ballot.

▪  Lopez participated in a conference call with a county election official, Lindgren and one of his attorneys Oct. 16. “At that time the county official stated that ballots should be limited to city voters only. The attorney from Mr. Lindgren’s staff said that the ballots should go to voters within the school district.”

The report does not name any of the county officials.

Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters Lee Lundrigan issued this statement Tuesday night:

“The registrar of voters conducts elections on behalf of the federal, state, county, city and local districts within the boundary of Stanislaus County. The office is provided with the information to conduct the election from those government entities. And we conduct the elections according to their requirements and California law.

“They tell us what to place on the ballot, which we do following Election Code guidelines. It is our practice to communicate with them and obtain information from them. We do not provide legal advice.”

Modesto City Schools, Modesto and Stanislaus County asked a judge to require that Measure F ballots not be counted and another election be held in June. The judge granted the request.

An issue to be resolved is who will pay for the botched Measure F election. City officials provided a rough estimate of $40,000 to $50,000 as its cost.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Modesto council disciplines city clerk."