Can Modesto Council stop its bickering?

Modesto Mayor Ted Brandvold is planning a retreat for the City Council so its members can learn how to stop the bickering that can punctuate meetings and work together in a more civil and productive manner.

He said planning for the retreat is in its very early stages but hopes it can be held as soon as next month, and it will include work on setting goals for council members and for the council as a whole. Brandvold said he intends for the retreat to be open to the public.

This comes at a critical time for the city. Several department heads have left this year, and Modesto has not had a permanent city manager for more than eight months. But the very discord Brandvold hopes to end has surfaced over the retreat.

Council members Doug Ridenour and Jenny Kenoyer — who said she asked the mayor for months to hold a retreat but said he told her he wanted to wait until after the November election — support the retreat but object that Brandvold is not including the council in the decision to select a facilitator.

“He needs to bring us more into the decision-making,” said Kenoyer, who was one of the three incumbents re-elected Nov. 7. “It’s the process. It should be an open process involving all of the council. He is one person out of seven (on the council).”

But Councilwoman Kristi Ah You said Kenoyer and Ridenour will take issue with anything Brandvold does. She added Brandvold is the mayor (and the only official elected citywide) and the two council members need to respect that and give him a chance to lead.

She and Councilman Tony Madrigal — who said the retreat is an opportunity for the council to hit the reset button — have formed a reliable voting bloc with Brandvold since he took office after winning a runoff election in February 2016.

Ah You said she supports a retreat for setting goals but not for council members to learn how to get along. She said it’s up to council members to choose better behavior. “We’re all grownups,” she said. “We need to be a little more polite, a little more kind and as patient as possible.”

Ah You and Kenoyer have had their moments.

At a recent council meeting and during a discussion of the duties of a city commission, Ah You said it was highly inappropriate and found it disturbing for Kenoyer to question whether two members of the commission met the requirements to serve. Kenoyer responded by saying she did not like being chastised by another council member in public.

Brandvold said Chuck Bryant — who helped him get elected and served as chairman of his 100-day budget review committee — has provided him with a couple of names of facilitators. Brandvold said he also could look elsewhere.

But Ridenour said this continues the mayor’s pattern of going outside of the council. Ridenour said while he has great respect for Bryant and the work of the budget review committee, the council should have been given a bigger role with the committee and its recommendations. “We were the elected council,” he said. “That was our job.”

When asked why the council will not have more involvement in setting up the retreat, Brandvold essentially said there is not enough time to do that and hold the retreat as soon as next month. He said he decided to hold the retreat about a couple of weeks ago and Tuesday is the council’s last scheduled meeting of the year.

Councilmen Mani Grewal and Bill Zoslocki support the retreat and are fine with the mayor putting it together.

“The perception in the public is that this council is very dysfunctional in its relations,” said Grewal, who often is the swing vote on the council. “Is that an accurate perception? Based on some actions that happen at council meetings, I don’t think that is (a) far-reaching (perception).”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Can Modesto Council stop its bickering?."