Mayors appoint Oakdale’s Tom Dunlop to LAFCO

Mayors throughout Stanislaus County on Wednesday selected Oakdale City Councilman Tom Dunlop to represent cities on the Local Agency Formation Commission. He replaces Hughson Mayor Matt Beekman, whose controversial ouster in July from the growth-guiding panel provoked outcry.

Dunlop, a 10-year veteran of Oakdale government currently serving as vice mayor, said he’s well aware of LAFCO’s recent politically charged atmosphere. His mayor, Pat Paul, asked him to consider an appointment and he agreed, he said.

“I don’t get into the minutiae of who’s fighting with who,” Dunlop said. “I just want to make decisions so things go better between all the agencies in the county. I’m willing to look at all the facts and make a judgment call.”

A 5-4 majority of mayors removed Beekman from LAFCO last month for voting in March in favor of a policy change addressing farmland preservation. The vote adopted a formula for valuing fees paid to preserve farmland elsewhere when a city sacrifices farmland for growth; LAFCOs rule on cities’ annexation requests.

The issue became a rallying point for people supporting agriculture and Beekman, who has extensive experience in statewide LAFCO governance and who defended his March vote to the end.

“Builders don’t want someone who is pro-ag preservation on LAFCOs” throughout California, Beekman said Thursday. “They want LAFCOs to be pro-builder. It’s not a big mystery.”

Earlier this year, the mayors chose Beekman as chairman of the committee that last month removed him from LAFCO. On Wednesday, he continued to preside and cast the only dissent in a 7-1 vote appointing Dunlop; Turlock Mayor Gary Soiseth was absent.

Dunlop did not attend Wednesday, saying, “I was not there to lobby for myself.”

“I’m not new to the game,” Dunlop continued. “I think they were looking for someone with experience. (The suggestion that I’m) not in favor of farmland preservation is an absolute lie. My whole life has been in ag: I run a feedlot in Oakdale and I have other partnerships in ag. Farming and ranching is my whole income and I’ve never been opposed to that.”

Also on a 7-1 vote, with Beekman dissenting, the majority on Wednesday appointed Waterford Mayor Mike Van Winkle as cities’ alternate member on LAFCO, replacing Riverbank Mayor Richard O’Brien. Alternates vote in the absence of regular voting members.

O’Brien said he asked to step aside to avoid creating a problem if he and his nephew, County Supervisor Bill O’Brien, were to be confronted with a potential work-related conflict of interest. Bill O’Brien is the county’s alternate member on LAFCO and both men work for the same family-owned grocery business.

Richard O’Brien said he’s sensitive to such conflicts partly because he was dinged with a warning by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for voting to approve $46.72 in city purchases from O’Brien’s Market in 2012, when he was a councilman.

“I didn’t want to put LAFCO in the position of not having a quorum,” Richard O’Brien said.

Before Beekman’s mayoral counterparts kicked him off LAFCO, his fans created a Facebook page in his support. They obtained and posted at the site an email purportedly written by Van Winkle asking to suppress redundant public comment at the July selection meeting, and asking “if it is appropriate to stop the speaker when they are making false statements about the mayors being corrupt and in the pockets of the (Building Industry Association)?”

County Counsel John Doering, who provides legal advice to county staff helping the mayors’ committee, said Thursday, “Every Brown Act meeting has to have an opportunity for the public to speak.” He referred to California open-meetings law.

The Modesto Bee was unable to reach Van Winkle for comment.

Beekman said, “The guy discouraging public comment is now on LAFCO.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Mayors appoint Oakdale’s Tom Dunlop to LAFCO."