Update: Big changes in Turlock after City Council holds closed-door meetings
The Turlock City Council on Thursday put its city manager on investigatory leave and accepted the resignation of its city attorney.
City Attorney Doug White’s resignation will be effective Feb. 28, but the council gave no further details on the leave for City Manager Toby Wells.
The vote was split 3-2 for both issues, with Mayor Bublak and Council Members Pam Franco and Rebecka Monez voting yes and Council Members Nicole Larson and Andrew Nosrati voting no. The closed session regarding disciplining, dismissing or releasing an employee took place during the council’s second special meeting convened with less than 48-hour notice this week.
Per Wells’ contract approved in March 2020, he will receive full pay and benefits while on leave. City Clerk Jennifer Land did not say how long the leave will last in the reports from closed session. Wells serves at the pleasure of the council, and the council last evaluated his performance, along with White’s, in a closed session on Tuesday.
Wells did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment. If the council fires Wells without cause, his contract requires the city pay him eight months of severance: about $147,000.
In the resignation letter White submitted Thursday, he did not specify a reason for resigning. Bublak read the letter, which ends the agreement for city attorney services Turlock started with Churchwell White LLP in March 2019. White is a managing partner of the law firm.
“I’m excited to continue to serve the city through the end of February,” White told the Bee. “To the extent that the city needs assistance beyond that, I’m willing and able to assist them. Everything has a season and I’m excited about what I accomplished in the last two years.”
The agreement with Churchwell White LLP requires Turlock pay the firm $30,000 per month, regardless of whether the city uses all the contracted hours for legal services.
Turlock residents, council member call for transparency
The majority of callers in a 40-minute public comment session expressed concerns about the closed session and amount of notice for transparency. Some remarked on how Franco and Monez joined the council on Dec. 8, and have not worked long with the city manager and city attorney. The council has not held a regular meeting since the night they took the oath of office, and the next one is scheduled Jan. 12.
Nosrati made a motion proposing to postpone the special meeting until Franco and Monez completed training on ethics and Brown Act violations. He also requested a legal counsel specialized in human resources law attend all future closed sessions on the personnel issues, but the motion failed. Only Larson voted for the motion with him.
“What we’ve experienced in these last couple of days was rushed,” Nosrati said near the end of the meeting. “It lacked proper professional evaluation and courtesy, and continues down a path where we are losing public trust and showcasing a lack of transparency that the public will remember.”
Turlock posted the agenda for Tuesday’s special meeting regarding employee evaluations 24 hours before it took place, Land said in an email. The meeting was not live streamed or posted on YouTube in addition to being teleconferenced over Zoom, Land said, because of staffing and technology available. The agenda for Thursday’s meeting was distributed at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, she said.
The two agendas as posted do not appear to violate the Brown Act, said Brittney Barsotti, general counsel for the California News Publishers Association. The act requires notices for special meetings to be publicly posted at least 24 hours in advance, which the city did.
Turlock continues high turnover rate
Mayor Amy Bublak declined to answer questions about why the special meetings were called in the first week of January. Citing personnel issues, she said she cannot speak on the matter in a text to The Bee on Wednesday.
When the council hired Wells, Bublak cast the sole opposing vote and criticized how the council did not conduct public interviews to fill the position. Bublak has argued with Wells in several public meetings, and also regularly quarrels with Nosrati.
Turnover has also been an issue for Turlock, with former City Manager Robert Lawton resigning in August 2019 and the council terminating Fire Chief Robert Talloni two months before. Wells is the sixth person to serve as city manager on either a permanent or interim basis since 2015.
Before the city entered an agreement with White’s law firm, Jose Sanchez served as Interim City Attorney for a year. Sanchez was selected after City Attorney Phaedra Norton resigned in March 2018, finishing nearly 10 years in the position.
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 10:27 AM.
