Julia,
I didn't hear the entire discussion on the subcommittee. Who will be
serving on this subcommittee along with me?
Jack Walker
jawalker2@compuserve.com
(408) 733-2272
Fred,
If you'd rather not serve as chair I would be willing to do so. As for
meetings, we'll need the west conference room at least. Although I didn't
hear the entire discussion last night, from what I do understand I would say
that this will be of prime interest to the media and some of the community.
If it looks like we'll need more space for observers, we'll have to
commandeer the program room over at the library.
Looking at my calendar, Monday and Tuesday Evening are out but I'm
available Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I would recommend that we pick
one of those evenings and plan on at least several hours. Based on the
discussion, we'll likely need to schedule one or more followups as well.
In order to set things up faster, I'd like to be able to do some
preliminaries via email communications. Because of the likely public
interest in this thing I'm suspecting that any and all emails, including
this one, related to the sub-committee would need to be included into the
subcommittee record as correspondence. I've called Valerie to schedule a
short meeting with her so that I can fully understand the various issues at
hand, including the email matter. She may recommend that we avoid e-mails
altogether to prevent any legal complications that might result.
In light of the gravity of the matter and absent Valerie's advice, I'm at
least copying Valerie on this email in case we need to keep a record of it.
I will try and review the tapes of the meeting and the related documents
over the next day or two so as to come up to speed.
Jack Walker
Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
jawalker2@compuserve.com
(408) 733-2272
-----Original Message-----
From: fred@FMFA.COM [mailto:fred@FMFA.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 4:15 PM
To: Manuel Valerio; Jack Walker
Subject: Subcommittee
Hi. Julia has asked me to be the chair of the subcommittee she formed
last night, but I think one of you two would be a better choice. What
do you think?
Also, when and where should we meet?
--Fred
Fred/Manny,
I spoke with Valerie this morning about the subcommittee. I explained my
interest in using email to move the process along as quickly as possible.
She expressed the opinion that as long as we limit email to the setting up
and coordination of the meetings we should be on legally safe grounds. To
that end, I'd like to discuss the number of meetings and agendas for this
subcommittee. Regardless, because of the nature of this Ad-Hoc
subcommittee, for the sake of the public record, it is my intention to make
sure that these emails be included in the public record for the
subcommittee. It is also my recommendation that we have the City Clerk's
office provide someone to take action minutes of our meetings.
Based on my converation with Valerie, it seems to me that we need at least
one meeting to determine the exact nature and details of any charges being
made against the Vice-Mayor. Since this is not a fishing expedition to look
for wrong doing, it seems to me that we should be able to draw up a set of
charges based on the various letters submitted from PSOA, who seem to be
making the claims of misconduct. Based on that we would need to look at
what information is presently available and determine if we need to conduct
some interviews or ask for additional information.
The second meeting would need to consist of interviewing any relevant
personnel as well as reviewing any additional documentation we had received.
I forsee potentially interviewing the City Manager, the Chief of Public
Safety, the Officer who was in charge of the activities on Murphy Street on
the night in question. It seems to me that we need to also interview the
Vice-Mayor but that creates a potential problem. With the Vice-Mayor
joining the subcommittee, we have a quorum which creates a potential Brown
act issue. Valerie suggested that we should consider the solution used when
former Mayor Frances Rowe was investigated. That was to conduct the
interview with only two Councilmembers in the room. One of us would then
need to excuse themselves from the Vice-Mayor interview. Barring that, we
could just notice it as a special Council meeting and deal with it that way.
Once we have gathered all this information, it seems we need at least a
third meeting to discuss the relevant charges in context of the evidence and
make a determination. Once that is done, a report will need to be
generated, either by staff or the committee chair, and circulated to the
subcommittee for review and approval. Unless there is questions of accuracy
or completeness that need to be resolved as a committee, we should be able
to handle this by email. If necessary one of the committee members could
request another meeting to resolve any lingering issue.
Using this approach it seems we need to have at least three subcommittee
meetings. The first would likely be 1-2 hours long. The second would be at
least 2 hours long but could last longer depending on our preparation and
the number of interviews we need to conduct. The third meeting would be at
least 2 hours long but would depend the discussion at hand. A potential
fourth meeting would be the same.
It is important to note that these meetings would not be public hearings,
merely public meetings. As such the public could be present but we would
not be taking public testimony. The public would be able to comment on this
whole affair at any regularly scheduled Council meeting including the
Council meeting where we would present the report to the entire Council for
potential action.
If you both are comfortable with this approach, I suggest that we block out
at least 4 meetings over the next week or two to accomplish this task. I
would suggest evenings but a weekday or Saturday/Sunday morning or afternoon
would probably work as well. I would expect that we would need at least a
day or two between each meeting to allow time for arranging for interviews,
gathering any additional relevant documents.
We have a limited number of Council meetings over the next month so if need
be, we may need to request a special Council meeting to deal with this
matter.
Please respond with your thoughts as soon as possible. I'm leaving my
schedule open for the next two weeks to try to accomodate these meetings.
Please share your schedules so we can pick some tentative dates.
Thanks
Jack Walker
Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
jawalker2@compuserve.com
(408) 733-2272
Manny,
Thanks for your list of dates. I've not heard back from Fred but let me
pose a tentative schedule:
Wednesday, Oct 15th or Thursday October 16th 7PM-9PM to assess the charges,
identify and review relevant documents.
Saturday, Oct 18, 8AM-11AM, Interviews and review of any additional
documents
Sunday, Oct 19, 5PM-7PM, Final review of Documents and determine the
committee recommendation
Monday, Oct 20, 7PM-9PM, Review of Committee report (if needed)
I would work with staff to generate a report which I could email to everyone
Monday afternoon. If everyone is comfortable with the report, we could
forgo the Monday meeting. With this schedule we would be able to present a
recommendation at the October 21st Council meeting.
This is maybe a bit agressive schedule-wise, but I think it is doable and
in fairness to the Vice-Mayor, we should make every reasonable effort to
resolve this as quickly as possible. In the event that we can't be ready
for the 21st, we would need to schedule a special meeting of the Council.
We could look at October 28th again, but I'm afraid that we would be leaving
this out there, hanging over the head of the Vice-Mayor far too long. I'll
check with the Mayor and see if we could call a special meeting earlier, if
needed.
Let me know what you guys think about this schedule.
Jack Walker
Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
jawalker2@compuserve.com
(408) 733-2272
-----Original Message-----
From: Valerio95@aol.com [mailto:Valerio95@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 7:45 PM
To: jawalker2@compuserve.com; fred@FMFA.COM
Cc: varmento@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us; rlasala@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us
Subject: Re: Subcommittee
I am in complete agreement with your suggestions.
Here are dates which I am available:
October 15 * evening
October 16 evening
October 18 * morning
October 20 * evening
October 22 evening
October 24 evening
*Preferred dates for a three-meeting sequence. October 16 would work almost
as well as 15.
Fred,
Thanks for your comments. Your dates work for me. I'll check with Manny
about the 20th.
Jack Walker
Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
jawalker2@compuserve.com
(408) 733-2272
-----Original Message-----
From: fred@FMFA.COM [mailto:fred@FMFA.COM]
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 4:04 PM
To: Jack Walker
Cc: Valerio95@aol.com; varmento@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us;
rlasala@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us
Subject: Re: Subcommittee
Hello. I'm afraid I've been rather busy, but I have reviewed the
applicable e-mails and I am in general agreement with Jack's proposed
course of action. I feel we have two tasks before us. The first is a
fact-finding exercise, to determine what actually happened. The second
one is to evaluate those facts against relevant guides, namely 1) the
law, 2) the code of ethics, and 3) the code of conduct. We should also
be prepared to render an opinion to the council as to any policies that
might need to be clarified, as well as an evaluation of the behavior of
the City Manager and his staff as well as the Vice Mayor.
I am in agreement with Jacks 3-4 meeting structure. The first meeting
should lay out the workplan for the next 2 or three. I think it is very
important that we take oral testimony from all relevant parties as well
as the written material supplied by the PSOA and the City Manager. This
testimony should be taken in public, and we should be sure to leave a
complete public record of all we do. I agree that it would be best if
we finish our work in time for the Oct 21st council meeting.
As Jack says, this is a ticklish political situation. We need to be
fair, but we also need to render an opinion that is percieved as fair.
With the partisan division that exists between us, we run a risk of
having this investigation labled as a political whitewash no matter what
we decide. For that reason, I would like to propose that we work very
hard to achieve unanimity in our recommendation. I feel that the only
way the community will accept our opinion will be if the opinion is
given with one voice. A "2 against 1" verdict will do more harm than
good, and since the public will expect me to be the "1" it may well
prevent the air from being cleared if we three cannot agree. Jack,
since you have agreed to be the chair I believe you have a special
responsibility to work for consensus in this matter. I feel you are in
a better position to do this than I am, and that is why I suggested that
you take the role of chair (over the Mayor's objection).
As to schedule, the 15th will not work at all for me. Here are the
dates and times that will work for me:
10/16 7:00-9:00pm (as suggested)
10/18 8:00-11:00am (as suggested)
10/19 5:00-7:00pm (as suggested)
10/20 7:00-9:00pm (as suggested)
I suggest that we finalize this schedule and ask the City Clerk to post
it as soon as possible. Please let me know if you have any comments, etc.
Thanks,
--Fred
Jack Walker wrote:
>Manny,
> Thanks for your list of dates. I've not heard back from Fred but let me
>pose a tentative schedule:
>
>Wednesday, Oct 15th or Thursday October 16th 7PM-9PM to assess the charges,
>identify and review relevant documents.
>
>Saturday, Oct 18, 8AM-11AM, Interviews and review of any additional
>documents
>
>Sunday, Oct 19, 5PM-7PM, Final review of Documents and determine the
>committee recommendation
>
>Monday, Oct 20, 7PM-9PM, Review of Committee report (if needed)
>
>I would work with staff to generate a report which I could email to
everyone
>Monday afternoon. If everyone is comfortable with the report, we could
>forgo the Monday meeting. With this schedule we would be able to present a
>recommendation at the October 21st Council meeting.
>
> This is maybe a bit agressive schedule-wise, but I think it is doable and
>in fairness to the Vice-Mayor, we should make every reasonable effort to
>resolve this as quickly as possible. In the event that we can't be ready
>for the 21st, we would need to schedule a special meeting of the Council.
>We could look at October 28th again, but I'm afraid that we would be
leaving
>this out there, hanging over the head of the Vice-Mayor far too long. I'll
>check with the Mayor and see if we could call a special meeting earlier, if
>needed.
>
> Let me know what you guys think about this schedule.
>
>Jack Walker
>Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
>jawalker2@compuserve.com
>(408) 733-2272
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Valerio95@aol.com [mailto:Valerio95@aol.com]
>Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 7:45 PM
>To: jawalker2@compuserve.com; fred@FMFA.COM
>Cc: varmento@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us; rlasala@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us
>Subject: Re: Subcommittee
>
>
>
>I am in complete agreement with your suggestions.
>
>Here are dates which I am available:
>
>October 15 * evening
>October 16 evening
>October 18 * morning
>October 20 * evening
>October 22 evening
>October 24 evening
>
>*Preferred dates for a three-meeting sequence. October 16 would work
almost
>as well as 15.
>
>
>
>
>
Based on everyone's feedback, here is the latest schedule I'm proposing
(note that the end times are estimates):
Thursday, October 16, 7PM - 9PM:
1) Determination of specific charges against the Vice Mayor
2) Review of related Documents (Charter,Code of Conduct, Code of ethics,
memos, tape of Oct 7 Council meeting, et al)
3) Discussion of additional documents
4) Discussion of interviews
Note: The City Manager has expressed a desire to be interviewed on Thursday
evening, if needed, due to a scheduling conflict on Saturday. If the
Subcommittee so desires, we would meet with Bob at the end of this meeting.
Saturday October 18, 8AM - 11AM:
1) Interviews of all relevant City Personnel
2) Review of any additional documents
3) Discussion of any additional information needed
Note: In order to be able for the entire subcommittee to interview the
Vice-Mayor, the Saturday meeting needs to be noticed as a special meeting of
the entire City Council as we will have a quorum present.
Sunday October 19, 5PM - 7PM:
1) Discussion of evidence
2) Evaluation of merits of Charges against the Vice Mayor
3) Discussion of any additional recommendations to the City Council
4) Determination of Subcommittee recommendations to Council
5) Discussion related to Subcommittee report (format, content, etc)
Monday October 20, 7PM - 9PM:
1) Review of draft Subcommittee RTC
Note: The Monday meeting would be at the descretion of the subcommittee. It
is my intention to work with staff to generate an RTC Monday morning and
submit it via email to the subcommittee members for review. If all the
members are comfortable with the report, then we could dispense with the
Monday meeting altogether.
Tuesday October 21, City Council Meeting:
1) Presentation of subcommittee report
2) Action by City Council
In addition to the standard noticing, I will announce this schedule at the
October 13th City Council meeting. The subcommittee meetings will be
noticed as Public Meetings not Public Hearings as we will not be taking
public comment. There will be an opportunity for the public to comment at
the October 21 Council Meeting. I have requested that the City Clerk's
office provide staff support to take action minutes to record the actions of
the subcommittee.
If everyone is okay with this schedule then there is no need to respond.
Jack Walker
Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
jawalker2@compuserve.com
(408) 733-2272
In order to speed this process, I'd like to identify and obtain as many
pertinent documents as possible ahead of time. To that end, let me start a
list and have anyone else submit additions. Some of these relate to City
and Council Policies while others relate to the specific incident in the
downtown on the night of August 31. Some or all may not be relevant, but
that is a determination that the subcommittee will need to determine as a
body. Also note that the Council may have received multiple copies of these
documents so I've tried to be as descriptive as possible to avoid
duplication.
City Charter
Code of Ethics
Code of Conduct
Videotape of City Council meeting of October 7, 2003
Letter from PSOA, dated October 7th, 2003, discussing the issues that the
PSOA has with the Vice Mayor and related matters
Speech notes from Steve Fisk, dated October 7, 2003, discussing the issues
related to the Vice Mayor and related matters
Cover memo from City Manager, dated October 10, 2003, listing a number of
attached documents related to this enquiry:
- Email from Vice Mayor Risch to the City Manager, dated September 3, 2003
- An attachment memo from Vice Mayor Risch to the City Manager, undated,
with questions related to downtown events of August 31st
- DPS Downtown Report, undated, referring to the evenings of Aug 29, 30 and
31.
- Email from Director of Public Safety to City Manager, dated 9/4/2003
- An attachment memo to Captain Fortin, dated September 4, 2003
- Email from Director of Public Safety to City Manager, dated September
6,2003
- attachment Memo from Captain Carlyle to Director of Public Safety,
undated, with responses to questions
- Email from the Vice Mayor to the City Manager with an additional
question.
Memo from Vice Mayor Risch to City Attorney, dated September 11,2003
Memo from City Attorney to Vice Mayor Risch, dated September 15, 2003
Memo from PSOA to Director of Public Safety, dated September 7, 2003,
concerning questioning procedures of Lt. Shawn Ahearn
Note that I have copies of all of these documents (including the
videotape). If someone is aware of additional documents or needs copies of
any of these documents for review, let me know ASAP so that we can all be
familiar with as many documents as possible prior to our first meeting.
Thanks.
Jack Walker
Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
jawalker2@compuserve.com
(408) 733-2272
Fred,
I think we are saying the same thing but let me add a caution that we are
charged to investigate specific charges made by Steve Fisk at the October 7
Council meeting. My intention with that first item was to task the
subcommittee to come to some conclusion on what those specific charges were.
Based on those charges we should gather and review any relevant factual
material. If we just review any factual material looking for charges to
level against the Vice Mayor then we are on a fishing expedition which would
likely be viewed by the public as a political hatchet job. I do not want
that perception in the community. On the other hand, if some evidence of
malfeasance presents itself in the evidence we do review, it is not my
intention to ignore it. As I said, I think were saying essentially the same
thing, I'm just trying to procedurally keep the horse before the cart.
I'm nervous about taping the interviews, video or audio, both from a legal
viewpoint as well as from the comfort level of the interviewees. We should
discuss this at our first meeting.
I agree that the City Manager interview be the last item on our agenda on
Thursday. However your comment about him joining us after our deliberation
raises a point. We need to hold these meetings in public so technically
anyone is entitled to be a party to our deliberations. The interviews would
be public as well. In fact, anyone who is interviewed by the committee has
the option to have a representative, legal or otherwise, present to ensure
that we are not violating anyone's rights. I have already notified Steve
Fisk that should we choose to interview a PSOA member, he should be prepared
to provide that representation.
I must confess that we're on some uncharted grounds here, as far as this
Council is concerned. I'm trying to air on the side of open government,
both from our citizen's right to know as well as the legal standpoint, while
protecting the rights of all involved. It would distress me greatly if my
most significant legacy to the city was an expensive lawsuit over this
matter.
Jack Walker
Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
jawalker2@compuserve.com
(408) 733-2272
-----Original Message-----
From: fred@FMFA.COM [mailto:fred@FMFA.COM]
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 11:58 AM
To: Jack Walker
Cc: Valerio95@aol.com; varmento@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us;
rlasala@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us; Julia Miller (E-mail)
Subject: Re: Subcommittee Schedule
The schedule looks good. I suggest that we change item 1) to read
"identification of facts to be found" rather than "determination of
specific charges", as the charges (if any) against the Vice Mayor and
or other City Staff will come out of the facts we find. I suggest that
all the interviews be taped so that we can review the testimony in
detail after the fact if necessary. Also, I suggest that items 1-4 on
Thursday be discussed completely by the subcommittee before inviting the
City Manager to join us for his interview. Since he is one of the ones
whose actions are being looked into, he should not be a party to our
deliberations.
--Fred
Jack Walker wrote:
> Based on everyone's feedback, here is the latest schedule I'm proposing
>(note that the end times are estimates):
>
>Thursday, October 16, 7PM - 9PM:
>1) Determination of specific charges against the Vice Mayor
>2) Review of related Documents (Charter,Code of Conduct, Code of ethics,
>memos, tape of Oct 7 Council meeting, et al)
>3) Discussion of additional documents
>4) Discussion of interviews
>
>Note: The City Manager has expressed a desire to be interviewed on Thursday
>evening, if needed, due to a scheduling conflict on Saturday. If the
>Subcommittee so desires, we would meet with Bob at the end of this meeting.
>
>Saturday October 18, 8AM - 11AM:
>1) Interviews of all relevant City Personnel
>2) Review of any additional documents
>3) Discussion of any additional information needed
>
>Note: In order to be able for the entire subcommittee to interview the
>Vice-Mayor, the Saturday meeting needs to be noticed as a special meeting
of
>the entire City Council as we will have a quorum present.
>
>Sunday October 19, 5PM - 7PM:
>1) Discussion of evidence
>2) Evaluation of merits of Charges against the Vice Mayor
>3) Discussion of any additional recommendations to the City Council
>4) Determination of Subcommittee recommendations to Council
>5) Discussion related to Subcommittee report (format, content, etc)
>
>Monday October 20, 7PM - 9PM:
>1) Review of draft Subcommittee RTC
>
>Note: The Monday meeting would be at the descretion of the subcommittee.
It
>is my intention to work with staff to generate an RTC Monday morning and
>submit it via email to the subcommittee members for review. If all the
>members are comfortable with the report, then we could dispense with the
>Monday meeting altogether.
>
>Tuesday October 21, City Council Meeting:
>
>1) Presentation of subcommittee report
>2) Action by City Council
>
> In addition to the standard noticing, I will announce this schedule at the
>October 13th City Council meeting. The subcommittee meetings will be
>noticed as Public Meetings not Public Hearings as we will not be taking
>public comment. There will be an opportunity for the public to comment at
>the October 21 Council Meeting. I have requested that the City Clerk's
>office provide staff support to take action minutes to record the actions
of
>the subcommittee.
>
> If everyone is okay with this schedule then there is no need to respond.
>
>
>Jack Walker
>Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
>jawalker2@compuserve.com
>(408) 733-2272
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Julia,
In order to move this along in a timely fashion, I felt that it would be
prudent to try to hash out these procedural issues with the subcommittee
ahead of time. I've got the time and Fred has been amenable to it.
I'm sorry, I forgot that you were intending to be absent from the October
21st meeting. That creates a somewhat messy problem. You're right that the
Vice-Mayor would need to recuse himself so that would leave only 5
councilmembers to take any action. Slipping the RTC until after the
election makes the whole effort look like a political charade that would
severely damage the Council's credibility, in my opinion. As I recall, the
Council took only a week to review the charges against Francis Rowe and take
action. I think we owe the same courtesy to the Vice-Mayor as well.
As I recall you were intending to be out from the 18th and returning on or
around the 28th. Is that still true? I don't believe that we can, in good
conscience, slip the RTC until after the 28th so that leaves only two
choices. Either we include you in the Council meeting via phone or you
simply opt out. I see no problem with you phoning it in but I would remind
you that we have a number of other matters on the agenda, including the RV
matter, that could take some time. If you're comfortable with that then we
can certainly set it up. You could probably just opt in for this matter
however I'm not sure how it would be perceived in the community if you
simply phoned in for this item and missed the rest of the meeting, but it's
your decision.
Either case, you should be aware that we'll need to have someone chair that
portion of the meeting. With you absent or present via a phone and the
Vice-Mayor stepping down, one of the other five will need to chair the
meeting. I will volunteer to do that duty but its your decision on the
matter.
Will you be able to check your emails while you're out? I can keep you in
the loop as best I can either by email or you can check in by phone.
Jack