Gilroy
– The city’s legal counsel will face an impromptu job evaluation
after advising City Hall to deter public scrutiny of contracts with
Gilroy’s top two police officials.
Gilroy – The city’s legal counsel will face an impromptu job evaluation after advising City Hall to deter public scrutiny of contracts with Gilroy’s top two police officials.
The advice violated state open records laws and ran counter to common practice in dozens of other cities, according to state open government advocate Terry Francke.
City Attorney Linda Callon, with the San Jose-based firm Berliner Cohen, will meet Monday night with city council in closed session for a “performance evaluation.” On the same night, City Administrator Jay Baksa will also undergo a job review for his handling of the retirements of Police Chief Gregg Giusiana and Assistant Chief Lanny Brown.
Callon could not be reached late Friday for comment, and Mayor Al Pinheiro would not comment on the subject matter of the evaluation.
“Somebody’s missing the boat someplace,” Pinheiro said, referring to the clash over releasing the work agreements. “If it’s us, then we need to fix it. If it’s the paper, then we’ll stand our ground.”
The Dispatch first requested the agreements Feb. 12, after learning that Brown and Giusiana quietly retired this winter and “returned” as part-time employees. The deal nearly doubles their earning potential to more than $240,000 each, while it saves the city $100,000-plus in medical benefits and pension contributions.
City leaders have had less problem with the deals than with Baksa’s failure to disclose the retirements. Neither council nor rank-and-file police officers were informed of the change in the chiefs’ employment status, and suspicions about the deals spiraled this week when city attorneys recommended the agreements be withheld from the public.
The documents provide basic details about the chiefs’ terms of employment. Giusiana has earned $70.29 an hour since formally retiring Dec. 1, while Brown has earned $61.95 per hour since retiring Jan. 11, according to the agreements. Both receive $350 in monthly car allowances.
The city released the agreements after the chiefs volunteered their own copies, but Houston continued to insist the contracts are not public records.
Earlier this week Houston said the firm took a “conservative” view of case law and statutes surrounding the release of police contracts. But the cases and laws she cited do not override a statute calling for disclosure of all public employee contracts, without exception, said Francke, counsel for the nonprofit Californians Aware.
The organization recently surveyed 200 law enforcement agencies across the state. Of the 39 agencies that have employment contracts with their top brass, Francke said all but one disclosed the documents upon request.
Council members will review Baksa and Callon’s job performance following a Feb. 26 meeting that starts at 7pm. The meeting will take place at City Hall, 7351 Rosanna St.
