GDPUD Dysfunction Leads to Meeting Mismanagement

After scheduling a regular Board meeting on Dec 11 for regular business including the Swearing-in of new Board member Maria Capraun, an emergency meeting was called for Friday the 7th at 5:30pm.  Notice of this meeting was sent to Board members on the 5th by email.  Maria Capraun was planning on attending this meeting until it was changed to 12:30.  It was reported that Board member Norm Krizl had dinner reservations and that was why the time was changed.

No public notice of the special meeting was ever posted on the agency's website.

Board member Elect Maria Capraun received this email on Dec 5th

Hello, The board concluded labor negotiations on November 13, 2012. Pursuant to CALPERS procedures, staff sent a letter requesting a contract amendment on November 16. CALPERS contacted the district on November 29 and informed the district that the pension reform act effective January 1, 2013 would impact the district’s contract amendment. Mary Pat and Bill have researched the impact and Bill has reduced the information into the attached memo for your review. Ray Griffiths has called a special meeting for the board on Friday, December 7, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. This meeting will occur if CALPERS is successful in providing the actuarial and other amendment documents prior to the meeting. If CALPERS does not provide the documentation by Friday, it is questionable if PERS will allow an amendment to the existing contract.

According to the email this was a conditional meeting contingent on, "if CALPERS is successful in providing the actuarial and other amendment documents prior to the meeting" but it is uknown if any confirmation of the documents arriving or that the meeting was actually going to occur.

When the rescheduled special meeting took place on the 7th at 12:30, only two Board members were in attendance.  The meeting  was continued to 5:30 and then reconvened with the needed quorum to transact business.

Incoming Board member Capraun wrote,

"This is the most dysfunctional and none professional behavior from the GM. The GM is the Board Clerk and it is his job to ensure that the Board is informed on the meetings. Yet, he refused to call to insure that each Board member was aware of the meeting time change since he had already set a time of 5:30pm. I never received a call from the District, I received a call from a member of the public after 12:30 pm meeting time."

The emergency meeting was called because GDPUD management failed to act in a timly manner regarding a CalPER contract change made in months earlier.

According to District Counsel William Wright, the board is required to follow a certain process before amending their CalPERS contract, including making available a revised actuarial valuation of the proposed amendment to bargaining units as well as to the public. This is followed by the board adopting a resolution of intent to implement the amendment. Then no sooner than 20 days following those actions, the board is required to hold another public meeting to adopt the contract amendment. The amendment then goes into effect three days following the adoption of the amendment.  According to Wright, GDPUD is required to amend its current contract by Dec. 28 if it wants the changes to go into effect.

The emergency was that GDPUD had to make available a revised actuarial valuation of the proposed amendment to bargaining units as well as to the public by Dec 8th to make the deadline.  It is unclear why this was not dealt with in the normal course of business since the GDPUD the General Manager was notified on September 6 of the event.  GDPUD management was informed of the needed actions a full three months before they scheduled an "emergency" or requested the documentation needed for the meeting.

It is known that during the 90 days that no action was taken on the item, in a letter dated Nov. 12, District Counsel William Wright announced that he decided to resign.

Incoming Board member Maria Capraun said,

"If the legal counsel had done his job, along with the General Manager, the Board would have known that this was going to need to be done.  This will all change!!! This Board reports to the Public and the GM reports to the complete Board. Policies will address this shortly! All must be accountable for this behavior."