South Tahoe council reaches its lowest level to date
By Kathryn Reed
Bruce Grego. That was the topic for more than two hours as the South Lake Tahoe City Council conducted a special meeting Thursday about whether the city councilman should have been reimbursed with taxpayer dollars for his use of outside counsel.
Tension filled the room. Hostilities – verbal and body language — were everywhere.
In the end, nothing was resolved.
Councilman Bruce Grego, standing, defends his actions as colleagues Jerry Birdwell and Hal Cole listen. Photo/Kathryn Reed
The council did agree things could have been handled better regarding the issue. But how they should be handled in the future was neither discussed nor asked to be put on a future agenda.
One thing the city could do is have warrants come before the council before they are paid – all but staff paychecks. This would eliminate situations like the Grego brouhaha. This is common practice in other cities.
The city has changed the policy when it comes to hiring outside legal counsel. It now all goes through the city attorney’s office. Grego, with everyone else, voted on this last summer. Still, he did not bring to his colleagues’ attention that he had personally sought outside legal counsel with the city manager’s permission and that he had billed the city for it. The other council members were not aware of this until the warrants were in their packet for the April 6 meeting or Lake Tahoe News called them. (Here is the original story.)
Grego never said Thursday he would have done anything differently. He was adamant it was his right to collect $937.50 in taxpayer money for having hired Dennis Crabb work on his behalf with the Fair Political Practices Commission regarding a potential conflict of interest he has as the attorney for Lakeside water district when it comes to voting on redevelopment matters near Stateline.
It has not been explained why the money is coming out of the Redevelopment Area 2 fund when the council hasn’t even created such an area.
Grego was a member of the public for the hearing because legally he couldn’t vote on the matter because it involves him and more than $500.
Most members of the public in situations like this are given five minutes to defend themselves or make their case. Grego was allowed to talk as long as he wanted.
Mayor Kathay Lovell looked a bit despondent through much of the proceeding. Lovell was inconsistent with the use of her gavel as about a half dozen members of the public spoke, and the councilmen kept interrupting each other and the public.
Lovell and Councilman Bill Crawford kept squabbling like children.
All the meeting at Lake Tahoe Airport seemed to accomplish was to further divide the council and make it apparent that it is going to be a long four months until City Manager Dave Jinkens retires, and even longer until a potential new council is seated in December.
What did come to light is:
• Jinkens admitted he’s talked to the grand jury about various issues in the city.
• City Councilman Jerry Birdwell has spoken to the district attorney and taken the Grego issue to the Justice Department via the FBI. His issue is the use of public funds for private matters. (He called for the meeting and was visibly upset through the proceedings.)
• Crawford believes Grego and Jinkens are in collusion and that corruption has occurred. He considers his most important responsibility to be fiduciary.
• Grego called the comments against him slanderous and welcomes any investigation.
• Jinkens said comments spoken Thursday were atrocious and possibly violated state law.
• Cole and Lovell said no criminal behavior has occurred.
• Former City Attorney Cathy DiCamillo signed the letter to the FPPC that Crabb wrote. Grego, when asked by Crawford if he had an ethical issue with that transaction, said “no.” After the meeting, City Attorney Patrick Enright said that behavior is not normal in legal circles. (DiCamillo no longer lives in South Lake Tahoe.)
• Grego and Birdwell remember having breakfast in April 2009 to discuss the reimbursement issue. Grego said Birdwell’s advice was to submit the bill to get a check from the city. Birdwell said his advice was to take it before the City Council.
• A memo from now former City Attorney Jacqueline Mittelstadt dated Aug. 20, 2009, said she vetted the reimbursement issue with the finance committee of Hal Cole and Birdwell. Cole has zero recollection of any such meeting. Grego said he has no memory of it either. Birdwell has a copy of the document. (Most items are emailed between staff and council members, however Grego has documents faxed to him or hand delivered because he doesn’t use email.) Grego said perhaps Birdwell’s friendship with Mittelstadt is why he has the document and others don’t; implying that the memo may never been disseminated to the people who were supposed to get it.
• The sequence of Grego asking for permission from Jinkens to seek outside counsel, subsequent emails, memos, other conversations-documentation, requisition for payment – the time line of it all was convoluted and never linked together in a manner to prove everything was on the up and up or not. (Grego has never explained why he didn’t immediately seek clarification about the potential conflict when first elected since he knew all along there could be one. He was on the City Council in the last 1980s and is not a newcomer to how things work in city government. Plus, he has worked for the water district for 10 years and the hole was there when he was elected.)
• The timing of Cole, Grego and Lovell seeking the dismissal of Mittelstadt was linked to the timing of memos involving the Grego issue. Nothing was proved.
• Kenny Curtzwiler, a vocal member of the community who lives in the county, said he thought this matter should have been heard in closed session. He said until this meeting he thought the seated council was the best he’s seen South Lake Tahoe elect and called Jinkens the best city manager.
• Peggy Cocores took issue with Curtzwiler’s statement.
Something needs to change, I’m not sure what, but the status quo is not very appealing, nor productive or just.
Curtzweiller, you have lost all credibility. Iused to think some of your thoughts made sense pondering. I no longer trust anything you write or think. Go back to the county and stay out of the city. Take Grego with you and let him run against Norma so your “freind” can represent you and not the city. Grego, don’t pay back the $$ and lets move on with the FBI investigation.
End this unproductive nonsense that accomplishes nothing but create unnecessary anger, angst, and wastes everyones’ time. Stop the damage to the taxpayers. End the duplicity, overlapping, redundant positions, and higher city taxes. Dissolve the city. Send Curtzwiler back to the county where he lives and votes.
If they had done this in closed session everyone would be wondering and accusing them of hiding things and the council couldn’t have talked about it. and there’s no reason to do it in closed session because its about public money and that has to be talked in open. Someone is stirring the pot over there and that should stop. Who ever is stirring that pot should see they are doing more harm than good.
Discussing this in open forum while uncomfortable was the best way to air it out and now that you have council, can we move on to things that are killing our jobs, hurting our businesses? Can you go hire a city manager that will not give bad advice to the councilmember who should have known better that to submit an invoice like this. Its quite obvious someone is covering something, but now that you’ve aired it, can we move onto to helping us out here in the community!
Can you put the same anger and frustration about this into dealing with the county who won’t help us , they don’t do a darn thing for our businesses, they take our money and spend it on helping put in a casino to kill our jobs and they did it with our property taxes, they’re laughing about the irony of that. Will you stand up to stpud and represent us, where is your letter to them to demand they reduce their rates, reduce their charges to the city and rate payers in these times. They are the only public agency that can just raise their rates why are you not fighting mad about what they are doing?
and why don’t you use your fighting words to bring businesses to town, bring in jobs, raise our revenues, go talk to the governor about stealing our money? Time to focus our attention on jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. get creative with your employees so they spend their money, our money here in town. Find incentives for people to keep their money here, instead of taking it to carson.
Council, I ask of you, fight for us. Now is the time to use those reserves to spur spending, get fighting mad about what is happening to our town and the more you fight among each other the less you focus on bigger problems. This was important, its in the light, checkmate.
Its time now to run the city with the same fight, get involved in all the other stuff going on,.
On the one hand LTN, I have to say great detailed reporting!! But how many stories do you we need that say the same point-Jinkens is not honest and should leave immediately!!! Grego, Lovell & Cole are not honest people either and together with Jinkens cover each other’s backside so they can all have their own dishonest dealings.
Just amazing that Lovell & Cole won’t even side with honest government in this instance and just say, “Hey Grego, just pay the money back!” Is Grego that bad an attorney he needed legal advice and/or can’t even come up w/ 1k?
And Mr. Birdwell & Crawford, thanks for trying to fight the good fight for the citizens of SLT! But Ski Bum, you took a hit in my book!! ALL this stuff needs to be out in the open!!
John Lee: Well said. As usual only part of the comments made were put into the story. The ones that yank the most chains. Yes I said it should be in closed session as they should have not aired their laundry in public on this item. If anyone bothers to watch the actual council meeting, long and boring, they would have sifted what actually happened as opposed to what was said. Bottom line is that the paper trail was delayed in being handed out to certain people and egos were bruised. I pointed out, not reported, that the same person who delayed passing out memos regarding the matter were produced after the fact and by the same person that several council members were trying to release earlier in the year. Was this oversight or on purpose we won’t know because no one talked to or approached the person involved. This is a case of total He said She said and misdirection on the part of a few. Better to look good for the upcoming election. The council is totally ineffective as of now and have lost all credibility as I apparently have also according to a few. I was there for the meeting so my opinions are based on first hand knowledge, observation and questions asked of the council. Most or some do not aggree with me and that’s ok but you should attend these meetings or at least watch it before you make suggestions as how to run the city or who you want to chase out. Also you should read all the articles and all the comments from all the sources on this. I am proud I live in the county but still will be involved with the city as I lived there for over 28 years and continue to call South Lake Tahoe my home.
Ski Bum, how can someone as intelligent as you seem to be support a bum like Grego? Its common knowledge that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed and a poor attorney at best. He is very slow and makes comments that are embarrasing to watch. The fact that he is in the situation he is in supports his lack of common sense and intellect. You personally lose credibility by trying to defend him. I also can’t believe you wanted his issues aired behind closed doors. I thought you supported transparency. I’ll be bypassing your columns in the Mountain News here forward and suggest to Taylor Flynn he drop you.
Well that’s all Folks.Pretty Par for the Course……..”Money the root of all Evil”.
Ski bum, send me that 100, I’ll put it on the Giants tonight against the Dodgers send back the loan later ,OK?
Hey I’M MORE HONEST THAN THE ELECTED OFFICIALS.
John lee, I found this for you to read ,please take a minute to read and think!
God bless.
americathegrimtruth.wordpress.com
Skibum’s wife works for Grego, that’s why he supports him.
skibum wrote:
I’m flattered that some of you has decided to change the focus of this story to The Skibum (Ken Curtzwiler) and the fact that my wife works in Bruce’s office. It seems nothing I say or do will satisfy your insatiable quest for the “hidden truth” so yes, Bruce is a friend of mine and he is being railroaded. This whole fiasco boils down to a paper trail and feelings hurt by some that they were not notified which by law they were not required to be notified. As usual it’s between the big 3 and the minority 2. I consider Mr. Crawford and Mr. Birdwell friends of mine also and if I felt they were right I would be supporting them and my wife does not work for them. I have supported them in the past and will do so in the future but not on this item. This has changed the course of city politics down a path that we will not recover from. Good luck on finding a CM now to work in Peyton Tahoe. Anyway, try and focus on the story. Unless of course the folks focusing on me are actually supporting those two and are trying to take the heat off what is considered a losing position.
I bet things can get worse they always do.
Time for all council members up for re-election to realize that they should not try to run again for the sake of the city. Lovell and Crawford have done 8 years; thats enough. Obviously the two of them have not been stellat perfomrers. Please do not force the citizenry to point out your inefficiencies during the election.
I think the city could be better served if the city leaders being of the different departments(Police, Fire,Utility,Trans,Courts,Rec,Building)) REPRESENTED OUR PROBLEMS ,WANTS AND NEEDS.
They all got the hands on training plus know the numbers BETTER THAN OUR ELECTED BUNCH.
When important matters came up ,we would have them notified the public have simple ballot boxes to drop in your vote.
The city would then have more the pubic and residents making decisions that we feel were important.
Our town being ran by the cooperation of all us.
Don’t think it could do any worse than what we all seen over the years.Maybe come up with some real community power ,progress,saved some tax payers money to spend on real improvements.We might even get to hire our own skilled labor force instead the out town unions that come in do what we know better.
Just Honest food for thought.
Grego was shown to be incompetent in the Middlestadt matter! ( I saw all of that on cable access once they turned they sound back on.) He’s incompetent if he couldn’t make his own call on this matter! He’s terribly reckless with our tax dollars to allow Crabb to bill the City 3.5 hrs. for something that should take 15 min. to look up!! He was incompetent AND reckless w/ our tax dollars when he voted to keep pursuing the Poland matter!
And the constant effort to have issues affecting our City discussed behind closed doors, not by Birdwell and Crawford but by the other 3, including Grego, is why our Council can be described as reaching ever and ever new low points!
I’ve been out of the area for a long while and heard about this issue. I personally know no one involved, particpants or commentators on this board. Having just watched the video from April 15, it’s so painfully obvious that Crawford and Birdwell are, to put it diplomatically, out of line. More succinctly, what a complete embarassment that these two “gentlemen” are allowed to continue in such a manner. This is no court of law, yet these two buffoons carry on like it is so. They are completely disrespectful to their fellow councilmen and members of the public, it’s mortifyingly ridiculous. To see Grego hung out to dry like this in a public way is deplorable. The unsubstantiated accusations they make are inexcusable. And, simply, it is not in the best interest of the city or its citizens. That said, it appears there is an issue to be resolved here. However, this should be dealt with in private, period. Anyone who states otherwise has a personal stake, agenda or vendetta, period. C’mon, get your act to together folks and take care of REAL business …
I don’t have a stake, agenda or vendetta in any of this! Period!! I just live in this town!! Birdwell & Crawford are honorable, not buffoons!!! The other 3 are the ones always trying to hide things. In a Democracy, things need to be out in the open!! That last sentence I don’t state as a citizen of SLT, but as one of the good old USA!!
What is the big deal ? $937 for 3.5 hours. Think of the researching the city council minutes by Dennis. Then comparing the minutes to the Grego speak.That takes a lot of time. Grego and Crabbe win. Jinkins walks like Kerry, and you have $1,000,937 in taxpayer money gone.
Unbelievable, how could the meeting get to that. Lovell, Cole, Greggo-same ol politics. Me, me, me. DISSOLVE THE CITY NOW.
The question that remains unanswered is why Crabb did not want the city to send him a payment direct for services rendered. This smells fishy. To avoid generation of a 1099 income tax statement? The uncertainty clouds Grego’s case.
Wow. Is this really what we want our City Council doing with their time? Fiscal scrutiny is crucial. So is maintaining productivity. If the purpose of the meeting was to find resolution, the Council failed. I find it disappointing that the Council failed in its most basic duty to respect the opinions of the public.
Does anyone else find it hard to participate when this is the playing field?
Julie, I understand what you’re saying .
But you need to understand that the whole barrels apples are rotten.
Participating is something they could care less about ,haven’t you noticed?They never get one thing done in a timely matter, so they send wads of taxpayers money(consultants) to do the work for them.
The council for such a long time has buffalo it’s residents to thinking they are there for a cause,yet not many believe a word they say,that’s why people don’t come out vote,it’s as fixed as a pro basketball game with the refs bought off.
I would be willing to bet, they will try bring back more retreads in the next election,someone from the social circle of the good old Bags and Boys.
I don’t know who this kenny curtzwiler is but if he thinks this is the best Council and City Mgr. he needs to be sent out of the area A.S.A.P
Bruce Grego should re-pay the City, and the City has no right to pay him from an account the is for the “Y” redevolopement project that has not even been approved yet. Hopefully the people in The City will hire a real City Mgr like The First One John Williams and you need to get some HONEST Council members that have the good of the City in mind and not there own personal intrest
I could take the easy way out and say “Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for them” But it is true as I live in the county. Where are all the people who did vote these folks in and are they willing to do it again. The City residents got exactly what they voted for when they elected them. Of course if you follow the council as closely as I do and hear from both sides on all issues and bother to check out things for yourself instead of relying only on the writings of the newspaper(s) you might come to the same conclusion, or not. Just an opinion. Funny though how it always seems to focus on me as a target when several others say the same thing as I do lol.