My Special Meeting Summary 6.24.25

Last night the Council met in a Special Meeting to discuss the City's official response to the Contra Costa County Civil Grand Jury report (Report) regarding Clayton.  I wrote (at length and in detail) about my own thoughts here:  https://www.jeffwanforclaytoncitycouncil.net/2025/06/on-grand-jury-report-regarding-clayton.html

State law requires responses to both the Report's findings and recommendations in a specific format. For findings, the City must state that it either agrees or disagrees with each finding, and provide an explanation for each item where there is disagreement. For each recommendation, the City is required to state whether the recommendation has already been implemented or when it will be, whether it requires further analysis, or that the recommendation will not be implemented because it is unwarranted with an explanation. The City responded to each finding and recommendation as required by law. In addition, the City provided additional comments in its response to provide context.  See the City's response here:  https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/claytonca/0a6a04e2-4df6-11f0-b7f5-005056a89546-ed84d874-ede8-4cfc-bcd0-b97efa03aeac-1750798374.pdf

The intent of a civil grand jury is laudable.  To act as a watchdog over local government to ensure they are operating as they should and to investigate allegations of misconduct by government.  If that is what this Report did, I would welcome their insight.  That is why it is unfortunate that at great time and expense, the Report was so deficient in both fact and context.

This Grand Jury investigation began as early as September 2024. It’s taken Council time, staff time, and legal time, for a resulting work product that is deeply flawed. I want to be clear, all of the false and unsupported claims that were made in the report were refuted directly with the Grand Jury. When I spoke with them, I provided evidence that directly contradicted their findings. Unfortunately, the Grand Jury ignored the evidence provided and proceeded to publish demonstrably false information.

Some may brush aside the egregious factual errors of the Report and say that the Report is based on a pattern, not any specific event. This is laughable. It’s simple to find a pattern when all contrary information is dismissed and only information that conforms to a pre-chosen narrative is selected. So while some may talk about their feelings, that is not how a Grand Jury should operate.  Evidence is evidence and in instances where the Grand Jury did not have it, they made up their own.

This Report, started by an anonymous complaint and abetted by the Civil Grand Jury, was an attack on our City.  This is when the full Council should have come together, rebut the false claims made by the Report, and support the work our City and its Staff do each and every day.  Four of us, Mayor Trupiano, Councilmembers Enea and Diaz, and myself did just that by voting in favor of the draft response last night.  Councilmember Tillman voted no.  Tillman did not advocate for changing the substance of the City's response, rather she was interested in modifying the tone.