Woodside council votes to take no action on ethics investigation

Posted by Nancy Reyering
a resident of Woodside: other
on Feb 23, 2017 at 8:32 pm

I am glad that this ill-conceived investigation is finally over. In listening to the tape of the Council meeting, I was astounded to hear Jean Savaree and Dave Burow each try to wash their hands of instigating the claim against me. First, Jean Savaree claimed that the only reason the matter had proceeded in the way that it had, and was as aggressive as it was, was that Dave Burow had insisted I be removed. And then, Dave Burow immediately responded by reading a statement saying that he did not ever call for my removal. The genesis of the entire process is proving to be ever more outlandish.

Perhaps most astounding of all was that Council did not discuss this after the fact finger-pointing, the cost of the investigation, or the issue of clarifying conflict of interest guidelines.

Now, more than ever, it’s clear that Town staff – particularly Town Attorney Jean Savaree – badly mishandled the situation and acted inappropriately by pursuing this expensive and aggressive investigation without the knowledge of the full Town Council. It is inconceivable that the Town of Woodside spent at least $27,000 on an investigation that essentially went nowhere. Please note that this figure does not include Tom Brown’s fees for drafting the final report, so the final cost is sure to be higher.

I was also very interested to hear that the only two ethics investigations in Woodside’s history to engage an outside investigator were both launched when Deborah Gordon was mayor. Ms. Savaree also made it clear that it is not common practice for a municipal government to hire an outside investigator to conduct these types of ethics inquiries. Either Ms. Savaree misled Ms. Gordon about the costs and ramifications of engaging an outside investigator, or Ms. Gordon instructed Town staff to pursue the investigations regardless.

This whole debacle points to poor oversight and communication between the Town’s elected representatives and staff and, frankly, points to the need for a change in procedure and/or the removal of staff members who have not been serving the public interest.