Response written by Foreman Jim Snow Notice how it doesn't address the issues in the complaint or the disappearance of the documents |
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Humboldt County Grand Jury |
Lots More to Come! |
December 3, 2006 Humboldt County Grand Jury Dear Mr. Snow; Re. 04/05 Grand Jury complaint disappearance My family and I were the complainants in a 2004/05 Grand Jury complaint addressing the City of Rio Dell, RCAA and the First Time Homebuyers Program. The Grand Jury conducted hearings and spent a great deal of time and effort reviewing the evidence and regulations. They produced their final report and substantiated our original complaint. The City of Rio Dell then got rid of their City Manager and replaced him with the Mayor, which was illegal, and wrote their response to the report. This response was a complete dismissal of the Grand Jury report and their findings. Later, we submitted another complaint to the 05-06 Grand Jury regarding the actions of the City of Rio Dell since the release of the prior report. The complaint was filed late into the Grand Jury cycle. The 05-06 Foreman Alan Edwards told me that he had gone to a Judge in order to keep the complaint open into the new Grand Jury cycle. This request was granted. After a period of time with no contact by the 06-07 Grand Jury, I left a voicemail requesting an update into the status of our complaint. I then received a call that confirmed my request and was told that Grand Jury Member, Charlie, would be looking into the complaint. Later, I received a call that said the information appeared to be lost as well as deleted from the computer. If I understand what is being told to me correctly, the entire 04-05 complaint, supporting documentation, investigation, etc. was missing. The newer complaint we filed was missing as well. There was no record of it whatsoever. Needless to say, we find this extremely concerning. There was substantial misconduct alleged in our original complaint and later supported by the final report. The entirety of the investigation and supporting documentation is gone. If the material were to suddenly reappear, the chain of evidence would be compromised. I would have expected there to be a mandated retention period for the files as well. We submitted a second complaint, which has also vanished, that alleges violations of the Brown Act by the City as well as ongoing harassment by the City and its employees. If I had not contacted the Grand Jury to check up on the status of the complaint, I imagine its disappearance would have gone unnoticed. We are also concerned that other Grand Jury complaints may be missing and not known since there is no record. The Grand Jury system is one of the very few options available to an average citizen when faced with any type of corruption or malfeasance. The integrity of this system is put into question when the investigations and complaints disappear. We would like this situation looked into carefully in order to discover how files can go missing and make sure it does not happen to any other complaints or investigations. I am working on putting together copies of the original complaint as well as any and all supporting documents I have in my possession. Nothing will replace the entirety of the investigation though; that information is gone. It took a great deal of time and effort to provide all of the documentation originally. We will send the duplicated information to the Grand Jury as soon as possible. Please keep us informed of any developments while investigating the missing files. Thank You,
Steve and Sharon Wolff cc Humboldt Co. District Attorney |
| Note-Timothy Cissna was the Presiding Judge, it later changed to Judge Feeney |
Original Complaint to Grand Jury |
Humboldt County Grand Jury Attachment to citizen complaint regarding the City of Rio Dell We were the complainants on a Grand Jury investigation conducted by the 04-05 Grand Jury involving the City of Rio Dell and the First Time Homebuyers Program. This complaint involves the activities of the City of Rio Dell since the release of that report on June 28, 05. There are three primary involved people from the City; now Mayor Richard “Bud” Leonard, now City Manager Jay Parrish and City Building Inspector Arnold Kemp. Days before the release of the Grand Jury report, then City Manager Eli Naffah suddenly disappeared from the City. There was no mention of his plans to leave the City and it is likely he was forced out by Leonard and Parrish. In June of 2005 Leonard began talking about putting Parrish into the position of City Manager. This has been documented by deposition taken of City Council Member Mike Dunker. There is an Ordinance (4.04) that prohibits the Mayor or any member of the City Council from becoming the City Manager until at least one year after the member’s service has ended. This ordinance was adopted on 2/5/02 and signed by then Mayor Jay Parrish. Mr. Parrish then in 2005 applied for, interviewed for, was offered and accepted the position of City Manager while being the sitting Mayor of Rio Dell. This action also violated GC 1090 regarding the conflict of interest and the Brown Act regarding the disclosure of individual votes and actions taken during a closed door session. Mr. Parrish assumed the position of City Manager on Aug 22nd, 2005. The employment contract is dated 8/22/05, but according to City Attorney David Martinek it wasn’t actually written and signed until either Sept. or Oct. of that year (see deposition testimony of Council Member Marc Barsanti pg. 37). We have been involved in a lawsuit to have Jay Parrish removed from office for the one year provision of Ordinance 4.04. The City received a letter, dated Nov. 28, 2005, which advised the City of the violations of the law and requested the City take action to remedy the situation. The City offered no response to the letter at all, ignoring the laws cited clearly by attorney Richard Smith of Harland Law Firm. We believe that the multiple violations of the laws cited above rise to the level that demands the involvement of the Grand Jury. One of Mr. Parrish’s first acts as the new City Manager was to respond to the Grand Jury report. This response completely dismissed the entire investigation and stated that the Grand Jury had a fundamental misunderstanding of the Cities responsibilities towards the taxpayers dollars it receives and the laws that govern them. Parrish had to take the position of City Manager illegally in order to have the response he and Leonard desired. The Council had spoken privately about the Ordinance and Council Member Mike Dunker voted against Parrish after voicing his concern about the legality. This has been testified to by Mr. Dunker in deposition. The City Attorney, David Martinek, felt the need to sit in personally on the interview process so that no testimony can be taken on the interviews due to Attorney/Client privilege. The City has been unable, so far, to produce a copy of Mr. Parrish’s application despite a discovery request. This is something that should be easily retrieved from a personnel file. In the Grand Jury response, Parrish acknowledged some problems with the building permits but dismissed any suggestion of remedy as unwarranted. The building inspector, Arnold Kemp of Kemp Inspection Service, began a campaign of harassment to our family with the full knowledge and complicity of City Hall. This has risen to the level of following our children home from school on two separate occasions, coming to our home and taking pictures of the children repeatedly, making gun motions towards the children and recently filing for and winning a civil harassment restraining order against my husband in an attempt to either stop us from making waves and/or to discredit us. Mr. Kemp took out this frivolous restraining order citing the “false claims” of misconduct by ourselves as the reason they needed this order. Judge Michael Brown rejected the request twice but then granted it after stating that we had not turned in a response. We had submitted an over 20 page response with evidence but the Court Clerk stapled the papers together and Judge Brown said it was therefore not filed (see court transcript). That restraining order is currently under appeal by ourselves. After winning their frivolous restraining order, Mr. Kemp and members of his family have continued their harassment despite their having to violate their own restraining order to do so. We have had to take out our own restraining order in an attempt to get Mr. Kemp to stay away from our family. We have gone to the City Council on numerous occasions to ask for their help in stopping the activities of their building inspector. The response by Mayor Bud Leonard has been to yell at me, asking “what’s your problem lady?” We audio record the City Council meetings that I attend and we will be happy to provide copies to the Grand Jury. There are a number of citizens in Rio Dell that we have spoken to that have personal experiences with City Hall but are afraid to come forward due to the reputation for retaliation by City Hall. We have been the recipients of the “special treatment” by City Hall since reporting the problems with the First Time Homebuyers Program. While the local police are courteous to us, we received no real assistance when our children were being targeted by Mr. Kemp. Mr. Kemp received very preferential treatment when the local police would only take our reports as “Documentation Only” and not investigate in any manner. I have been told by City Clerk Karen Dunham that any question or request by our family to City Hall should be in writing, which is a special request unique to us. I have delivered correspondence to City Hall addressed to the Accounting Supervisor which was never received by him. This correspondence was in regards to a fraudulent 1099 Misc. tax form submitted by the City to the IRS declaring that we received $50,000 in miscellaneous income (I believe this violates Title 26, United States Code, Section 7212(a). The money being incorrectly reported as income to ourselves was actually the money used by the City to make the required repairs cited in a Release of Claims agreement we signed. We never received any money (other than a token partial reimbursement of material expenses) and the money was paid directly by the City to the contractors who worked on our home. The contractors should have received the correct tax forms to declare their income but the City chose instead to send in a fraudulent form in order to cause problems for ourselves (see 1099 Misc. attached). We would be happy to provide the Grand Jury with all of the documentation that we possess. I have included certain supporting documents with this complaint but we have a great deal more than can be attached. We have the complete depositions of the City Council members available, the complete court record of the restraining order, numerous recordings of the Council, etc. I am also including a copy of the timeline created by testimony and documentation. We believe the City has violated the law and will continue to do so unless forced to stop by the proper authorities. Respectfully,
Sharon Wolff Steven Wolff |
Response written by Foreman Jim Snow Notice how it doesn't address the issues in the complaint or the disappearance of the documents |
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