Sonora, CA — There could be a shake-up of the Tuolumne Utilities District Board of Directors. At its regular General Meeting today, Board Vice President Jeff Kerns asked to agendize a vote to remove Board President Ron Ringen from the leadership role at the next meeting. Board members Glen Jacobs and Jeff Hollis joined Kerns in support of discussing the item at the next regular board meeting on April 28.
The source of the contention that led to the call for a vote was concerns regarding Ringen’s conduct at a public Human Resources Committee meeting that occurred on March 31. Board members Carol Reel and Jeff Kerns were present, along with General Manager Don Perkins, and some others. Ringen, who chairs that committee, stated that the committee meeting agenda was lacking items he wanted to discuss. He felt there was not enough staff available to communicate with ahead of the meeting. Carol Reel noted near the end of the committee meeting she had an incident recently where she had trouble contacting staff. The response to her was that staff is available by phone when not in the office. Ringen expressed concern for the excessive number of duties and possible projects that could be assigned to staff members in the future. Perkins disagreed and reminded Ringen that topics he was bringing up were not agendized. Some discussion occurred about what words Ringen wanted to use for a future general board meeting agenda item.Â
At today’s meeting, Perkins defended his role as the only employee the board gives direction to, calling Ringen’s committee meeting conduct “disappointing.” Jeff Kerns also noted Perkins is the only employee the board gives direction to and that Ringen could have rescheduled the meeting instead of going off the agenda.
Today’s meeting’s first and only public comment was from former District Five Tuolumne County Board of Supervisor Karl Rodefer. Referencing the Human Resources meeting on March 31, he stated, “Quite frankly, what I saw was less than half of the discussion directly focused on published agenda items, and more than half of the discussions were more suitable for an employee performance review.”
TUD has livestreamed meetings for a few years and the agenda published ahead of today’s meeting noted the meeting would not be livestreamed. At the meeting, Ringen explained, “We have a patch going with our IT person who is remote.” A recording of the meeting was posted after the board went into closed session for discussions regarding several other items, as seen here.
