By Per Peterson
Determining the fate of two EDA board members comes with a cost.
According to documents obtained by the Tracy Area Headlight Herald, the total price tag of two public hearings in July and August, and the investigation into another potential hearing that never took place — including attorney fees, publishing and payroll — totaled $8,939.43.
The City paid $8,288.50 in attorney fees and $140.68 in publishing costs, on top of $510.25 to members of the council who oversaw the two hearings — $50 total to Mayor Anthony Dimmers, $40 each for council members Kou Thao, Jeri Schons and Dave Tiegs, $20 for council member Peterson (he was censured for Salmon’s hearing) and $320.25 total for deputy clerk Diane Campbell.
Tracy Mayor Anthony Dimmers said that while no one on the council wanted to have to sit through this summer’s public hearings, it was important that due diligence was done.
“We have to have a structure by which we live,” he said. “We have these rules, these ordinances and state statutes that have been put into place by much better educated people than myself. We have rules which we live by that need to be followed — that’s what these hearings were about.”
At the center of the public hearings were EDA board members Salmon and Peterson. Both were the targets of a campaign by businessman Jamie Mattson, who requested in a hand-written letter that both be removed from the board. Mattson had done roofing work at Salmon’s Hwy. 14 building, and the two had a falling out that resulted in Matton’s wish to remove Salmon and his employee, Peterson, from the board.
Salmon’s public hearing took place on July 24. The longtime Tracy businessman had his own personal representation, but was ultimately dismissed from the EDA board after a four-hour hearing that resulted in a unanimous vote to remove him from the board.
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.