SJ supervisors to investigate apparent leak of private ethics report against Patti

The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors will investigate who may have leaked a confidential report on ethics allegations against County Supervisor Tom Patti.

Supervisor Kathy Miller was the sole “no” vote at the Oct. 18 board meeting. The latest episode in the ethics investigations saga comes after Patti asked the board to look into the leak of the report accepted by the board two weeks ago. Patti is running to represent most of San Joaquin County in Washington via the 9th Congressional District.

The report is protected by attorney-client privilege, a legal entitlement deemed “sacrosanct” by interim county counsel Kimberly Johnson. But Patti has already chosen to break that privilege where he’s seen fit to exonerate himself of the private accusations — one he previously self-disclosed to be bribery. None of the allegations or findings in the report have been officially made public by the board or the county.

“I think this was a demonstration of the malicious nature of some people and the actions they’ll take for the politics of preference,” Patti said. “We have to understand the source of it, where the spite and divisiveness comes from on the board.”

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Patti also took the opportunity to lash out at Board Chair Chuck Winn, who will be terming out of his eight-year tenure on the board of supervisors after the November elections.

“(We’re) four more meetings away from this toxicity, this cancer that you brought to the board the first day you were elected,” Patti said. “When you establish from the very beginning your malicious and divisive nature, and that permeates and carries through, we see the toxicity continue … that’s you’re legacy on the board. Your eight years here on the board of supervisors will go down in history as a divisive, malicious attack on other supervisors.”

Supervisor Kathy Miller, who brought the initial complaint against Patti and is also terming out with the November elections, and Winn both spoke out against Patti’s repeated behavior of breaking attorney-client privilege to his own gain.

“I think most of the members of this board have been very careful to not make any references to the investigation itself — except one,” Winn said. “Supervisor Patti brings up issues and documentation from the investigation to excuse himself from any blame.”

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“Anytime someone leaks confidential information its serious … I’m concerned that there definitely appears to be a double standard on this type of report,” Miller said. “Supervisor Patti is continuing to selectively dribble out bits of information he wants to come out from the report.”

Johnson spoke on the value she sees in attorney-client privilege and the leak of the private report.

“It allows us to have frank and honest conversations that perhaps one would not have if they knew what they said would be disclosed,” Johnson said. “As an attorney who’s been practicing law for 25 years, I’m taken aback that someone would take our privileged document and leak it to the public. I’m very angry that someone did that to us. I’d probably comb the end of the earth trying to find the person who did it.”

Johnson said she’s already reached out to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office to gauge if the leak was a criminal act, though Winn said he believes the characterization of “criminal misconduct” is absurd.

“What I’ve heard from them is it’s premature,” Johnson said. “They would encourage us, if we’re inclined to do so, to do an administrative investigation before taking that leap to suggest that some type of criminal behavior has been taken.”

County counsel’s office, county supervisors, County Administrator Jay Wilverding and Human Resources Director Brandi Hopkins — most of whom were in the board room Oct. 18 — all had access to the report, Johnson said. County Supervisor Miguel Villapudua asked if anyone on the dais would like to come forward and take responsibility; seeing none, he pressed for an investigation.

“It's very troubling. If it doesn’t cost the county too much money I’d like to see someone look into this, maybe the District Attorney’s Office,” Villapudua said. “Any (confidential) county information leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle bothers me.”

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Supervisor Robert Rickman, a California Highway Patrol sergeant, said he’s all for finding who leaked the confidential report.

“I would love to see this go to the sheriff's office, the district attorney’s office or the Attorney General’s office so we can find out exactly who leaked this so we can get a more in-depth investigation,” Rickman said. “This is a huge breach of legal and ethical responsibilities; it undermines this board entirely.”

Record reporter Ben Irwin covers Stockton and San Joaquin County government. He can be reached at birwin@recordnet.com or on Twitter @B1rwin. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow. 

This article originally appeared on The Record: San Joaquin County probes release of ethics report against Tom Patti