How to resolve AdBlock issue? The board had initially asked Anderson to respond to allegations raised by Supervisor Rob Brown at the meeting on Nov. 20, as Lake County News has reported.
Anderson said Tuesday that he had been in San Diego in the days before the Nov. 20 meeting and had gotten back on the afternoon of Nov. 19. He also said he had another appointment he didn’t want to change. He had told Lake County News last week that he didn’t return until the afternoon of Nov. 20.
Due to not being able to answer the questions raised by Brown, the board had voted on Nov. 20 to subject Anderson’s spending on training and travel to preapproval by County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson until Dec. 4 when he had another chance to appear. Had he not gone before the board on Tuesday, the spending limit could have been extended through the end of his term, which ends this month.
By the end of the discussion, the majority of the board didn’t support continuing the spending limits on Anderson.
Anderson’s successor, District Attorney-elect Susan Krones, was in the audience for the discussion.
For his Tuesday appearance before the board, Anderson provided a 117-page report for the board with spending details that his staff had compiled. He was accompanied to the meeting by his administrative coordinator Doris Lankford and Chief Investigator Bruce Smith. The introduction and summary of the report is below.
Anderson presents responses
In response to various allegations made at the last meeting Anderson said he hadn’t used his county credit card to gas up his daughters’ vehicles – that he would use his own credit card to do so while he was at gas stations using his county credit card for his county issued vehicles.
Anderson said that 2,087 gallons of gas have been used since his county car was bought in 2016, with mileage totaling 71,000 miles at an average 25 miles per gallon.
He said he’s taken on private cases for friends over the years. Anderson said state law allows him to do private cases, but he can’t do criminal cases, cases that go against county or eminent domain.
In eight years he said he’s only taken 28 days off for personal time and when he’s done private cases he’s combined trips out of county with county-related work, like a meeting with district attorneys in other counties in Napa County earlier this year regarding the Sulphur fire.
He acknowledged mixing “business with pleasure” when using the county car.
Regarding allegations about drinking and then driving his county vehicle, Anderson said, “That’s bull****.”
He said he saw Brown at Angel’s restaurant in Finley while he was there having dinner, and he accused Brown of having called the California Highway Patrol on him, which Brown later denied in the meeting. Anderson said he called CHP himself and an officer responded, giving him – at his request – a field sobriety test to provide he wasn’t inebriated.
Anderson also denied speaking with criminal defendants about their cases and said he had gone to a conference in San Diego last month to meet with four instructors with a company which is offering to provide free training on search warrants and police officer testimony in Lake County, as Anderson had told Lake County News last week.
Anderson said at one time he and Brown had been friendly and could talk. For one reason or another, “That’s gone south.”
Brown responds to Anderson’s explanations
Brown agreed the men had been friendly at one time and said it hadn’t been meant to get this far, but the situation had resulted from the failure to respond to Public Records Act requests.
He said he has an obligation to bring things forward when they are reported to the county counsel and the department. Over the years, he said he’d had 12 occasions where he had raised issues similar to this, and they didn’t all end this way.
Brown said he submitted a Public Records Act request to County Counsel Anita Grant on June 4. Grant in turn explained that he had submitted it to her and to the auditor-controller, and that she then went to Anderson’s staff to ask questions and get information.
While Anderson’s report said Brown’s efforts started when his son Steven Brown started running for district attorney earlier this year, Brown said he actually had started looking into the spending in May of 2017. He said he had tried to be careful to not do anything around the election in order to not make it political.
Brown denied Anderson’s accusation about contact his ex-wife for dirt on him, explaining that they exchanged Facebook messages at the time of the Tubbs fire, when Brown had contacted her to see how she was doing.
He also said he wasn’t mad about Anderson not firing a deputy district attorney who had made derogatory comments about his daughter-in-law. Brown had reported the issue to Anderson, along with a vandalism that individual had been involved with, and raised issue with that deputy district attorney possibly doing a favor for a friend who wasn’t prosecuted after being arrested by the CHP for felony evasion.
Brown wasn’t impressed with Anderson’s report or explanations, noting Anderson had investigated himself and found nothing. “So that’s the comfort we have in that.”
He presented a slide show showing Anderson’s vehicle parked at various bars and restaurants on specific dates to back up his assertions about Anderson drinking and driving. Brown also showed court documents and letters to the editor relating to Anderson’s doing private casework.
Brown then showed a Public Records Act request Anderson himself had filed with the county to get records of any communications between Brown and District Attorney’s Office employees, which he called “chilling” because he said it’s about retaliation. He said he would not comply with any such records request to give up employees trying to do the right thing.
Board members don’t agree to further action
Board Chair Jim Steele asked Anderson if he keeps regular office hours. Anderson said yes and no, that he tries to be there from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and he often works late and on weekends. He added that there’s actually no requirement that he ever actually show up for work.
Steele followed up by asking if Anderson had ever had a DUI or been pulled over for one. Anderson said no.
Huchingson said during the discussion that county policy is clear that county vehicles can’t be used for any private business.
Ultimately, the board as a whole didn’t support taking any further action. Both Tina Scott and Moke Simon said the board was the wrong venue to explore the concerns.
Brown made a motion to continue preapproving Anderson’s spending through the end of his term, which died for lack of a second.
Anderson said he wished there could be communications to avoid such a situation. Brown said he had asked the questions and been refused answers, which Anderson denied.
Steele said it was his decision to bring the matter forward in an effort to be transparent. Anderson said Steele did everything right, and that they needed to respond to the allegations.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
120418 Anderson Report to the BOS by LakeCoNews on Scribd
