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Public commenter criticizes county for relying on outside consultant, cites grand jury recommendation
Summary
A caller during public comment accused the county of outsourcing policy formulation to consultants and urged the board to address a prior Alameda County grand jury finding about the board's role in hiring department heads.
During public comment at the end of the Transportation Planning Committee meeting, a caller identified as Kelly criticized the county’s reliance on outside consultants and raised concerns tied to a past grand jury report.
Kelly said the board was treating consultant recommendations as policy directives and questioned whether the county had addressed a prior Alameda County grand jury recommendation to modify board hiring authority for non‑elected department heads. "This board has, in effect, outsourced policy recommendations and to policy, generation...to an outside consultant," the caller said, urging the board to reconcile consultant-driven recommendations with local governance checks.
Staff and supervisors did not take action on the public comment but the remark was entered into the record; supervisors continued discussion of Baker Tilly implementation and requested follow‑up data and policy analyses in the coming months.
The committee did not respond with a formal staff directive tied to the grand jury concerns at this meeting; staff was directed to provide further reports on implementation and policy items for committee consideration.
