The controversy surrounding the purchase of a care facility on Colorado Avenue that will house senior citizens as well as those with mental health issues took a bizarre turn this week when a Turlock City Council member apologized in a special meeting on Thursday for sharing confidential information about the city’s response to the project.

“I deeply apologize. It’s been a painful, miserable lesson and it certainly won’t happen again. I’m sorry and I fully accept my responsibility, the responsibility for what happened,” said Council member Kevin Bixel at Thursday’s special meeting.

Bixel’s apology is related to events that started with the closed session of the Turlock City Council that was held on July 9 in which the Council authorized the initiation of litigation in regards to the Colorado Avenue facility. On the morning of July 10, Councilmember Bixel was invited to attend a meeting with community members Ron Bridegroom and Debra Hall-Koftinow, who had arranged to meet with Stanislaus County Supervisors Vito Chiesa and Terry Withrow about the Colorado Avenue facility.

Following the meeting, Bridegroom contacted Vice Mayor Pam Franco and said that he believed a Council member (who was later identified as Bixel by an email by Hall-Koftinow) relayed confidential information from the July 9 closed session to himself and Hall-Koftinow. This prompted an investigation by the city attorney.

According to emails provided in the special council meeting agenda packet, Bridegroom told City Attorney George Petrulakis that Bixel said the city was “screwed” when it came to the Colorado Avenue facility and despite that fact authorized Petrulakis to “threaten a lawsuit to scare A&A (the company that purchased the Colorado Avenue facility).” Bridegroom also stated that Bixel mentioned the cost to the city would be $50 million.

While emails submitted to the city by Hall-Koftinow dispute some of what Bridegroom alleged was said, Bixel took responsibility for talking about closed session information.

The Turlock Municipal Code has a confidentiality disclosure provision similar to Government Code Section 54963(a). Under the pertinent provisions of the municipal code: No person in attendance at a closed or executive session of the City Council of the City of Turlock shall release, disclose or discuss, in any manner or form, or cause to be released, disclosed or discussed, any item, information or document reviewed, discussed or acted upon in closed or executive session . . . unless (1) prior written authorization of the City Council is obtained pursuant to this Chapter. . . Turlock Municipal Code §2-1-103(a). Such authorization is provided “. . . upon a majority vote of the City Council members. . .” that were present in the closed session where the matter was discussed or acted upon.

Following Bixel’s apology, the Council considered possible corrective actions to take that were suggested by the city attorney. The suggested actions included charging Bixel with a misdemeanor (however, Petrulakis did not think a court would uphold it as enforceable), referral to the grand jury, injunctive relief (which would be asking the court to stop Bixel from disclosing information) and censure.

Petrulakis said that there isn’t much case law about this type of situation and that the Council could decide their own action to take in response.

“…Council member Bixel has taken responsibility for this, which makes me cringe as a defense attorney, nevertheless, we're here. There is one question that I have gotten from a lot of people, and I think we owe it to the public, is how? Whatever our resolution is tonight, I want our end goal to be that we are able to ensure the public that it's not going to happen again going forward. Look, he made a mistake. He owned it. We need to move on, okay, but we need to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Because even though it's one council member that this is falling on tonight, it reflects on all the five of us, because we are, at the end of the day, a council as a whole,” said Council member Rebecka Monez.

The other council members agreed with Monez and directed the city attorney to come back to the next council meeting with a motion to have Bixel review the policy and procedures and regulations that have to do with being a council member.

When asked by the Journal if Bixel’s comments impacted any actions the city was planning on making regarding the facility, Petrulakis and the entire council declined to comment.

For several months, city and county officials have been engaged in tense exchanges over who’s responsible for allowing a behavioral health facility to operate in Turlock.

City of Turlock officials have criticized Stanislaus County for contracting with Alamo Health Services (A&A) to secure more residential placements in Turlock for people with mental health and substance abuse disorders.

The site of the planned residential facility, 1617 Colorado Ave., formerly known as Las Palmas Estates, is located near Dutcher Middle School and some community members have protested having a facility for people with mental health and substance abuse issues housed that close to children.

According to County officials, “Stanislaus County Behavioral Health has been using the care facility located at 1617 Colorado Avenue in Turlock for decades to support behavioral health consumers.  We are not aware of any objections from the City of Turlock during that time.”

The County had been contracting with A & A Health Services for their facility in San Pablo, and in November 2023 amended the contract to meet the need to provide care locally with A & A’s acquisition of the Turlock property.

The Turlock facility will be considered a Transitional Residential Board and Care home — providing a transition from hospitalized care to a more residential setting. The services provided would include help with basic self-care including meals, medication supervision, monitoring health and hygiene, interpersonal communication, and conflict resolution, as well as social and recreational skills.

The $4.8 million contract with A&A Health Services expanded the County’s original 60 guaranteed beds to a total of 89 beds. Services will be funded by a combination of a California Department of Health Care Services Behavioral Health Bridge Housing (BHBH) Program grant and Mental Health Services Act revenue.