Placer County CEO Todd Leopold fired — but surprise, it’s not what you think

Before going into the Friday closed session at which the Placer County Board of Supervisors was to decide whether or not to fire county CEO Todd Leopold, the board allowed the public to weigh in.

Naturally, the loved ones of Anthony Williams, the 18-year-old pedestrian who died after Leopold struck him on Lonetree Boulevard in March, took the opportunity to call for some accountability.

As it turned out, Leopold was held accountable. But, oh wait, his Friday firing had nothing to do with Williams’ death. Instead, the CEO was fired just days after a discrimination and harassment complaint was filed against him on May 25.

He was put on paid administrative leave only two days later, so no one can say the board didn’t respond quickly on that front.

But the whole Leopold Show, which is not over, is just another example of the culture of silence that surrounds public sector firings and resignations across the country.

It’s not over because the public still doesn’t know even the most basic facts about a fatality caused by the guy county taxpayers paid $385,888 last year, in total salary, benefits, and pension.

It’s not over because the public still doesn’t know whether a soon-to-be-former public servant, who was once arrested on a DUI charge, had been drinking before the accident, or whether police even tested him.

It’s not over because the details of the harassment and discrimination complaint aren’t known, either.

The message to the public is that none of this is any of our business. When what those whose salaries we pay do absolutely is our common concern.

Any laws that keep the public from knowing its own business need to be changed, for one thing, because this lack of transparency only feeds the cynicism that’s already a pandemic.

Erin Acosta, one of Williams’ foster mothers, told supervisors how painful it was not even knowing for sure who the driver was for weeks and weeks. “We were left in the dark,” she said, and “people are being kept in the dark for a reason.”

In some people, this lack of transparency breeds a docile willingness to be kept in the dark.

Just trust the Rocklin police to have done the right thing, some of our mail said. If they say that Leopold was not at fault, then that must be right, and we don’t need to know another thing. Just leave the poor man and his private life alone.

That attitude invites corruption and all kinds of other misbehavior by those who work for the public.

Too often, though not in this case, even when fire and police chiefs, school superintendents, and yes, city managers are let go for cause, the public never has any clue why, so they just get hired somewhere else and make the same mistakes in a new venue. Then a new set of taxpayers is stuck with the bill and no answers.

We look forward to learning what kind of settlement Leopold Placer County residents will be on the hook for — no doubt after forcibly extracting this information via multiple freedom of information act requests.

This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.