Tracy City Council member Tony Peterson states his case during a two-hour hearing Wednesday to decide whether or not to remove him from then EDA board.

TRACY — Arguing he was only doing his “due diligence,” Tracy City Councilman Tony Peterson successfully stated his case to remain on the Economic Development Authority board during a two-hour hearing Wednesday evening.

“I’m a bull in the china shop. A lightning rod. I have been that way all my life. That is not going to change,” Peterson said while sitting at a table in front of his fellow council members. “But the bottom line is what I do is in the best interest of the city.”

The Council addressed three charges during the hearing. The first charge involved violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It alleged that Peterson violated the act by obtaining and using a background report from Truthfinder.com on businessman James Mattson, who had applied for a loan from the city. Mattson intended to use the loan to start a business at the former Asian Market building.

The second violation involved a city code. The charge alleged Peterson did not carry out impartiality the laws of the nation, state and municipality by obtaining a background report from Truthfinder.com on Mattson. And the third charge involved another city code, alleging Peterson exceeded his authority.

The Council ended up voting 3-1 on motions that Peterson did not violate the first two charges. The vote on the third charge ended up at 2-2 on the motion Peterson did not violate the code. City Attorney Matthew Gross told the Council that the vote essentially cleared Peterson on that charge as well.

Mayor Anthony Dimmers was the lone dissenting vote on the first two charges. He joined Kou Thao on the no votes on the third charge.

During the questioning part of the hearing, Dimmers stated the case Peterson should have been more careful. Dimmers was referring to Peterson admitting he pulled the report on a Salmon Motors computer and possibly left the information for former EDA board member Jeff Salmon to see. Salmon was removed from the board after a similar hearing that alleged he shared the report to others on the EDA board among other charges.

“I know you try to do what’s best of the city,” the mayor told Peterson. “You have a lot of experience (as city Council member, mayor and on EDA board), like you said. At no time did you not feel this may not be appropriate? Is that in the best interest of the city?”

More than once, Peterson acknowledged pulling the background report on Mattson, but he said it was not intended as a credit check and it wasn’t used in a decision to approve or deny Mattson’s application for the loan.

“Where is it written in the EDA by laws or procedures or anywhere else that specifically states that a board member can’t do that?” Peterson asked.

“I did what I did because that’s what I do,” Peterson said.“I make a mistake, I fess up to my mistakes and I apologize for them. This one here, I did not make a mistake. I don’t believe an apology is necessary.”

Council member Jeri Schons appeared to be defending Peterson, arguing there probably should be a written policy involving how to handle background checks.

“I get what you are saying Matt (Gross), but at the same time I don’t believe it was inferred it was a prohibited service,” Schons said. “I don’t believe he obtained it for credit purposes. He obtained it for background purposes and then did what I probably wold have done, he reported it to the city administrator because its confusing with all these laws and everything.”