Internal emails and audit findings have shed new light on escalating tensions between Lodi city officials and City Manager Scott Carney, revealing allegations of misconduct and lapses in financial oversight.
The revelations come amid a broader investigation that has drawn scrutiny from the public and renewed calls for transparency at City Hall.
The conflict began several months ago when Carney publicly accused city staff of altering reports and misusing public funds. Since then, city officials have placed Carney on administrative leave, appointed interim leadership, and expanded an outside investigation into the matter.
Carney was placed on paid administrative leave by the City Council in the beginning of April. A week earlier he’d publicly accused senior city staff of financial misconduct during a council meeting.
In his remarks, Carney alleged that city-issued credit cards were being misused for personal expenses and that official documents had been altered without his knowledge. The claims prompted the city to hire an outside law firm to investigate and bring in an interim city manager.
Now, internal staff communications show that City Attorney Katie Lucchesi has previously accused Carney of unspecified wrongdoing, according to an investigation by the Lodi News-Sentinel, urging the City Council to take action against the embattled city manager for what she describes as the “harm” he’s inflicted on the city.
City attorney accuses Carney of ‘unlawful behavior’
According to emails between Lucchesi and City Council, obtained via a California Public Records Act request by the News-Sentinel, the city attorney disagreed with councilmembers handling of Carney and the accusations he’s made.
Lucchesi urged councilmembers in a March 8 email to “take action and end the harm caused by Carney’s actions and those assisting him in spreading the lies,” asserting he had engaged in “unlawful behavior behind the scenes,” although no details about the alleged behavior were made available.
The email followed a tense April budget session where Carney accused Lucchesi and City Clerk Olivia Nashed of publishing edited staff reports without his knowledge. He also alleged that “widespread credit card fraud and misuse of public funds” was occurring within the city, pointing to inappropriate personal uses of city-issued credit cards .
Lucchesi countered via email that Carney’s statements had “disparaged the City, myself, and other City staff,” according to the News-Sentinel, and demanded the council remove his platform to halt the damage .
Mayor Cameron Bregman defended the city’s handling of the issue, the News-Sentinel reported, citing the Moss Adams fiscal audit as a reliable basis for forthcoming decisions.
“The city of Lodi stands upon the U.S. Constitution, which includes innocence until proven guilty. Prejudgment has the ability to destroy the guilty but also the innocent. We shall let the findings of the investigation stand or fall by itself,” Bregman told the News-Sentinel. “We the city of Lodi have been ramping up the flow of information which began with the Moss Adams fiscal report and the February draft thereof.”
According to city documents, the city of Lodi hired accounting firm Moss Adams in September 2024 to conduct a citywide audit of internal controls.
The audit, completed in early 2025, reviewed financial operations across departments and found that while certain procedures, according to the News-Sentinel, such as CAL-Card approvals and payroll documentation, were functioning well, there were notable gaps in other areas.
The final report, released June 6, recommended a series of reforms, including establishing an internal audit function, improving oversight of utility billing and accounts receivable, and implementing a fraud and abuse hotline. City staff plan to address the recommendations and present a progress update to the council by August.
Controversy surrounds interim finance official
Interim Assistant City Manager Bobby Magee, who was hired in December and also serves as part-time treasurer, will step down next week after nearing the 1,300‑hour cap for part-time employees, the News-Sentinel reported.
Magee previously served as a “special advisor” to a consulting firm later acquired by Baker Tilly, which has been awarded nearly $309,000 in no-bid contracts for work in city finance, including a library assessment and fiscal projections.
Internal emails suggest he instructed staff to let financial tasks backlog, according to the News-Sentinel, allegedly to justify hiring more personnel.
Magee defended his actions: “Any statement or allegation to the contrary is at best pure fiction and at worst malicious disinformation,” he told the News‑Sentinel .
Stocktonia reached out to the city of Lodi for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
These revelations come amid the broader investigation into Carney’s initial claims of document tampering and financial misconduct. The City Council in June approved a second amendment to its contract with Meyers Nave, raising the total to $260,000 for extended legal and investigative services .
Interim leadership remains in place while the investigation continues.
In May, the City Council approved the appointment of James Lindsay, a retired Saratoga city manager, to serve as Lodi’s acting city manager during Carney’s absence.