The Stockton City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to release a confidential email between the council and its lawyers — but what exactly the message contains is anyone’s guess.
That vote is one of several major decisions the council faces Tuesday, according to the meeting’s agenda.
Councilmembers are also scheduled to ratify a new three-year contract with members of the Stockton City Employees’ Association union, which represents about 540 400 full-time city workers. Their old contract expired in June.
And the council will vote on whether to release the full inquiry underpinning findings by outside investigators in April that the City Manager’s Office didn’t break the law when it created Stockton’s Office of Public Transparency, Information and Communication.
City attorney’s email
The City Council is considering waiving privilege to one specific email, tomorrow’s meeting agenda shows: a message from the City Attorney’s Office to the council, sent on July 30, 2025 at “approximately 3:39 p.m. Pacific Time.”
Vice Mayor Jason Lee requested at the July 8 council meeting to schedule the vote for tomorrow. The author of the message was Assistant City Attorney Taryn Jones, he said.
Under California’s evidence laws, communications between a person and their lawyer are confidential, but the client can choose to waive confidentiality. In this case, the client is the council, and the lawyer is the City Attorney’s Office.
Neither Lee nor other councilmembers commented last council meeting about what the July 30 email might contain.
In September, the City Council narrowly voted to release a message Jones sent councilmembers that same day, delivered just hours before the email to be voted on Tuesday.
In that message, Jones informed councilmembers and then-City Attorney Lori Asuncion that former interim City Manager Steve Colangelo may have violated the confidentiality of a closed City Council session.
Councilmembers Michele Padilla, Michael Blower, Mario Enriquez and Lee voted in favor of waiving privilege to that email, meeting minutes show. Mayor Christina Fugazi and Councilmembers Mariela Ponce and Brando Villapudua voted against the release.
The vote cleared the way for the public and news organizations to request a copy.
According to a copy Stocktonia obtained under public records laws, Jones said in the email, “I was informed that the Interim City Manager was heard by two City employees stating that Will Crew had been placed in the Acting City Manager position temporarily while the contract for ICM Colangelo was worked on.”
On July 29, one day before Jones sent the email, the City Council had voted in closed session to make Deputy City Manager Will Crew interim city manager, replacing Colangelo.
Jones’ message says Colangelo may have told someone the move was temporary while city staff were developing a new contract for him.
“The fact that the contract that is to be agendized for consideration is for ICM Colangelo was not released and remains confidential until the agenda for that meeting is published,” Jones wrote.
She didn’t clarify in the email to whom Colangelo allegedly made the comments, or when he allegedly made them.
Ultimately, a new contract for Colangelo to continue as Stockton’s interim chief executive was indeed scheduled for a council vote, on Aug. 12. But the proposal was later removed from the council agenda, meeting minutes show.
It’s unconfirmed whether the email that could be made public tomorrow relates to Colangelo.
What is known is that two weeks ago, the city made public a letter the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office sent Stockton’s attorneys last month, in which the DA’s office said it wouldn’t investigate evidence of possible wrongdoing by Colangelo that the council sent DA investigators last fall.
The suspected wrongdoing included an incident in which Colangelo allegedly promised more taxpayer money than he has the authority to spend to the nonprofit Service First.
New contract for city workers
The council is also scheduled Tuesday to ratify a new contract with the Stockton City Employees’ Association, which represents about 540 city workers serving in administrative, technical, clerical, professional and field jobs, according to a report linked to the council agenda.
The deal would deliver base-pay increases worth about $4.5 million to union members over the next three years, the report says.
Among more than 20 issues the city and union members negotiated, the contract also says the two sides will revisit negotiations if medical insurance premiums jump more than 4%, provided the city’s expected revenues exceed a certain threshold.
Last year, multiple city employees showed up at City Council to protest the impact of rising healthcare costs.
OPTIC investigation could become public
The council is also scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to make public an investigation into whether Colangelo broke any laws when forming the Office of Public Transparency, Information and Communication, or OPTIC, out of the remains of a data analytics office formerly housed in the City Manager’s Office.
An April summary of the investigation, which was carried out by outside attorneys at the request of the City Council Audit Committee, said the City Manager’s Office didn’t follow best practice in standing up the office, but that it didn’t break the law.
“No facts support a criminal misuse of public funds,” according to the summary.
Tuesday’s vote could make public the full investigation and related documents.