A onetime CEO of the troubled San Joaquin County Fairgrounds was voted in as Stockton’s interim city manager Tuesday after several councilmembers suddenly halted discussion from others on the dais critical of his appointment.
In their most significant move since forcing former City Manager Harry Black to resign in January, the new City Council in a 4-3 vote hired longtime event planner Steve Colangelo to step in as Stockton’s chief executive.
The contentious pick marked a major departure from past city managers’ government experience, such as Black, who previously served as Cincinnati’s city manager, and Kurt Wilson before him, who served previously served as a deputy city manager in Stockton.
Approving Colangelo’s contract followed a surprise move by the council majority to use parliamentary rules to force an immediate vote, even as minority members expressed concern over how little they knew about this potential interim city manager or his qualifications.
“These are basics that we have to be able to communicate — and especially if you don’t even know the guy,” District 4 Councilmember Mario Enriquez said before voting against Colangelo’s appointment. “On the resume that I saw, I didn’t see educational background, let alone local government experience.”
Vice Mayor Jason Lee argued that lack of experience in a city manager didn’t matter much.
“I don’t care who sits in that chair. They could be Ronald McDonald, they can put a clown, they can put a rocket scientist,” Lee said before voting for Colangelo. “Whoever sits in that chair will be fired if they don’t do the will of the board of directors that comes directly from the stakeholders.”
Colangelo was not present at Tuesday’s meeting for the arguments on his appointment or the vote to approve his contract. He also has not responded to multiple calls and emails.
Who is Colangelo?
For nearly 40 years, Colangelo ran home and garden shows, expositions and events, including for large clients like the National Hockey League and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to a resume the city posted online the day after his appointment.
Colangelo also ran unsuccessfully for seats in Congress, the Stockton City Council and the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors between 2014 and 2022. And he worked as an announcer and radio personality for several Central Valley stations, his campaign websites say, as well as a volunteer officer for the Sacramento Police Department.
In August 2018, Colangelo was appointed CEO of the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds, where he claims he “revitalized a struggling fairgrounds” and made the organization profitable after it had been operating in a deficit.
Stocktonia couldn’t immediately confirm the fairground’s financial status after Colangelo’s tenure.
But in January 2020, Colangelo left the fairgrounds under unclear circumstances. The month before, the California Department of Food and Agriculture had published a scathing audit detailing sweeping financial accountability issues and other problems at the fairgrounds between January 2018 and June 2019.
Written agreements with people and businesses who rented space at the fairgrounds were sloppy or nonexistent, the audit found, sometimes resulting in the fairgrounds not collecting or even over-collecting revenue from renters.
Thousands of dollars of the fairgrounds’ debit card purchases were missing receipts, and thousands more in grocery purchases weren’t justified, it found.
What’s more, the fairgrounds’ policies for handing out contracts were lax. In one case, an employee’s brother received nearly $13,000 in payments with no contract, the report said. In another, an employee was found to be signing his own paychecks, among myriad other issues.
Colangelo could not be reached for comment about the audit.
‘Call the vote’
At City Hall on Tuesday, discussion of Colangelo’s hiring kicked off with District 3 Councilmember Michael Blower, who argued that he and his colleagues had not been provided enough information about Colangelo’s qualifications to vote on an appointment that night.
“We talk about transparency, how important it is to get transparent information out to the community,” Blower said, referring to Mayor Christina Fugazi and several councilmembers’ campaign promises to bring the public clarity about council decisions.
“(But) I was surprised when I saw the (agenda) item here. … I don’t see a resume,” Blower said. “I just don’t have any information that’s making me feel comfortable that this individual has what he needs to do this job.”
For his part, Lee argued that no matter who is chosen, the council can always fire the city manager again if it feels he or she isn’t doing what councilmembers say.
“We’re not going to let them give excuses,” he said.
“You can trust that we always will have the people first,” District 1 Councilmember Michele Padilla said of the decision. Both Padilla and Lee added that they had received few calls from constituents opposing Colangelo’s appointment.
Amid the discussion, Enriquez and Blower suggested using the California League of Cities — an advocacy group for local governments — to identify additional qualified possible candidates. Blower made a motion to postpone Tuesday’s vote on Colangelo.
That’s when dynamics on the dais got testy.
“We still have mics flashing. Are you going to allow your fellow councilmembers to speak?” Fugazi asked Blower.
Blower agreed. Fugazi then called on District 2 Councilmember Mariela Ponce, who made a motion — which she appeared to read from a written statement — to vote on Colangelo’s appointment now. Villapudua, who represents District 5, began to object to rushing the vote.
But amid Villapudua’s protests, Padilla used Rosenberg’s Rules of Order to “call” the decision — or force an immediate vote on the last motion on the table without further discussion.
The last motion was Ponce’s. Colangelo was appointed in a 4-3 vote, with Padilla, Ponce, Lee and Fugazi voting to hire him immediately. Blower, Enriquez and Villapudua voted no.
The public appeared divided about Colangelo during the meeting’s comment period.
“This is exactly what I expected when this new cadre got voted in. It’s nonsense. It’s cronyism,” resident Andrew Abbott said. “There’s absolutely no reason this person should be considered qualified for this job. He doesn’t have the relevant educational background. He doesn’t have the relevant … work experience.”
Coangelo had a group of strong supporters at the meeting.
“Steve’s character and values matter, and the fact he actually cares about this city,” said Jim Shoemaker, a former Republican candidate for the California State Senate. “To see that this council is open to someone like Steve, who is on my side of the aisle, it’s an opportunity to say … let’s bring the city together.”
Villapudua faces possible censure
On Tuesday, the council also approved censure proceedings against Villapudua amid accusations that he gave someone the middle finger at a prior meeting. The recommendation moved forward after no motion was made to halt the process.
Padilla and Lee had requested the vote in a Jan. 21 letter to the city clerk. Fugazi, Ponce and Enriquez are set to investigate the alleged misconduct as part of a censure committee, the mayor ruled.