A Stockton City Council meeting that went well past midnight devolved into turmoil as councilmembers publicly accused each other of law breaking and political mudslinging. Community members and some on the dais also called for investigations into alleged wrongdoing.
Public commenters also admonished the council for not keeping promises some members made during and after the election to work together for the betterment of Stockton and avoid petty infighting.
But that’s not what happened at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The most anticipated item on the agenda was a discussion on the dissolution of an ad hoc committee created by the council in February to assist in its search for a new city manager. Mayor Christina Fugazi unilaterally disbanded the committee in May via email to its two other members, Vice Mayor Jason Lee and Councilmember Mario Enríquez, which led to a public spat last month.
Fugazi has given several reasons over the last few weeks for dissolving the committee, including that Enríquez had allegedly violated the Brown Act, a state law requiring government meetings and decision making be open to the public, with rare exceptions. This accusation, which Enríquez has vehemently denied, was one of several that took center stage during Tuesday’s discussion.
Councilmember Brando Villapudua said both Lee and Enríquez had each separately asked him in May to support the ousting of interim City Manager Steve Colangelo. He also says Lee and Enríquez had planned to reach out to Councilmember Michael Blower “to bring him on board.”
“I can’t confirm whether those conversations ever occurred, but the intent to build consensus behind closed doors was clearly distinct to me,” Villapudua said.
Lee and Enríquez denied the allegations. Both councilmembers have openly criticized and questioned the mayor’s lack of transparency in shutting down the ad hoc committee. They have also publicly expressed dissatisfaction at times with Colangelo’s performance as interim city manager.
“This is not about a process that’s playing out in the public,” Lee said. “This is about political theater, and this is about posturing and trying to create a story, a narrative that somehow me and Mario went in the back room and came up with this conspiracy to remove the city manager when I was one that voted for him to be here.”
During council’s closed session Tuesday, an item scheduled to discuss the possible discipline, dismissal or release of a public employee is immediately followed by the appointment of another public employee, with the position listed as “City Manager.”
This is the same combination of agenda items that led to the ousting of former City Manager Harry Black earlier this year. There is also about a month left for the council-imposed deadline to hire a new city manager.
However, no action was reportedly taken against Colangelo.
Villapudua also alleged that Lee already had a candidate in mind to replace Colangelo and attempted to politically extort him, offering Villapudua support in his upcoming election campaign if he went along with ousting the interim city manager and retaliation if he didn’t.
“(Lee) told me, if I support his effort, he would not run a candidate against me, and will stay out of my election, and would even consider offering manpower and financial support to support me being reelected,” Villapudua said. “In that same conversation, he issued a threat, stating, if I didn’t go along with it, he would use his platform and his resources to destroy me and the Villapudua name.”
Lee scoffed at Villapudua’s extortion allegations.
“The political theatre. You thought it was over today, but it’s just getting started because now you made an attack on my credibility, my character,” Lee said. “Everybody knows … to dirty the Villapudua name is like pouring dirt water down the drain. It’s already dirty.”
If what Villapudua describes actually happened, the situation would be known as a serial meeting, which would violate state laws.
Members of a legislative body are not allowed to meet as a group with a voting majority of the members present, also known as a quorum, to discuss legislative business outside of an agendized, public meeting. This includes communications between a quorum of members even if they’re not all meeting at the same time in the same physical space, known as “serial meetings,” such as email chains, text message groups, or individually discussing a specific issue while also relaying that information to a voting majority of members.
Stockton City Council is made up of seven voting members, consisting of six district representatives and the mayor. Thus, a quorum for the council is considered to be four members.
Villapudua requested that the issue be turned over to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office. Both Vice Mayor Lee and Councilmember Enríquez welcomed any investigation.
“I’m not afraid of an investigation. I welcome the chance to clear my name. If you wish to proceed, go seek the proper authorities,” Enríquez said. “I said on the campaign trail, I’ll say now there’s two things. You don’t go after my mom, you don’t go after my integrity.”
Mayor Fugazi also agreed the allegations should be investigated, noting that the DA and SJ County Civil Grand Jury would be the best avenues for such an endeavor.
Several members of the public were upset by the political vitriol displayed by councilmembers in recent weeks, as was a fellow councilmember. District 1 representative Michelle Padilla said she was emotional and heated and that “our community deserves better.”
“I expressed myself to all these individuals (on the council) that I was super excited that I was going to see (positive things) going on in our city,” I was looking forward to the things that were going to happen. Now my passion is lost. The only thing that is keeping me is my constituents. Because I’m doing my work for my constituents and I cannot fail them.”
She also said the council needs to get back to the reasons they were all elected.
“I continue to hear the disrespect, the dysfunction,” Padilla said. “From this day forward we need to keep our feelings off this dais, out of the public and do what’s right for the City of Stockton.”
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