A judge has ordered the city of Stockton to pay nearly $2.3 million to former City Manager Kurt Wilson after a jury trial into his lawsuit alleging breach of contract and violations of California’s open-meetings law.
The City Council ousted Wilson by a 6-0 vote in July 2019, saying he had broken his contract by using city time to pursue other career ambitions. Court documents filed by Stockton’s lawyers at the time alleged that earlier that year, Wilson had used city business hours to complete a seven-week police academy training in Southern California.
The “city alleges Wilson breached the contract, by spending egregious amounts of time doing projects unrelated to his employment as the city manager during working hours,” the documents said. Wilson’s contract required him to “devote his entire productive time, ability and attention to the business of” the city, they stated, according to reporting by Stocktonia.
Wilson filed suit later that year, alleging his firing was unjust.
He had served the city of Stockton for seven years — two as a deputy city manager before taking over the top job in 2012 after Bob Deis retired — leading the city through its Chapter 9 bankruptcy and back into a period of solvency, The Stockton Record reported at the time.
Yet he fell out of the good graces of the City Council, with the Record reporting that Wilson’s dismissal was due to a “willful failure to implement council policy,” including not opening the city’s budget purse strings further.
Wilson’s suit alleged that the council’s failure to adhere to rules of California’s open-meeting law, the Brown Act, invalidated the vote that ousted him from his $259,488-a-year job, the Record reported.
San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Jayne Lee announced the judgment for Wilson following a jury trial that ended in May that also heard the city’s cross-complaint. While Wilson was awarded $360.674 in damages, the city prevailed on a claim of $18,152 — for a net to Wilson of $342,522. Additional awards were made to Wilson, however, with the total — $2,298,278.46 — coming from six different actions, including more than $1 million in fees. One of the larger fees related to Wilson’s use of the California Public Records Act, which totaled $499,618.52, not including interest.
Stocktonia reached out to the city for comment on the case, but didn’t immediately hear back. Neither Wilson nor his attorneys offered remarks.
Mayor Christina Fugazi, a member of the City Council when Wilson’s dismissal took place, told the Record on Wednesday that “we are obviously disappointed but believe we had cause to terminate. The jury disagreed, and under the contract the city is responsible for attorney’s fees.”
Wilson isn’t the first city manager the City Council has pushed out. In January of this year, Harry Black resigned from his post to avoid being fired. He voluntarily left his post in lieu of a “no-cause” firing, with both parties agreeing not to disparage each other.
Unlike in Wilson’s case, the council and Black came to an agreement on severance when he left the job.
A month later, Steve Colangelo, the former San Joaquin County Fairgrounds CEO, was appointed interim city manager, despite having no experience in civic operations. Colangelo then went on to hire a consultant — at a cost of $11,000 in public money — to help him do his job, according to public documents obtained by Stocktonia. He since has also been let go.
Stocktonia staff writers Cassie Dickman and Aaron Leathley contributed to this report.
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