The Stockton City Council met Monday for the first of three planned confidential meetings to deliberate over who should become the next city manager.
The meeting, a special closed session announced Thursday, was at 1 p.m. at City Hall. The next two meetings are tentatively scheduled for Oct. 15 and 16, and will be confirmed no later than 24 hours before they take place, according to Assistant City Clerk Allison Lambertson.
No final decisions were reported from the initial meeting, Lambertson said.
The confidential sessions come as the city’s recruiting schedule for finding a new chief executive nears its close. According to the schedule, obtained by Stocktonia through a public records request, Oct. 6 and 7 would be set aside for the City Council to conduct final interviews.
Stockton has been without a permanent chief since January, when former City Manager Harry Black resigned under pressure from the City Council. Deputy City Manager Will Crew briefly served as acting chief until the council installed former San Joaquin County Fairgrounds executive Steve Colangelo as interim in a 4-3 vote in February.
In July, the council put Crew back in the acting city manager seat.
On Monday, Mayor Christina Fugazi and Councilmembers Michael Blower, Mariela Ponce and Brando Villapudua were present at a public roll call before the closed session.
Councilmember Mario Enriquez and Vice Mayor Jason Lee called in remotely. Enriquez is in Los Angeles and Lee is in New York, according to the agenda for today’s meeting. Councilmember Michele Padilla was absent for roll call, but arrived as the remaining councilmembers retreated to closed session.
No members of the public were at City Hall for comment ahead of the closed session.
Mayor, councilmembers clash over search
The search for Stockton’s new chief bureaucrat was scheduled to start June 3, with a meeting between Stockton’s executive recruitment firm, its city attorney, its human resources director and a temporary ad hoc committee including Mayor Christina Fugazi, Vice Mayor Jason Lee and Councilmember Mario Enríquez. Stockton hired recruitment company Peckham & McKenney to conduct the search.
The council formed the ad hoc committee in February to help “interview and recommend candidates to the full Council for potential appointment,” according to the council resolution. At the time, Colangelo had just been appointed interim city manager in a 4-3 vote, with Lee and Councilmembers Padilla and Ponce joining Fugazi to put him in the seat.
The committee’s role in the process was disrupted, however, when Fugazi disbanded it sometime before June 27, claiming both that the group’s work was done and that Enríquez had broken confidentiality laws regarding its work.
Enríquez denied the accusations, calling them “irresponsible” and “misleading.”
Fugazi gave multiple reasons at various times as to why the committee needed to be disbanded.
It’s also not clear that Fugazi had the power to unilaterally dismiss the committee, since it was created through a council vote. However, the city attorney later said that in this instance the mayor did have the right to do so because at least one of the tasks assigned to the committee was under the purview of the mayor’s authority assigned by the city charter in selecting final candidates, though Fugazi had voted unanimously to both create the committee and its identified tasks.
According to the city manager search schedule, from early July through early August, Peckham, Fugazi, the City Council and HR were to create a profile of a desirable candidate.
Recruitment would start in August, with interviews in September and the City Council picking finalists toward the end of the month before final interviews in October.
Stockton sees multiple leadership changes
Former City Manager Harry Black was forced to resign in January following a changing of the guard in the 2024 election. Deputy City Manager Will Crew was then immediately named acting city manager.
A few weeks later, the council appointed longtime event planner Steve Colangelo as interim city manager in a move that was both unexpected and controversial. Colangelo did not have the experience or education typically required of a city manager. His tenure as interim was also marred by several controversies, including allegedly using diversity, equity and inclusion funding to hire another city manager to teach him how to do his job.
On July 29, the council voted to replace Colangelo with Crew, who was once again selected to step in as acting city manager when Colangelo’s six-month contract ran out. It’s unclear why the council did not re-up the contract.
When asked that day if he expected the council’s decision, Colangelo told Stocktonia, “nothing surprises me,” and “I work at the pleasure of the council.”
But an email Stocktonia obtained last week under public records laws, sent July 30, says city staff told Stockton’s attorney that Colangelo said the replacement was temporary while the council worked on another contract for him.
If Colangelo made the statement, he could’ve violated closed session laws. The former interim didn’t respond to Stocktonia’s request for comment.
On Aug. 12, a vote to reappoint Colangelo as Stockton’s interim chief executive showed up on the City Council agenda. It was removed without explanation during the meeting following closed session talks on the city manager position, and no such vote has since been scheduled.
Overall, the former county fairgrounds CEO’s stint as interim included a series of controversies that raised questions about his qualifications and competency to serve as Stockton’s top bureaucrat. Fugazi often came to his defense.
City manager must have experience, schooling
According to a job posting by Peckham, Stockton’s future city manager should have “7 to 10 years of experience as a Chief Executive, Assistant/Deputy Chief Executive or Department Head in a government agency of comparable complexity and size.”
The ideal candidate should also hold a bachelor’s degree and have experience working with elected officials, the job description says.
Among a long list of other qualities in the city’s pamphlet about the job, the ideal candidate should thoroughly understand city finance, embrace diversity, equity and inclusion, and demonstrate trustworthiness, credibility and honesty.