After a Stockton City Council subcommittee’s hours-long probe spanning two days into the handling of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and funding at City Hall, the one person who could shed the most light on what happened was a no-show.
Actions by former interim City Manager Steve Colangelo to change how Stockton handles and funds the city’s DEI efforts have been under scrutiny for months, ultimately leading to City Council’s approval of an investigation into the issue.
Colangelo himself has never been publicly questioned by the community or even the full City Council, whom he regularly sat adjacent to during myriad council meetings since the news of the alleged restructuring of the city’s DEI commitments broke just before summer, often leaving staff to bear the brunt of public questioning by councilmembers.
Tuesday’s roughly 60-minute testimony before council’s Audit Committee — where Deputy City Manager Chad Reed was the only city official to take the stand — picked up from the day prior when seven present and past city officials laid bare an atmosphere of “chaos” and “fear” with Colangelo at the helm of Stockton City Hall.
“I didn’t feel comfortable pushing back,” former DEI manager Preya Nixon told the subcommittee Monday. Nixon, who was ousted after less than a year in the DEI role to become a human resource personnel, had also shared that Colangelo, in private conversation, had called DEI “a liability to the city.”
The most notable reveal from this week’s testimonies was that Colangelo’s vocal support of the city’s DEI efforts, according to staff, differed from what was said behind closed doors.
In another private conversation, staff have alleged that Colangelo said keeping the DEI role would put Stockton “on the radar” of President Trump’s administration, despite Colangelo saying in a June news release that the restructuring of the city’s DEI department would make it “more systematic, more sustainable, and more accountable.” The DEI officer was originally assigned to the city manager’s office.
Stocktonia’s attempts to reach Colangelo by phone and email about his absence were unsuccessful as of Friday afternoon.
According to the state, those who defy a city-issued subpoena could face civil proceedings if the mayor reports the issue to the county’s superior court. A judge could then direct the county sheriff to take action to ensure those who are noncompliant with the city’s summons are brought before the court. Further defiance could even result in being in contempt of court.
In an email to Stocktonia Thursday, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said Colangelo “has retained legal counsel who is in contact with the City Attorney’s Office” regarding the city’s subpoena.
“Until I have all the facts and receive guidance regarding any potential exposure to the City, I will be reserving further comment at this time,” mayor spokesperson Esperanza Vielma told Stocktonia via email.
City spokesperson Tony Mannor, who was among those subpoenaed by the Audit Committee, also never made it to the stand this week. Present for Monday’s hearing, Mannor was absent Tuesday due to a scheduling conflict, he told Stocktonia in a statement Wednesday.
Mannor is rescheduled to testify at 3 p.m. Monday, the city clerk’s office told Stocktonia in a statement.
Officials say all were not in agreement with interim city manager’s handling of DEI
Ten current city and former officials were subpoenaed in early October as part of the Audit Committee’s investigation into the city’s management of DEI, which includes looking into Nixon’s demotion as DEI manager and the alleged use of money earmarked for the one-person DEI department.
In June, it was revealed that part of the $100,000 funds set aside for DEI had funded the hiring of Lathrop City Manager Steven Salvatore as a $11,000-a-month personal professional consultant for Colangelo, and that the city’s DEI officer had been given a new position, which drew public outcry from both the community and some councilmembers, including the vice mayor.
Reed was the only official to be questioned during the Audit Committee’s second day of hearings Tuesday.
Across his roughly hour-long testimony before the Audit Committee — made up of chair Vice Mayor Jason Lee and Councilmembers Michele Padilla and Michael Blower — Deputy City Manager Reed said that he “didn’t agree with the way” Nixon’s transfer “was done.”
Reed began overseeing the city’s human resource department when he stepped into a deputy city manager role in June, he said, following nearly five years as an official in the public works department, of which he still serves as interim director.
“I don’t think it’s fair treatment,” Reed said Tuesday, generally referring to Nixon’s transfer and pay cut. According to city bank statements, Nixon’s demotion had come with a salary reduction of nearly half of what she was paid in her previous DEI role. She ultimately left the city this summer.
Emails presented before the subcommittee as evidence combined with staff testimony shows Colangelo may have misled the vice mayor as to why changes regarding DEI were being made at the city.
Colangelo is shown to have defended Nixon’s HR transfer as Stockton “doubling down on effectiveness” in a June 3 email to Lee, telling the vice mayor the decision would allow for “DEI functions” to integrate into a department that could “actually have maximum impact.” However, less than two months earlier, according to staff testimony from the hearing, Colangelo had told senior staff he wanted to remove the DEI role from the city manager’s office to better align with the Trump administration’s views on equity efforts.
“We went back and forth,” HR Director Rosemary Rivas said during Monday’s hearing, describing attempts by her and Will Crew, who is a deputy city manager for Stockton that now serves as its acting city manager, during an April closed-door meeting to dissuade Colangelo from “eliminating” the DEI position all together. “It was our goal … to try to keep her.”
Another email thread presented during hearing proceedings also shows that the June email from Colangelo to Lee was actually drafted by Mannor, the city spokesperson.
“Is it typical for a PIO to write emails for management,” Lee asked Reed during questioning Tuesday.
“Not that I’ve seen,” Reed replied.
The only time Colangelo directly addressed the city’s DEI efforts publicly was in his joint June press release with Lee.
Colangelo was hired by City Council to be the city’s interim city manager in February following the ousting of the city’s former City Manager Harry Black, despite concerns from both the public and some councilmembers that the longtime event planner wasn’t qualified for the job. His six-month tenure was marked by controversy and accusations from both the public and some councilmembers before City Council opted not to reup his contract in August.
Lee, at one point visibly annoyed during Reed’s testimony, reminded those “watching” that the investigation taking place is because Stockton City Council had previously not received “all the answers” about the city’s handling of its DEI department.
“We’re here because an employee, who relocated to our community to do important work … was forced out of her job,” Lee said, referring to Nixon. “We’re here because multiple staff have testified that they were working in a culture that didn’t make them feel safe to share what they felt was wrong.”
“Employees here … all deserve the right to work in a hostile, free environment — an environment free of intimidation or threats of losing their job,” Lee added.
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