Stockton City Council is scheduled to vote this week on an employment contract for a new city attorney — though a copy of the contract included in the council agenda reveals nothing about who they plan to hire or how much they’ll be paid.
The vote is just one of several major — and potentially divisive — discussions scheduled for Tuesday’s City Council meeting that could set off renewed fireworks on the council dais, a dynamic that ruled council meetings in the second half of 2025.
The fighting picked up again at the council’s last meeting in late February, with Vice Mayor Jason Lee and Mayor Christina Fugazi clashing over how much the council ought to discuss the leadership crisis in San Joaquin County’s bus system.
In addition to the city attorney vote, Fugazi is scheduled to present a proclamation to Motecuzoma Sanchez, founder of the controversial local social media platform 209 Times, the council’s agenda shows.
Councilmembers are also scheduled to receive an update about reports of possible misuse of public funds and other wrongdoing the council sent to state and county investigators last year.
New city attorney?
City Council is scheduled to vote on a contract for a new city attorney — though the contract included in the agenda doesn’t reveal the name, start date or salary of the new hire.
Stockton has been looking for a new lawyer since January, when former City Attorney Lori Asuncion resigned after working in the city’s legal office for 18 years. Neither the city nor Asuncion provided a reason for the lawyer’s resignation. Assistant City Attorney Taryn Jones has been serving as Stockton’s acting legal chief since Asuncion’s exit.
Whoever gets the job will hold sweeping influence over how Stockton responds to lawsuits against the city as well as how the city conducts its own lawsuits. They’ll also be responsible for providing legal advice to councilmembers and other city officials.
The council plans to interview candidates behind closed doors during Tuesday meeting’s nearly-five hour closed session, documents linked to the agenda show.
In the past, City Council has often included the names and contracts, including pay and benefits, of officials the council plans to hire in public agendas. Council is charged with directly hiring Stockton’s city manager, attorney, clerk and auditor, though the auditor role has long been outsourced to private companies.
That was the case with former city attorneys Asuncion and John Luebberke, City Clerk Katherine Roland and former clerk Eliza Garza, and City Manager Johnny Ford and former interim City Manager Steve Colangelo, past agendas show.
However, there’s no city law or policy that requires a public, proposed contract to name the candidate, City Clerk Katherine Roland told Stocktonia Monday.
“As long as the title header states what the council is going to be discussing, that’s the legal requirement, and whatever else is just however it’s done,” she said.
Fugazi put the vote on Tuesday’s agenda, Roland said. The mayor didn’t include the name and salary information because it’s not yet clear who will get the job, Fugazi’s spokesman, Jason Teramoto, told Stocktonia.
While California’s open meetings law also doesn’t necessarily require an agendized contract to include the candidate’s name and proposed pay, it would be a violation for councilmembers to discuss possible salary numbers in closed session, David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, said Monday.
“They could not pre-cook the debate on compensation, come out of closed session and say well, we’ve already discussed this … even if they were to ratify that in open session,” Loy said.
There’s no indication councilmembers plan to do so. “I’m just saying, that’s a risk,” Loy said.
‘Harassment and bullying’
209 Times founder Motecuzoma Sanchez is scheduled to be recognized at Tuesday’s council meeting, in a stark dismissal of a civil grand jury’s call for councilmembers to stop consorting with those running 209 Times over the latter’s attempts to manipulate city government using intimidation and bullying.
In a statement Monday sent in response to Stocktonia’s questions, Mayor Christina Fugazi said Sanchez is being recognized for intervening in March 2025 when an armed person was making threats downtown.
A Stockton Police Department spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for corroboration of those details.
Fugazi praised Sanchez in the statement, saying, “That’s exactly the type of See Something, Say Something, civic responsibility we’ve been encouraging.”
When asked why Fugazi plans to recognize Sanchez despite the grand jury’s warnings, Teramoto told Stocktonia there was nothing more to say.
“There’s no official comment, right? There’s nothing else to really talk about, just because there’s nothing there,” Teramoto said. “The proclamation is the city recognizing a citizen who took it upon themselves to see something, say something, and he definitely saw something, intervened, and called up Stockton PD.”
When asked why someone else who showed civic responsibility amid a public safety threat wasn’t selected instead, Teramoto said, “If you know one, let me know.”
The spokesman added, “If there’s something that we’re missing or someone that we’re not acknowledging for living that creed, which is exactly what this community needs, by all means forward that name to us.”
Teramoto also said he doesn’t know who recommended Sanchez to Fugazi for recognition, though the city clerk confirmed his boss was the one to agendize the commendation.
In 2024, the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury found that Stockton’s “city government is hampered by a threatening work environment created by the continued harassment and bullying by” Sanchez’s organization, 209 Times, the jury’s report said.
The civil grand jury, which is made up of volunteer citizen investigators, took councilmembers who publicly associate with the group to task for participating in what jurors described as an attack on Stockton’s government.
“Members of the Stockton City Council, who support the efforts of (209 Times), are complicit in the deterioration of comradery, trust, respect, and ethical governing in Stockton,” the grand jury report said.
Yet Tuesday’s proclamation will represent just the latest example of the mayor continuing her association with Sanchez.
In August, Fugazi praised Sanchez from the podium at an opening ceremony for the Victory Park Pool, according to a video on Sanchez’s Facebook page and appeared alongside him in a photo at the event. She also met with a candidate for governor in December alongside Sanchez.
Meanwhile, Sanchez continues to hold a seat on the city’s Salary Setting Commission, which periodically recommends how much the mayor and councilmembers should be paid before the council votes on the matter. Last month, the commissioners voted 3-1 to appoint him commission chair, meeting minutes show, with Kathleen Hart, Shakeel Carpenter and Sanchez voting “yes” and Adriana Cruces abstaining. The final commissioner, Philana Grayson, was absent.
The council has taken no formal action on the civil grand jury’s recommendation for councilmembers to stop associating with people linked to 209 Times. As of its September progress update to the civil grand jury, the council had merely acknowledged the recommendation.
Discussion on investigations into misspending
City Council is also scheduled to discuss the status of reports it sent the California Attorney General, the San Joaquin County District Attorney and the county civil grand jury about possible misuse of public funds, abuses of authority and charter violations, some arising from alleged wrongdoing by former interim City Manager Steve Colangelo.
Throughout Colangelo’s tenure, he did not respond to Stocktonia’s requests for comment about misconduct allegations against him.
Tuesday’s discussion comes roughly two weeks after a meeting of the council’s Audit Committee, in which Lee, the committee chair, said the DA’s office told him they hadn’t received the council’s request to investigate. Yet at the same meeting, acting City Attorney Jones confirmed the city had contacted the DA’s office.
On Monday, a DA’s office spokesperson didn’t immediately return a request to confirm whether the DA’s office received the council’s referrals.
Documents linked to Tuesday’s agenda say the alleged wrongdoing centers around several city housing projects and applications for state funding — including at least one project on Sutter Street, and an application for state money by the nonprofit Service First of Northern California.
Lee has accused Colangelo of going beyond his authority as city manager to promise the nonprofit city funds to bolster its request for state money. Service First denied any wrongdoing.
Public comment on Tuesday’s closed-session portion of the City Council meeting is set for 1 p.m. at City Hall, followed by council’s open session at 5:30 p.m.