Four new Stockton City Council members were sworn in Jan. 7, and literally before all their photos were hung in City Hall, they forced City Manager Harry Black to resign.
Black was honest and highly competent. The previous council majority recently gave him a strong performance review, a new contract, and a raise. Black’s publicly posted analytics show he improved the city in a multitude of ways. And Black was not fired “for cause,” for some failure or transgression. He was forced to resign because the new Council majority wanted him out — or out of the way.
“I’ve enjoyed serving the City of Stockton,” Black said in a brief interview. “I am proud of the accomplishments we have been able to achieve, and I gave Stockton everything I had.”
Just to be clear, in Stockton’s council-manager form of government, the city manager, and not the mayor, is the most powerful figure. The manager handles the day-to-day operations of the city, oversees all city departments, and prepares the budget. The council sets policy, but the city manager makes it happen. Good city government requires a good city manager.
On the campaign trail, Mayor Christina Fugazi downplayed her opposition to Black. She even praised him.
“I will say there are definitely areas in which Mr. Black is very strong,” she said at the Stocktonia candidate forum last Feb. 20. “He is very strong in his performance in data analytics. He is very strong in meeting with community members and building and fostering those relationships, which isn’t something we’ve had before.”
On the other hand, when Councilmember Michele Padilla complained — dubiously, if you look at the particulars — that Black created a hostile work environment, Fugazi was one of the few people who sided against Black.
At a 2023 council meeting, Fugazi claimed she was speaking on behalf of “the 1,400 public employees in the city of Stockton who may have faced … intimidation, bullying, a work environment that may be hostile.”
Subsequently, a procession of community leaders and city employees, many wearing “you don’t speak for me” buttons, rebuffed both Padilla and Fugazi and gave Black a glowing review.
“One after the other, Stockton CEOs and directors stepped up to the podium during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting,” The Record reported. “They shared their positive experiences working with Black and expressed their gratitude for his leadership.”
Many did so again after Black’s ouster.
- “Things were getting done,” said Mike Huber, executive director of the Downtown Stockton Alliance. “There were strategic public-private partnerships that Mr. Black had put together that were very successful.”
One example involving the DSA was Black’s façade program. Black gave the DSA $8.5 million of federal Covid relief money with which 83 building facades in the downtown area were gussied up. The program improved downtown’s business climate and aesthetics.
- “By and large, the business community feels Harry Black has done a very good job and assembled a team of qualified professionals who work well together, have been financially responsible and responsive to the community’s needs,” Betty Wilson, Executive Director of the Business Council of San Joaquin County, said in a statement.
- “I think it’s a bad call,” said Dan Wright, who recently termed-out as District 2 councilmember. “Harry’s been the best guy we’ve had on that seat in my lifetime. … I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone as visionary as Harry.”
- “Black was one of the smartest city managers we’ve had,” said former councilmember and activist Ralph Lee White. “He knew everything.”
It’s unclear whether Fugazi and the new council majority wanted Black gone because they have a different vision and want a city manager who shares it. Or whether Black’s honesty and resistance to toxic outside influences meant he had to be removed so the council majority could advance an agenda in concert with those influences.
I do believe Fugazi has a genuine concern for Stockton’s disadvantaged. My fear — expressed for years now — is that rolling in behind her may be a scene from “Stockton Unified II: The Sequel,” a repeat of the alleged corruption Stockton’s largest school district, which triggered investigations by the FBI and San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.
Fugazi did not respond to emails asking her to explain her reasons for wanting Black gone. This seems like an opportune moment to quote her words from the League of Women Voters of San Joaquin County candidate forum last September.
“What needs to happen is we always need to be transparent,” she said. “We always need to answer to the public.”
Vice Mayor Jason Lee also has not explained his opposition to Black.
Black and the previous council majority blocked Lee in 2023 when, as a private citizen, he made a play for $2 million (later $1 million), for his well-meaning but nebulous and untested youth program.
Lee was clearly embittered he didn’t get the money. “They gave it to their friends,” he snarked at the candidate forum.
No, they gave it to local nonprofits with track records and detailed program plans. Lee had neither. The lesson he should have taken from that strikeout is respect for government process, especially those designed to ensure public money goes to the lowest responsible bidders.
A third new council member, Mariela Ponce, has the public profile of a black hole. She made no public campaign appearances, gave no in-person interviews, and never detailed her position on any issue. Her campaign appeared fueled by dark money; for much of the campaign season she reported no donations and no expenditures as legally required, yet she sent out mailers and planted yard signs. She never named her campaign manager.
Ponce said she would answer questions I sent over, including her relationship, if any, with the founder of the 209 Times, Motecuzoma Sanchez, but never did. By rejecting transparency, she has failed to allay suspicion about her allies and her motives.
Fugazi, Lee, Ponce, and Padilla: four votes to oust Harry Black.
Last, but not least, Mario Enriquez. The fourth new councilmember voted in support of a motion to continue the public comment period when Mayor Fugazi arbitrarily, and uncharacteristically, cut it off before the council went into closed session to deliberate Black’s fate (People power! Now be silent!).
In closed session Enriquez was spared the necessity of voting on firing Black when the council voted unanimously to accept Black’s resignation in lieu of non cause termination. How would he have voted? What was his position on Black? He did not return a call.
The other two who approved the 7-0 vote, Councilmembers Michael Blower and Brandon Villapudua, Black supporters, had good reason to go along with the others, to avoid a lawsuit. Stockton’s previous City Manager, Kurt Wilson, fired in 2019, is still suing the city, refusing to settle.
Speaking of Wilson, he was criticized for living out of town. Well, Harry Black lives in Stockton. Why should city managers commit to Stockton when Stockton doesn’t commit to them?
Another concern is Black’s management team. Some very talented people may leave now that Black is gone. Another reason pressuring Black to resign did a disservice to the city.
Stockton all too seldom gets standouts like Harry Black or former mayor Michael Tubbs. When it does, its culture of rage at leaders — and the apathy of informed voters — means gifted leaders are often bloodied and booted out.
Worse, they are replaced with nothingburgers or shady characters in Stockton’s political jungle.
Yet citizens complain, complain, complain Stockton is not what it ought to be.
Michael Fitzgerald’s column runs on Wednesdays. On Twitter and Instagram as Stocktonopolis. Email: mfitzgeraldstockton@gmail.com.