The Vallejo City Council voted Tuesday not to adopt a resolution condemning Mayor Andrea Sorce, then agreed to release a redacted report on the investigation into her alleged conduct, the Times-Herald reported in a SFGate roundup. The meeting was previewed in earlier reporting; this is the outcome.
The proposed resolution said Sorce engaged in a "pattern of questionable and inappropriate behavior" and used her authority to influence city staffers, and that she publicly criticized employees and violated rules of decorum in public meetings. It also said she violated multiple City Charter sections, municipal codes and the city's Code of Ethics and Conduct for Elected and Appointed Officials "despite repeated counseling and other intervention." Neither the resolution nor the staff report specified exactly what alleged actions took place, the Times-Herald reported. Those are allegations in a resolution the council did not adopt, not findings of a court or a completed public report.
The council voted 5-2 to take no action on the resolution, with Councilmembers Peter Bregenzer and Helen-Marie Gordon dissenting. In a second motion, the council voted 6-1 to release a redacted report detailing the probe, with Councilmember Diosdado "JR" Matulac the sole dissenting vote. Shannon Chaffin, an outside attorney hired by the council to lead the investigation, said complaints were first brought by city staff. The investigation included an unreleased report with testimony from witnesses and staff. After Tuesday's vote, the likely heavily redacted report will be released at an unspecified date.
"This is the least transparent process I've seen in my two years as mayor," Sorce said in emotional remarks before the vote. She said councilmembers had been meeting in closed sessions for months to discuss the investigation without her, and that she had no knowledge of the allegations before her condemnation was agendized one week earlier. She also said she had not been shown any evidence that the effort was coordinated because of her calls to change several city departments. "It's all because I have the audacity to call out what appears to me to be corrupt practices — particularly in the Vallejo Police Department and the Vallejo City Attorney's office," she said.
The City Attorney's Office, led by Veronica Nebb, is under review for allegedly destroying evidence related to police shootings after an ACLU request to the council last July, the Times-Herald reported. The Shaw Law Group was hired at the end of last year to investigate, and the city has not released any findings. A statement from the Solano County Sheriff's Office, read aloud by Sorce, confirmed that the office is leading a criminal investigation into a city issue that she herself reported. Neither Sorce nor the statement elaborated on the details. Those are separate tracks from Tuesday's votes, and they have not been resolved in the reporting reviewed for this article.