Vallejo City Council members took a machete to a proposed whistleblower policy presented at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“We need to go back to the drawing board,” said Councilmember Tonia Lediju. “The policy needs to be much more robust.” The proposed policy was presented to the council as an item for discussion and feedback, with no vote required.
“I want to see a policy that really has breadth and depth to it and speaks to not just, ‘That is the law,’ but how you apply it,” said Lediju.
The proposed policy is three pages long, with most of the third page taken up by footnotes. In contrast, San Francisco’s whistleblower program occupies over 24 pages on that city’s website.
Oakland’s program includes a hotline and a whistleblower ordinance spelling out mandatory discipline for retaliation “up to and including discharge” — elements not found in the proposed Vallejo policy. Oakland’s program is administered by the City Auditor’s office; Lediju was San Francisco’s City Auditor before becoming chief executive of the San Francisco Housing Authority.
A number of lawsuits have been filed against Vallejo by whistleblowers claiming retaliation. Three individuals — including the husband of Mayor Andrea Sorce — sued in 2021 after being fired in alleged retaliation for reporting rampant misconduct in the former city manager’s office. The settlement cost the city millions.
More recently, in February, Christina Lee, a former public information officer for Vallejo, filed a lawsuit...
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