Pictured: Councilman Cesar Fernandez, Councilman Michael Inzunza, Mayor John McCann, Councilwoman Carolina Chavez, Councilman Jose Preciado
Source: City of Chula Vista

 

By Arturo Castañares
Editor-at-Large

The county’s second-largest city is moving quickly to hire a new City Manager without having advertised the open position and their move happened in a closed-door meeting with no public input. 

Chula Vista City Council members met secretly last Tuesday and voted unanimously to negotiate a contract with current Assistant City Manager Tiffany Allen to replace outgoing City Manager Maria Kachadoorian without seeking other candidates as most cities usually do when choosing the highest staff position in the city. 

Assistant City Manager Tiffany Allen

 

Kachadoorian announced her plan to retire just last week after having served as the City's City Manager since 2020. Kachadoorian, who will retire in October, has a base salary of $307,502.00 plus benefits.

The Council’s public Closed Session agenda only referenced “Public Employee Appointment: City Manager” without identifying any specific candidate. 

The City Clerk did not report out any action taken by the Council in its closed session meeting. 

City Managers serve as the City’s Chief Executive and make day-to-day decisions to implement City Council policies, including hiring the City's 1,300 employees and overseeing all 14 City departments and $600 million annual budget.

The International City/County Management Association, a nonprofit that advocates best practices for local governments, recommends that cities “prepare and place advertisements in publications that will attract the most qualified candidates.”

Most cities hire outside firms to conduct nationwide searches to attract a wide range of candidates for consideration even if an internal candidate applies for the position.

Five California cities are currently advertising for city manager candidates, including Sacramento, Davis, La Palma, Los Banos, & Weed, a small city of 2,800 people at the foot of Mt. Shasta in Northern California. 

The City of Chula Vista did not publicize the upcoming vacancy. 

The City Council voted unanimously to choice Allen, who has worked for the City for over 20 years, although she has been the subject of multiple complaints of creating a toxic work environment. 

Staffers have complained that Allen is part of a “mean girls club” that includes Kachadoorian, Allen, and Assistant City Manager Courtney Chase, who have been accused of playing favorites, retaliating against subordinates, discriminating against men, and leaving staff with a sense of fear for their jobs. 

The City was sued last year by former Deputy City Manager Eric Crockett who claims he was passed over for promotion and eventually fired by Kachadoorian who said he was "not a good fit" although he never received any concerns or complaints against him or his work performance during his 20 year tenure with the City.

Crockett claims he was "yet another male executive employee terminated by the City.”

The City tasked the law firm of Burke, Williams & Sorensen (BWS) to investigate the allegations of a toxic workplace. 

BWS has interviewed current and former employees but their findings have not been made public. 

A former employee, City Communications Manager Michelle Clock Schrotenboer, interviewed by a BWS investigator in March, testified that she experienced a toxic workplace environment and referred to the three top City administrators as having a "mean girls club."

Schrotenboer also gave the investigator the names of two witnesses who could corroborate her testimony, but neither of those witnesses were contacted by the BWS investigator.

BWS has also been representing the City in a years-long litigation filed by a cannabis company that was denied a retail license when the City created its marijuana dispensary license scheme in 2018. The company won its case and is still suing to enforce its ruling against the City.

Chula Vista’s City Attorney Marco Verdugo was a Senior Associate Attorney at BWS until March when he won a special election to become the City’s second elected city attorney. 

City Attorney Marco Verdugo

 

BWS also represented the City of San Diego on multiple issues in recent years, including the controversial 101 Ash St. building and a high-profile wrongful termination case the City lost in 2023.

A memo written by BWS in 2016 relating to the 101 Ash building became a critical piece of the scandal when the City disavowed a draft version of the memo that included a footnote, known as Footnote 15, which referenced then-Councilman Todd Gloria. The controversy over the disputed footnote led NBC7/39 to retract a story they published about the memo.

Last year, the City of San Diego sued BWS for malpractice after losing the wrongful termination case filed by a former City Attorney lawyer. The City argued BWS withheld critical information and mishandled the case. 

The City of San Diego eventually settled the case for more than $5.9 million.

On Tuesday, the Chula Vista City Council authorized Human Resources Department Director Tanya Tomlinson to negotiate a contract with Allen. 

Tomlinson has worked with Allen since 2011. 

The City Council would still have to vote to enter into a final employment contract at a public meeting which is expected to happen before current City Manager Maria Kachadoorian retires in October.