The Stockton City Council held a regular session on July 29, 2025, following a closed session. The council voted 7-0 to appoint Deputy City Manager William Crew as acting city manager effective August 9, 2025, and directed a new contract for the interim city manager to the next meeting. The regular session began at 6:34 PM and adjourned at midnight. Major actions included approving a vacant commercial property ordinance, authorizing the annexation prezone for a 217‑lot residential development (Murray Ranch), setting a public hearing for the Downtown Stockton Community Improvement District, and receiving an update on the Navigation Center and Pathways homeless shelter projects.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to Stockton City Council closed session meeting on July 29th. Let's go ahead and do a roll call. Councilmember Blauer Present. Councilmember Enriquez. Councilmember Ponce is absent. Councilmember Padilla is absent. Councilmember Via Padua present. Vice Mayor Lee? Present. And Mayor Fugazi. Present. We have a quorum. Wonderful. Do we have any additions to uh the closed session agenda? Seeing none, hearing none. Um at this time, uh, I will uh if there's any public comment uh for closed session. Do we have any cards? Oh, sorry. Closed session with uh our negotiator for item 54957.6A and then performance evaluation 54957B again 5497B. Uh uh discipline dismissal 54957 and then appointment, public employment appointment 54957B. Okay, so at this time, uh is there any public comment? We do. May I have Matthew Lester to the podium, please. Hello, City Council and everybody gracing you all again. Name is Matthew Lester. I'm the procurement coordinator for the Western Farm Work Association. I want to express my concern regarding the recent appointment of our current city manager. It wasn't that long ago where I stood here stating my concern, but was told by certain people on the council that no matter who was appointed to that position, that they would listen to you and you guys would listen to the city of Stockton. But I feel lately that his actions have been a little bit rogue. I feel the city of Stockton deserves a city manager that is actually qualified. And from now on, these positions must be given to people based on their merit and not in the friends group they hang around. That is all. Thank you. Julie Dunning. Good afternoon, Madam Mayor and Council. I have a lot of angst about bringing this matter to the attention of council, but I feel it's the appropriate thing to do. I'm a measure, I'm a member of the Measure A Citizens Advisory Committee, and I have concerns about the ICM's interference with the activities of the Measure A Committee. While I speak solely for myself today, I am aware that at least one other committee member shares these concerns as well. In June, shortly after his appointment to a position in the city manager's office, Tony Manor, former Measure A Committee Chair, stated that he had been hired to be a liaison between the Measure A Committee and the ICM's office. This didn't seem right to me as I didn't understand why a citizens advisory committee would need a special liaison. By resolution charter and bylaws, we are an independent citizens advisory committee that reports directly to the city council, not the CM's office. To my knowledge, none of the other advisory committees have a liaison nor meet with the CM's office, but I started decided to stay quiet for a while and see where this was going. On June 20th, I received an email from Tony Manner's personal Gmail account stating that he had been told to join me and Ned, who is the chair of the committee, the Measure A committee, at all city manager meetings regarding measure A. So if there's questions, he could go get answers. Ten days later, on the 30th, I received another email from his personal Gmail account that was CC'd to some email account Skydriver, which I have no idea who that is. Says I was wondering if you guys were uh interested in meeting with the city manager this morning or afternoon. You will be able to ask any questions about measure A or anything else you might want. Neither Chairman Liban nor I were available that day. Seven days later, I received an email from Patty Vasquez to Chair LIBA and myself.