San Bernardino’s one-time top choice for city manager is pursuing legal action against the city, claiming officials interfered with his former employer and cost him his job.
In a claim seeking financial compensation for damages, Steve Carrigan alleges the city of Salinas, where he worked as city manager, fired him after San Bernardino intentionally interfered with his employment there. Carrigan also claims San Bernardino officials discriminated against him due to his race and violated California’s open meetings law, the Brown Act.
He seeks $2.2 million in damages, including $731,250 that he would have earned during the remainder of his contract in Salinas, $500,000 for damages to his reputation and $1 million from loss of future employment opportunities.
The claim, filed about a month after the San Bernardino City Council hired Charles Montoya as city manager, is typical of those filed as a first step in a legal process that may lead to a lawsuit.
The council discussed the claim behind closed doors at its meeting Wednesday, April 3.
“The City Council met in closed session to discuss a claim filed by Steve Carrigan against the city in relation to the city manager recruitment process,” City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said after the council returned from behind closed doors.
“The city initiated an investigation of the claim,” Carvalho said, “and has voted 4-2 to release portions of the report. Councilmembers (Theodore) Sanchez, (Sandra) Ibarra, (Juan) Figueroa, and Mayor Pro Tem (Fred) Shorett voted yes, and Councilmembers (Damon) Alexander and (Kimberly) Calvin voted no, Councilmember (Ben) Reynoso was absent.”
As of Friday morning, there was no firm estimate for when parts of the city’s investigation would be released.
Carrigan could not be reached for additional comment. The firm representing him, Irvine-based Executive Law Group, did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Alleged sabotage
According to Carrigan’s claim, filed Nov. 30, 2023, the San Bernardino council extended him a job offer at its Sept. 6, 2023 meeting. The council wanted him to replace Rob Field, the city manager who had resigned earlier that year. The council kept Carrigan’s name private — as allowed under the state’s open meetings law, the Ralph M. Brown Act — but, according to the claim, word soon leaked to Salinas officials that Carrigan was the finalist for the job in San Bernardino.
There is “a pattern of unprivileged conduct designed to destroy the employment prospects” of city manager candidates who are not favored by the mayor or council members, the claim reads in part.
“Council members leak the candidacy of those who are disfavored to the city council where the candidate then works,” the claim continues. “The wrongful intent and purpose of the city in this effort is to undermine a candidate’s current employment, so that the disfavored candidate becomes insecure and withdraws his candidacy.”
Another candidate for San Bernardino city manager withdrew from the process in the fall of 2023 after word got back to that candidate’s employer, according to the claim.
The Monterey County Weekly newspaper reported Carrigan emailed Salinas city staff on Sept. 28 to tell them he intended to stay there rather than take the San Bernardino offer.
“Over the past few weeks I have had time to think about what’s important to me from a personal and a professional standpoint and I have decided that Salinas is the best place for me,” Carrigan’s email reads in part. “I cannot see myself working anywhere else.”
But the Salinas City Council had other ideas. On Oct. 3, the council fired Carrigan.
“The city (of San Bernardino), without (legal) privilege or justification, intentionally interfered with the existing employment agreement between Carrigan and the City of Salinas,” Carrigan’s claim reads in part. “That interference resulted in the City of Salinas terminating Carrigan’s employment agreement.”
Salinas is not the only city to have fired Carrigan. The Merced City Council fired him in 2020. Though no reason was given for his termination in Merced, Carrigan had been sharply criticized by the mayor in public meetings.
Alleged discrimination
In the claim against San Bernardino, Carrigan alleges the city didn’t hire him because he’s White. If true, that’s illegal, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
According to the claim, Carrigan interviewed for the San Bernardino job in August.
“After Carrigan’s possible appointment as city manager of San Bernardino was considered in a closed session of the San Bernardino City Council, (the recruiter) informed Carrigan that three of the council members wanted a different candidate,” the claim reads in part. “Pressed for information, (the recruiter) told Carrigan ‘this is about race.’ Carrigan is White. Two of the three council members who did not vote to extend an employment offer to Carrigan are African American and they wanted the other candidate, who is African American.”
Councilmembers Alexander and Calvin, who voted Wednesday against releasing parts of the investigation into Carrigan’s allegations, are both Black, as is Reynoso, who was not present for the closed session.
“I cannot speak to any decisions the City of Salinas has made on behalf of their constituents,” Calvin wrote in an emailed statement Thursday. She did not address Carrigan’s accusations that she, or other council members, had leaked information about the city manager hiring process to anyone in Salinas.
In a text message Friday, Reynoso denied Carrigan’s claims.
“Couldn’t be further from the truth,” he wrote.
Alexander declined to comment when reached Thursday.
The claim also alleges San Bernardino city officials had “orchestrated” the members of the public who spoke against Carrigan’s possible appointment at the council’s Aug. 28 special closed session meeting. Seven of the 10 speakers who spoke against Carrigan, the claim notes, are Black.
Alleged career impacts
According to the claim, San Bernardino officials’ alleged behavior also damaged Carrigan’s future job prospects.
On Oct. 6, 2023, three days after he was fired by the Salinas council, Carrigan was reportedly called by San Bernardino’s then-director of human resources, Suzie Soren. According to the claim, Soren reportedly told Carrigan about the San Bernardino council’s Oct. 5 closed session, saying “there was a lot of talk last night about you and there was a lot of talk about how we cost you your job.”
Soren was named deputy city manager in February.
The next day, Carrigan was reportedly approached by a recruiter, asking if he would be interested in serving as the interim city manager for Pacific Grove.
“(The recruiter) said Carrigan was a good candidate because he knows the issues in Monterey County, has 10 years experience as a city manager, and lives 30 minutes from Pacific Grove,” the claim reads in part.
But the next week, the recruiter called Carrigan and said he was out of the running in Pacific Grove.
“(The recruiter) explained to Carrigan that the Pacific Grove City Council said that they knew of Carrigan and they think he is a good guy, but there were unwilling to move forward with Carrigan because his circumstances were ‘too political,’” the claim reads in part.
By that, they meant everything that happened in San Bernardino, according to the claim.
More on San Bernardino’s city manager search
- San Bernardino picks new city manager but withholds name for now
- San Bernardino restarts search for city manager after top candidate drops out
- San Bernardino residents tell council: ‘Find the right candidate’ for city manager
- San Bernardino announces it has a new city manager for second time in a month
- San Bernardino hires Charles Montoya as city manager
