Former Vallejo spokesperson sues city, alleging retaliation for reporting unethical behavior

VALLEJO – A former city of Vallejo spokesperson sued the city this week alleging that she was harassed and bullied out of her job after she reported potentially illegal and unethical conduct by top city management who demanded her “loyalty.”

Christina Lee, who was Vallejo’s spokesperson from 2020 until she resigned last year, filed the lawsuit in Solano County Superior Court on Thursday. 

It alleges that city officials including former City Manager Mike Malone, current Assistant City Manager Gillian Haen and former Assistant City Manager Terrance Davis failed to investigate her reports of inappropriate and unethical behavior, particularly by Haen, and instead effectively demoted her and made working there increasingly intolerable.

Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that Haen ordered a subordinate to delete text messages relating to housing and homelessness in violation of the California Public Records Act and to submit falsified documents to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

“The City takes all claims of employee misconduct seriously, thoroughly investigates them, and takes appropriate follow up action,” City Manager Andrew Murray said in a statement. “The City is committed to providing efficient and effective services and conducting work in a professional manner.”

Lee is represented by Randall Strauss of the law firm Gwilliam Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer, which also represented three fired Vallejo employees who alleged they were terminated for reporting unethical conduct by city officials. That suit was settled with the city paying nearly $3 million between the three plaintiffs.

According to the lawsuit, when Lee was hired she reported directly to then-City Manager Greg Nyhoff and worked long, irregular hours because of numerous scandals surrounding the city at the time, including the revelations that police officers had bent the tips of their badges to mark shootings.

After Nyhoff abruptly resigned in 2021, Malone was eventually appointed city manager, and Haen, who had worked with the city since 2019, was promoted to assistant city manager in 2022. According to the lawsuit, Haen then moved the public information officer position to report directly to her.

Lee alleged that she became aware of potentially illegal and unethical conduct by Haen. The lawsuit alleges that Haen ordered then-interim assistant to the city manager Natalie Peterson, who was in charge of homelessness issues, to delete text messages relating to housing and homelessness in violation of the California Public Records Act. 

At the same time, Peterson had expressed an interest in applying for a “generalist” assistant to the city manager position, but the lawsuit alleges Haen discouraged her from doing that and threatened that she could lose her interim position if she did.

Haen also interfered with Malone’s attempts to control messaging from the Vallejo Police Department, according to the lawsuit. 

Malone had been working with senior communications analyst Allison Mattioli, who reported to Lee, on issues relating to the city’s liability. Malone had instructed her not to share login credentials for the Vallejo Police Department’s social media accounts with the Vallejo police analyst, which then-police Chief Shawny Williams was unhappy about. Haen allegedly interfered and tried to force Mattioli to provide the credentials in defiance of Malone and threatened her job if she didn’t comply.

Lee met with Malone in October 2022 and reported Haen’s behavior directly to him, according to the lawsuit. Lee requested that their conversation remain confidential, and Malone said he would only share it with Davis. A few days later, Malone told Lee she would report directly to him again, but Lee alleges that he joined Haen in retaliating against her.

The lawsuit alleges that it became clear that Malone had disclosed Lee’s complaint to Haen as Haen refused to interact with Lee at all after that. Lee alleges that Malone, Davis and Haen also refused to promote her into a new position that had been created for her. If she weren’t selected for the position, Lee would be effectively demoted, as she would report to the new hire.

Despite that the city had created a new community engagement manager position to promote Lee, Malone told her she would have to apply for the job, according to the lawsuit. During the interview, Lee alleges that Malone, Haen and Davis interrogated her about her “loyalty to the city” and said that they need to hire someone they can “trust.” 

Eventually the city hired Sharon Lund for the new position, and Lee alleges that Haen tainted her relationship with Lund from the beginning as Lund refused to even have coffee with Lee unless it was “necessary.” The lawsuit alleges that text messages released by the city confirm Haen was actively obstructing Lee from being promoted.

The stress of her job had caused Lee mounting health issues, and she took a medical leave of absence from July through December 2023, according to the lawsuit. At the end of that period, Lee complained about the behavior of city leadership to City Attorney Veronica Nebb, who told her to stop talking when Lee disclosed Haen’s alleged attempts to destroy records, saying that otherwise she would “have to do something about it,” the lawsuit alleges.

When Lee returned, Peterson told her that Haen had demanded she submit falsely backdated records to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Lee alleges that she became aware in June of last year that an application had been submitted with falsified documentation. 

By the time Lee returned, Malone had announced his retirement from the city. Haen was a candidate for his position, and the lawsuit alleges that she improperly tried to get information about the other candidates from the city’s human resources department.

Eventually, the city hired Murray, which Lee said gave her some hope, but she had by then “already worked under two corrupt city managers who engaged in, and normalized, unethical, illegal, and bad behavior.”

Last year, Lee once again reported her complaints to city personnel analyst Patrice Miller. Shortly after that, she resigned from the city. Lee alleges that Nebb then contacted her and told her that an outside investigator had been assigned to investigate her complaints, nearly two years after she made her first complaint to Malone.

Lee is not the first city employee to claim that she had been harassed by Haen. In 2023, former housing manager Judy Shepard-Hall sued the city, among other things alleging that Haen (who was then Gillian Hayes) had harassed and bullied her, including yelling at her in front of a colleague. 

Lee’s lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages for lost wages and opportunities, mental and emotional distress, and punitive damages to deter future misconduct.