Vallejo City Council rejects resolution condemning conduct of Mayor Andrea Sorce

VALLEJO — The Vallejo City Council rejected a controversial resolution on Tuesday that asked the council to “condemn and disavow unbecoming conduct of Mayor Andrea Sorce,” based on a report of personnel complaints that has not been made publicly available, including to Sorce herself.  

The council voted 2-5 against adopting the resolution, citing a lack of publicly available facts and the council having an inadequate process for handling these kinds of allegations of misconduct. Councilmembers Peter Bregenzer and Helen-Marie Gordon voted to adopt it.

The council did vote to release a redacted version of a report by an independent counsel hired in June, with only Councilmember Diosdao Matulac voting no on the grounds that releasing the report would waive the council’s attorney-client privilege. He said his concern was that “once you waive attorney-client privilege, you waive other rights that you have, which leads to other lawsuits.” 

Sorce also voted to release the report in the interest of transparency and because she stated she’s unaware of what the report alleges. She said that she learned of the resolution and the “list of supposed findings” when the agenda was published last Wednesday afternoon. 

The resolution alleged that Sorce had used her position to improperly influence decisions of city staff, created the perception of providing direction to city employees, and attempted to coerce or influence the administrative actions of the city manager. 

The appointed attorney, Shannon Chaffin of Aleshire & Wynder, LLP presented the resolution Tuesday and said that this case was an issue of following operational roles based on the city charter: while high-level policy decisions are up to the City Council, he said, day-to-day operations are under supervision of the city manager. 

“Councilmembers are required not to interfere in the administrative functions of the city,” Chaffin said. He noted that the independent investigation found a  pattern of “allegedly questionable and inappropriate conduct by the mayor that was in violation of the city charter, the city municipal code, and the city's code of ethics and conduct for elected and appointed officials.” 

Chaffin said that the report does not include names and exact descriptions of the allegations because state law limits what can be said regarding private personnel matters. “So as much as you may want to clarify or provide certain additional information, we are required to respect certain privacy rights,” Chaffin said. 

In an opening statement, Sorce described the resolution as a “sham,” adding that “there are no facts” and “there was no due process.” 

“If there are accusations against me, I've seen absolutely zero evidence, and I haven't even seen the accusations,” Sorce said. “This is the complete opposite of transparency and due process.” 

Sorce said that the statement in the resolution that she had received repeated counseling and intervention was false. Councilmember Alexander Matias later said it was a “misrepresentation in the report” that he provided any counseling on this issue to Sorce, but that he was unaware if other councilmembers had.

Sorce said she pledged to bring transparency to City Hall and to root out corruption when she ran for mayor. “I've kept my promises to the community, and the response has been an escalating pattern of harassment, threats, and retaliation by city officials — attempts to intimidate and silence me. That harassment has been escalating for my entire year and 10 months in office, and it appears now to have led to this.” 

Sorce said the resolution was a  response to her calling for independent investigations into the misconduct of the Vallejo Police Department and the City Attorney’s Office’s handling of those allegations.

“I've witnessed the city breaking the law on multiple occasions, and I have called it out. And instead of fixing it, we see what the response has been,” Sorce said. “When I've had a reasonable belief of criminal misconduct, I don't just sit back and be intimidated or silenced. I've reported those allegations to federal, state, and local law enforcement dating back to April 2025.”

Sorce continued by reading a statement from the Solano County Sheriff’s Office that said the sheriff’s office has been conducting a criminal investigation into matters that Sorce brought to their attention. “Following our preliminary review, we determined that the information warranted a formal criminal investigation,” the letter read. “Since that time, our investigators have been actively working on the case in coordination with our law enforcement partners. This remains an open and active investigation.”

Sorce added that councilmembers have been meeting in closed sessions, from which Sorce said she was forced to recuse herself for the last 10 months — an act that she suggested was a violation of state open meeting law. 

Some councilmembers pushed back on Sorce’s statement that she was wholly unaware of the allegations in the investigation. Councilmember Tonia Lediju called the whole investigation process “painful,” but said that as elected councilmembers, they had to be “held accountable and be honest in the conversation” if they acted inappropriately. 

“There were allegations. They were substantiated. The report and the investigation was handled by an outside firm that hired an outside investigator that oversaw the investigation,” Lediju said. “So I’m deeply grieved and troubled when it’s stated you have no knowledge, because I understand how investigations are carried out.”

Matias asked Chaffin to clarify the process and timeline by which a city representative would be notified if someone filed a complaint against them.

Chaffin said that the person would be notified and given an opportunity to be interviewed as a witness to provide their side of the story, and given an opportunity to provide documentation to support their defense. He said that notification could take more than a year when an independent investigator and independent law firm is involved. 

Councilmember Gordon asked if releasing the redacted report, and thus waiving the council’s attorney-client privilege, would put individual councilmembers at risk of being sued. Chaffin said the risk is never zero, but it would be low when the members act within the scope of their authority. 

Over 60 community members attended the meeting, and nearly 20 public speakers weighed in. The vast majority asked the council to reject the resolution and complained about lack of transparency in the proceedings. 

“This is an extraordinary indictment, and it deserves extraordinary  supporting evidence,” said resident William Baker. “Any council resolution, formal or otherwise, containing serious allegations should not leave the public to infer what happened or which specific conduct justified those conclusions.”

Resident Beverly McGain said that the community has waited for years for the city’s badge bending report, and voiced frustration that instead of addressing that, the council is dealing with this resolution. “This is not a coincidence. Now, rather than find out what is behind these serious accusations against our police department, we are focusing our attention on denouncing our mayor,” McGain said. “This is disgusting.” 

Several other speakers complained that the city had more important issues to focus on, such as homelessness, public safety and economic development. 

The council was in agreement that the city needs to implement better procedures for complaints by city employees. Bregenzer advocated updating the city’s bylaws, and Lediju said, “we need a whistleblower program, because if we had a whistleblower program, we would not be sitting here having this conversation.”

“We need to have a process, because this may not be the last time that it happens with other electeds in the future,” Matias said. “So does that mean every single time we're going to put it on the agenda? That doesn’t seem appropriate.”

Chaffin said that they could deliver a redacted report in about a week. 

Gretchen Smail contributed to this report.

Note: This article was updated to correct the resolution adoption vote count.