At a time when strong leadership is needed in Stockton, it appears that the community is seeing less of that from City Manager, Harry Black. Due to growing complaints about his behavior, it has shifted focus from what’s really important which is creating and building a stronger community.
On Tuesday, Harry Black was the center of attention as the Stockton City Council met for a lengthy closed session to discuss discipline, dismissal, or firing of the city manager. To note, City leaders can’t talk about what was discussed during the closed session. However, former vice mayor of Stockton, Christina Fugazi, spoke during public comment. Fugazi said she was speaking on behalf of “the 14,000 public employees in the city of Stockton who may have faced … intimidation, bullying, a work environment that may be hostile.” She continued saying, “This is a very difficult time for the city of Stockton, but we can’t put one individual over the 1,400 individuals that we have for this city. Tonight you have the opportunity to take action and I would implore you to do what needs to be done. Enough is enough.”
Furthermore, during his public comment, 209 Times founder Motecuzoma Sanchez also spoke and revealed he filed a complaint earlier this year on behalf of a California Water Service, Cal Water, employee who Harry Black allegedly referred to as a “f**ing b***h.” Sanchez said, “While the city agenda is not allowed to disclose publicly what Harry Black is up for dismissal for, I am here to tell the public that this is why,” he said per Recordnet. Now despite the intense meeting, it was ultimately determined that City Manager Harry Black could keep his job in Stockton. Though, it’s unclear if any disciplinary action was taken against him… But was this this the right move? An article that was recently published by 209 Times goes into even more detail about how Black allegedly abused his authority and power to harass and discriminate against others.
In a 2021 interview with the Hispanic business owner — Veronica Martinez, who created Stockton’s first-ever food truck court called Stocklandia — explained how she and her fellow business owners were allegedly being targeted and harassed by Harry for unknown reasons. She detailed how police officers were constantly showing up to harass them and would park in front of the food court for hours.
Shockingly, it turned out her suspicions were true. A newly obtained document by 209 Times clearly lays out how police chief Eric Jones and Katherine Nance were put under great pressure to allegedly target Stocklandia on behalf of Harry Black.
In the document called “Report of Investigation, City of Stockton, The Matter of City Manager Harry Black” in 2021, Jones admits that Black allegedly told him to use the police department to “apply pressure” to Stocklandia and “shut that shit down”. Jone states in the doc, “I don’t get why the City Manager is so emotionally invested in this,” referring to Mr. Black’s displeasure with the female representative from Stocklandia, saying his behavior during their three-way telephone conversations left him with the impression that he just “hated her as a person” or that it was perhaps related to her “gender.”
Speaking on one of the direction he received from Harry Black regarding Stocklandia, he recalls him saying, “You guys need to shut this shit down and figure out a way to do it.” Although Chief Jones volunteered, he stated in the doc that he had “no idea why my City Manager wanted so much pressure applied to Stocklandia. But there was this incessant pressure to apply pressure to Stocklandia.”
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Jones retired shortly after making those revelations in the 2021 report. He now works as a “police consultant” for cities like Sacramento. As the publication notes, Nance has also left to become police chief for Reno, Nevada.
Black Harry was not fired despite those claims. Instead, in January of 2022 when they met to discuss his fate, they put him on a “performance improvement plan.” It was noted that he also received a raise to over $400,000 a year.
Strangely enough, he was reportedly brought up for dismissal again in March of 2023, but he was saved after receiving votes by Michael Blower, Dan Wright, Susan Lenz, and Brando Villapudua, per the outlet.
Harry Black was up for termination for a third time in two years but as a result of Tuesday’s meeting, he will remain seated as the City Manager of Stockton.
Veronica Martinez has since released a statement sharing her plans to take legal action:
“First of all thank you for being a supporter to our business from day one and for bringing this evidence of injustice to light. Stocklandia will pursue legal action against City Manager Harry Black, Stockton PD and the City of Stockton for violation of civil rights, harassment, misuse of power and all other forms of criminal violations bestowed upon our business.”
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