City of Vallejo Pays $1 Million Settlement for Whistleblower Retaliation

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The Law Firm of Gwilliam Ivary Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer

Mar 19, 2024, 14:04 ET

OAKLAND, Calif., March 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Vallejo pays $1M to settle claims of whistleblower retaliation against former employee, Joanna Altman; Continues lawsuit with Slater Matzke and Will Morat containing same facts.

The City of Vallejo has paid $1 Million to Joanna Altman, former Assistant to the City Manager, who together with former Special Advisor to the City Manager Slater Matzke and Assistant to the City Manager Will Morat, sued after they were terminated in April 2020.

The three high ranking civil servants had each complained that prior City Manager Greg Nyhoff was violating the law and various City rules and regulations, including influencing negotiations in favor of the private developer on Mare Island. When their complaints reached the City Council, an investigation was ordered to be conducted by an outside law firm. The City allegedly cleared Nyhoff of wrongdoing without bothering to do a full and complete investigation, and instead, allowed Nyhoff to fire the three in less than 24 hours of its conclusion. Regrettably, after their terminations, the City proceeded with entering into an even worse deal on Mare Island that lacked key development milestones and required infrastructure improvements without guaranteed revenues for the community.

"This $1 Million settlement is bittersweet," said Joanna Altman. "Personally, I feel vindicated as a whistleblower who did my duty to report wrongdoing. However, many of the actors that enabled this conduct to work against the interests of the community are still in City Hall. The City continues to fight my two colleagues who not only witnessed these devious actions, but as stewards of the public trust they spoke out against it risking their careers and the wellbeing of their families and themselves to do what was right for Vallejo. Ultimately, the worst part of all of this is that the community and taxpayers are the ones who suffer in the end."

"This is a clear-cut case of whistleblower retaliation" said Randall E. Strauss, managing partner of Oakland law firm Gwilliam Ivary Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer. "Rather than do the right thing and look into serious allegations of wrongdoing, the City chose to sweep the matter under the rug and fire loyal employees who tried to alert the City Council of what was going on. The City has now paid an extremely steep price for attacking the messenger instead of solving the problem. Although Vallejo has paid Ms. Altman $1 Million, it has chosen to proceed to trial with Mr. Matzke and Mr. Morat, who made the exact same complaints as Ms. Altman at the same time and to the same people. We look forward to explaining all this to a Solano County jury."

Mr. Matzke and Mr. Morat brought their claims against Nyhoff and Vallejo in the same lawsuit as Ms. Altman and alleged virtually identical facts of whistleblower retaliation. Their claims are scheduled to go to trial in October of 2024.

Greg Nyhoff resigned as City Manager of Vallejo in May of 2021, and signed a settlement agreement in which Vallejo agreed to pay him an hourly rate to testify in this litigation, among other matters.

SOURCE The Law Firm of Gwilliam Ivary Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer