by John Glidden | glid24@protonmail.com | April 1, 2025
VALLEJO – Shortly before City Manager Mike Malone was set to depart Vallejo in April 2024, a member of Vallejo’s senior leadership team lobbied for Assistant City Manager Gillian Haen to become interim city manager, causing one councilmember to call the request “inappropriate,” newly released email records show.
Public Works Director Melissa Tigbao sent her email to the city council on March 28, 2024, less than a month before Malone was scheduled to retire, arguing that she was “not comfortable with hearing that the Interim City Manager may be from the outside.”
Hiring “outside consultants will be a big blow to our already low morale as an agency, and it will send this organization into a downward spiral because no one will be able to catch up with all of the processes and momentum that Senior Leadership has been working on tirelessly for the past few years,” Tigbao wrote to the city council.
Tigbao suggested the council name Haen as interim city manager as a way to maintain leadership continuity and prevent turnover within city staff.
“It will be unfortunate for this organization to continue to see staff turnover, and based on how decisions are made for our near future, I expect the turnover will happen at the executive level,” Tigbao added. “This will be detrimental to this City that I live in.”
Tigbao received a sharp rebuke from then-District 6 Councilmember Tina Arriola.
“I find this practice of staff, lobbying or writing letters of support for employees vying for promotions within the department not only distasteful, but frankly, inappropriate,” Arriola wrote back the same day. “While I respect the concern of MORALE, I resent the implication that unless we consider one or more staff members plea, in essence, senior staff will depart.
“Please enlighten me as to this practice, as this is not the first email alluding to an internal promotion, which not only affects Staffs future, but our citizens more importantly,” Arriola added.
It appeared that Tigbao didn’t respond to Arriola’s request for clarification. Arriola also included City Attorney Veronica Nebb and Human Resources Director Stephanie Sifuentes in her response to Tigbao.
The city council ignored Tigbao’s plea, choosing Beverli Marshall as interim city manager in April 2024.
Marshall served for about six weeks before the council tapped Andrew Murray as the new permanent city manager in late May 2024. Interestingly, Murray and Haen were the two finalists for the permanent position. Haen continues to serve as assistant city manager following Murray’s hiring.
Tigbao was originally hired as the city’s assistant public works director/city engineer in May 2018 and promoted to interim public works director in November 2021 with Terrance Davis’ elevation to interim assistant city manager. Tigbao was made the permanent public works director in April 2022.
Arriola lost her re-election bid in November 2024 to Helen-Marie Gordon.
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