by John Glidden | glid24@protonmail.com | April 25, 2026
VALLEJO – The Vallejo City Council is set to name Harry Black as Vallejo’s interim city manager on Tuesday, April 28. Black, who most recently served as Stockton’s city manager, will begin in Vallejo on May 16, according to a staff report released on Saturday, April 25.
According to the employment terms, Black will earn a base annual salary of $340,432. He will also earn a $500/month auto allowance, and a $3,000/month housing allowance. The staff report states that there is no set of term length for the contract. “However, it is assumed by both Parties that Black’s employment as Interim City Manager shall end once a regular City Manager assumes that office, or unless terminated earlier by either Party in accordance with the provisions of this agreement,” according to information in the staff report.
Black’s hiring comes after Vallejo announced on April 8 that City Manager Andrew Murray would be leaving the city following just two years at city hall. On Murray’s last day with Vallejo, April 16, the city announced that both assistant city managers, Gillian Haen and Nalungo Conley would rotate every two weeks as “acting” city manager until the council named an interim chief executive. In that same announcement, officials said the council “expressed its intent to defer the selection of a permanent City Manager until after the November election.” However, not a week later, the city issued a rare correction walking back the statement about when a permanent city manager would be hired.
When it came to selecting an interim city manager, officials said in the staff report that the council sought “someone with seasoned operational expertise, high ethical standards, and swift, decisive leadership, who could assess the organization, establish best practices for a modern municipality, and who could come in and implement needed changes throughout the organization to ensure our success.”
Officials further outlined the timeline following Murray’s departure, stating that members of the city council, and the human resources director, “reached out to professional networks, to obtain referrals for highly qualified Interim City Manager candidates that would match Vallejo’s current needs.”
The city received interest from four candidates with the council interviewing three of the candidates during an April 20 closed session.
Black is no stranger to the CEO seat as he served for five years as Stockton’s city manager for five years before resigning in lieu of termination without cause in January of this year. Prior to his time in Stockton, Black served as Cincinnati’s city manager from September 2014 to April 2018 and as chief financial officer for the cities of Baltimore (2012 to 2014), and Richmond, Virginia (2005 to 2008), according to his LinkedIn profile.
Black will earn about $37,000 more than Murray’s $303,000 annual salary. During his two years in Vallejo, Murray never received a salary bump and was surpassed in annual base salary by Vallejo Police Jason Ta in July 2025. Ta became the highest paid city employee, by base salary after the city’s unpresented employees received a five percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), pushing his annual base salary to $309,484.66.
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