Vallejo City Council to meet in closed again to review mayor’s ‘demand’ for legal defense

by John Glidden | glid24@protonmail.com | June 8, 2026

VALLEJO – For the third time since mid-April, the Vallejo City Council will meet in closed session to discuss a “demand” by Mayor Andrea Sorce for “Defense Counsel, Indemnification, Litigation Hold.”

The closed session meeting is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Monday night (June 8).

Little is known about the request from the mayor. Sorce didn’t immediately answer a request for comment sent over the weekend by JohnGlidden.com. Also, last week, city spokesman Robert Briseño declined to provide any additional information about the item.

“Thank you for your inquiry,” Briseño told JohnGlidden.com in an email. “The city has no additional comment regarding that item at this time.”

In fact, the only comment on this topic came from City Attorney Vernoica Nebb prior to the council’s closed session meeting on April 14, the first time the item showed up before the council.

Typically, Nebb, from the dais, officially reads out each agenda item the council is set to discuss in closed session. For the April 14 closed session agenda, there were seven items, with Sorce’s request being last on the agenda.

When Nebb reached the mayor’s item, she declined to read the following text: “Mayor’s Demand for Defense Counsel/Indemnification/Litigation Hold,” instead stating “I cannot speak to the facts.”

The city is required to publicly provide information on any actions taken by the council in closed session, a task Nebb normally handles. However, during the open session meeting on April 14, Councilman Peter Bregenzer reported out on the mayor’s “demand,” while Nebb read out the outcomes of the other closed session items.

Bregenzer said the council “gave direction,” on Sorce’s “demand.”

When the item returned before the council in its May 28 closed session. The city attorney’s seat was empty as City Clerk Dawn Abrahamson read out the closed session agenda.

On Monday’s agenda, there are two mentions of the mayor’s “demand,” suggesting there may be more than one case.

Fueling speculation about the mayor’s “demand,” is a separate open session meeting on Monday in which the council will be asked to approve an agreement with an outside legal firm to investigate a personnel complaint.

“The city received a personnel complaint which necessitates an outside investigator to conduct an investigation,” city officials wrote in a staff report.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the two items are related.