by John Glidden | glid24@protonmail.com | July 6, 2026
VALLEJO – Days after Vallejo City Hall confirmed it had no plans to fill the assistant city manager position following the upcoming departure of Gillian Haen, the city has reversed course, stating that the position will be in filled.
City spokesman Robert Briseño emailed JohnGlidden.com on Monday, writing that the city wished to clarify its earlier statement about the future of Haen’s assistant city manager position.
“City leadership has not yet made plans to fill the role, as we only recently learned of Ms. Haen’s departure,” Briseño wrote. “The city will begin working on the process to fill the position.”
Last week, the city of Chico announced Haen had been hired as city manager. The Chico City Council is expected to formally approve Haen’s employment agreement on Tuesday, July 7. Under the terms, Haen will earn $285,000 per year in base salary, receive a monthly vehicle allowance of $400, and a monthly cell phone allowance of $75, while also receiving $15,000 for moving expenses, according to her employment agreement.
Haen is expected to start with Chico next month.
The city currently has two assistant city managers serving under City Manager Harry Black. Haen, who has served as assistant city manager for more than four years, currently earns an annual salary of $263,778, which is the highest step on the current assistant city manager salary scale. Meanwhile, Vallejo’s other assistant city manager, Nalungo Mwanga-Conley, is one step below Haen on the assistant city manager salary scale. Mwanga-Conley earns $251,217 annually.
Other changes at Vallejo City Hall
The anticipated departure of Haen comes weeks after city hall announced it had permanently filled the fire chief position.
Jonathan Goulding was appointed fire chief in June, after the position was filled with numerous interim appointments over the past two years following the firing of the previous fire chief in 2024.
Goulding was hired by interim City Manager Harry Black, who, himself, was hired in May following the sudden resignation of City Manager Andrew Murray.
In fact, one of Murray’s last decisions in Vallejo was the hiring of Leonard “Brad” Job began as the Vallejo’s newest public works director, who began with the city on May 4.
The city continues to have top vacancies within the finance, IT, and economic development departments, according to the city’s website.
Assistant City Manager Nalungo Mwanga-Conley continues to serve as acting finance director following the departure of Rekha Nayar last October. Nayar accepted a similar position with the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District.
The city lost its longtime Chief Innovation Officer & IT Director Naveed Ashraf in August 2025 as he accepted a similar position with the city of Fairfield. Lance David is currently serving as interim IT director.
In January, city officials announced that Brad Paul had been hired as interim economic development director.
According to the city, Paul served as deputy director and as acting director of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), and later as deputy executive director for local government services with the consolidated ABAG/Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) staff.
Vallejo has been without a permanent economic development director since early 2025 after Michael Nimon accepted a similar position with the city of Walnut Creek. Nimon was originally hired in August 2022 as special advisor to the city manager for economic development replacing Paul Kelly, who served in the position from May 2020 to June 2022. Haen served as acting economic development director between prior to Paul’s hiring.