By Dianne Anderson

Speculation abounds as to how former white candidate Steven Carrigan for San Bernardino City Manager could have assumed he was not hired because, among other allegations, racial discrimination against him.

Some think he may have thought the preferred candidate for the job – who was surnamed Black and happened to be African American, that any references of “Black is the most qualified” were misconstrued.

But a bigger concern for community members is Carrigan’s claim against the city only names Black people for speaking out about his lack of qualifications.

Alton Garrett, president of Westside Action Group, feels that it could have a chilling effect on the Black community in the long run from carrying out their civic duty.

At this point, Garrett said everyone should be disturbed, that blaming Black people in the claim is without merit.

“There were not only Black people that spoke at the meeting. There were Brown people too, but they don’t bring up the Brown people as saying anything,” he said. “One of the individuals said he wanted a Latino, but Black people never said we wanted a Black person for this job.”

The city contracted JL Group, LLC to investigate, but Garret stressed that the only people interviewed were city hires, current and some former councilmembers, including Frank Rojas from recruitment firm Koff & Associates. Carrigan claims he was contacted by Rojas to apply for the city manager job, and later informed him that he had landed the job.

Carrigan pulled his application with San Bernardino two days before he was to be hired, and contends the city outed him with his then-employer as Salinas City Manager. By then, the claim states the leak reached Salinas about his job-hunting plans, and they didn’t want him back to work.

“He outed himself. I think the question needs to be asked, who outed who? Because Rojas wanted him to get the job,” Garrett said.

In a recent letter to the District Attorney, Garrett requested an investigation of the alleged leak in a closed session. He hopes San Bernardino doesn’t settle the claim, but rather allow it to go to court to prove that Black advocates speaking out are being wrongly blamed.

Most of all, he questions the true source of the leaks.

“In my letter, I asked how did Rojas know that Carrigan was the number one [candidate]?” Garrett said. “How could Rojas call him and tell him that he was ahead if Rojas wasn’t in that closed session meeting?”

Carrigan seeks over $2.2 million. His claim, filed November 30, 2023, says that, among several allegations, the city damaged his reputation.

But Carrigan’s reputation preceded him with several widely reported news sources from 2020 when he faced multiple concerns, and was then terminated as Merced City Manager in a 6-1 City Council vote.

Locally his claim against San Bernardino says, “two of the three Council Members who did not vote to extend an employment offer to Carrigan are African American and they wanted the other candidate, who is African American. In addition to the foregoing information, other confidential closed-session information was released in violation of the Brown Act.”

The African American candidate pulled his application because of a name leak.

The claim states at the August 28, 2023, closed session council meeting, there was a large group of African Americans attending that spoke out against Carrigan’s potential appointment.

“Seven of the ten speakers that spoke against Carrigan’s candidacy are African American. One or more members of The CITY orchestrated this effort to squash Carrigan’s candidacy because Carrigan is not the correct, favored race (Black),” the claim says.

Long-time community advocate, Carolyn Tillman, recently returned from vacation and learned that she and others are implicated because they spoke out about Carrigan, not because he was white, but because he came with historical professional baggage.

She said no one tried to contact her from the investigative team to interview her.

“My comments were all related to Carrigan’s lack of character as found on Google search about his various problems in the cities where he was at,” she said. “I just thought the city needed to do a better search for a better candidate than who they were selecting.”

She said the backlash against the Black community is a form of disenfranchisement.

“I didn’t even know that Mr. Black was Black. I just don’t understand how it got to this point. The city has to defend itself, but why put that on seven Black people who showed up because the man they were going to hire legitimately has a questionable background,” she said.

Another unusual aspect of the case is that Carrigan got the job with San Bernardino City, she said, because he is the one who turned it down.

That following month in September, Charles Montoya, the current City Manager, got the job. Tillman and several others also then spoke against Montoya’s questionable qualifications and work history.

Former Sixth Ward Councilman Rikke Van Johnson, a long-time WAG member, said the city-hired investigative firm concluded its findings, siding with Carrigan about a leak by a Black Councilmember from closed session.

In its report, Johnson said JL Group LLC mentions a preponderance of evidence pointing to Councilmember Kim Calvin as the leak, but it never specifies the so-called evidence.

However, the report noted, “At that meeting CM Calvin asserted that the investigation was not thorough and failed to identify others who she alleges leaked confidential information. She made allegations that specific police department officials, a City Commissioner, members of the City Attorney’s Office and other individuals had leaked confidential information.”

Johnson said it is not unusual for a city to settle this kind of claim instead of going to court. Typically, cities agree to spend a certain amount of money if no one is deemed guilty.

Yet even with that kind of move, he said the Black community is being scapegoated and falsely disparaged.

“Actually, Black [the candidate] was head and shoulders above Carrigan, but Black’s name got released back to his city, that’s why he pulled the application,” he said. “WAG does not want to city to settle this lawsuit with him [Carrigan] and give away money for bogus reasons.”

To see the August 28, 2023, San Bernardino City Closed Session Meeting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCq393XJydE

To see the claim,

https://bit.ly/3Wp6VXh

To see the JL Group LLC investigation,

https://www.sbcity.org/news/whats_new/council_releases_results_of_investigation