Tanner not a resident; breaks rule
Vallejo bankruptcy plans hurting schools, district officials say
By JESSICA A. YORK/Times-Herald staff writer
July 29, 2008
Vallejo's city manager is in apparent breach of the residency requirements set forth in his three-year contract and the city charter.
Pleasant Hill resident Joseph M. Tanner, who has been leading the city since January 2007, was given a year to "establish permanent residency within Vallejo city limits," his contract states.
A clause allowing for "prevailing market conditions" to impede the sale of his current home provides an extension up to July 8.
The charter says a city manager "need not when appointed be a resident of the city or state, but shall become a resident of the city within 90 days after the appointment, and remain a resident during his/her tenure."
Tanner said Monday that residency provisions are unenforceable, according to legal advice he received from the city attorney. Asked if he intends to comply with the requirement anyway, Tanner said he did not know.
Staff from the city attorney's office did not return calls Monday.
City Councilwoman Erin Hannigan, elected in November, said she is concerned that Tanner is not complying with either his contract or the charter.
She said decisions really "hit home" when a person lives in the city he or she runs. Hannigan said she would also like to see Tanner receive performance evaluations, as are stipulated in his contract.
Councilwoman Joanne Schivley said residency requirements are not enforceable under state code, and she declined to speculate on why the provision was placed in Tanner's contract.
"I'd like for all of our employees to live in the city," Schivley said. "But that is not something that can be required under California law."
Other council members, including Mayor Osby Davis, did not return phone calls asking about Tanner's residency.
The city manager has recently been the target of a series of newspaper advertising citing a "secret" pay raise dating back to May 2007. The information in the full-page advertisement uses information distributed by the city's employee unions. The ads do not name who paid for them, but readers are directed to a Web site sponsored by a "coalition of Vallejo city employees" and a so-called Coalition Against Unnecessary Bankruptcy.
The city and unions are at odds as Vallejo progresses through Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings with a plan to throw out union employee contracts set to expire in 2010.
Union representatives say Tanner accepted a raise five months after taking his position, at nearly the same time he was calling for cutbacks in city expenditures. Tanner called the advertisements "just nasty."
"This massive pay increase to Vallejo's top manager, when he was calling for cuts to city services, is part of the disturbing pattern of poor decision-making that led to the bankruptcy," union attorney Dean Gloster said in a release.
The release does not delve into how union employees' own contracts have affected the city's fiscal status.
Schivley said Tanner did not receive a pay increase. Instead, the city shifted his deferred compensation to W-2 wages, Schivley said.
Acting Assistant Human Resources Director Debora Boutt\é agreed, saying the change had no fiscal impact on the city.
In March that year, Tanner was supposed to start receiving retirement benefits. To comply with California Public Employees Retirement System mandates, the council authorized Boutt\é to adjust the contract language, with former Mayor Tony Intintoli's final approval, Boutt\é said.
Items like Tanner's car allowance, management leave and annual leave credit were converted into salary, an updated March 8, 2007 contract shows.
In a past interview, Councilman Tom Bartee acknowledged that Tanner was receiving a high salary but cited the relatively high number of managers that Vallejo has employed in recent years. There have been about nine, including interims, in the past dozen years. Tanner was hired at $18,000 more than Roger Kemp, the man he replaced.
