Separate reports point to misconduct by former city manager, current mayor
Newly released documents claim Tom Williams charged personal legal fees to city, among other actions
MILPITAS >> Newly released investigative documents shed more light on the alleged financial and intimidation misconduct of former Milpitas City Manager Tom Williams, who resigned in September just as the City Council was about to fire him.
Meanwhile, a separate batch of documents obtained by this news organization suggest Milpitas Mayor Rich Tran made age-based comments against Williams and other city employees and likely “engaged in conduct of a sexual nature” with a department head at a holiday party.
Williams violated multiple city policies when he paid his personal attorney’s fees with a city-issued credit card, ignored a council directive to stay away from the city’s finance department, intimidated employees, and lied to an investigator probing his actions, according to a city-commissioned investigation.
Williams’ actions are detailed in a 95-page report by Roseville-based ARI Investigations that the city requested in May 2017 and was completed that August.
The report is just one of hundreds of pages of documents involving allegations of poor performance and misconduct by Williams. The city withheld the documents from this and other news organizations after Williams obtained a court restraining order last year to prevent their release. But Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Sunil
Kulkarni ruled on May 25 the documents were public records.
The ARI report said Williams charged $7,000 in personal attorney’s fees to a city credit card in March 2017 as he considered suing the city and Mayor Rich Tran for age discrimination and harassment.
The next month, Williams tried to bill the city an additional $30,000 in legal fees and was rejected by the finance department. He later reimbursed the city the original $7,000 after being “confronted” by the city attorney, the report says.
Williams told an investigator he believed charging expenses to the city was justified because attorneys at San Francisco firm Ad Astra Law Group would be
representing him, the city and other city employees who had complained about Tran’s behavior.
But the ARI report challenged Williams’ contention, stating that email exchanges between him and his attorney “clearly indicated Mr. Williams was aware that the law firm represented his personal interests and not the City of Milpitas or its employees.”
On May 12, 2017, the City Council sent a memo to Williams directing him to stay away from the city’s finance department, among other orders. But three days later, Williams went there and began to “aggressively question” an employee about the city’s credit card policy, according to the report.
Williams was described
as “agitated and forceful” by four witnesses, who also told the investigator that Williams stood behind and placed his hands on the employee’s shoulders while telling that person to write him an email “attempting to invalidate the city’s credit card manual,” the report says.
A separate city-commissioned report found fault with Mayor Tran’s conduct. It says he “more likely than not … made age-based comments to Mr. Williams and other city employees,” some of which Williams documented in his personal notes.
That report, obtained by this news organization, was not part of the documents ordered released by the judge. It says “more likely than not, Mayor Tran engaged in conduct of a sexual nature” when he hugged a city department head at a holiday party in December 2016 and asked another employee if he or she (the name was redacted) had any single friends.
That investigation — conducted by Danville-based Kramer Workplace Investigations — began in May 2017 and ended in November of that year. However, the city has not divulged it or made any public statements about it to date.
Asked on Thursday why the city has been silent about the report, Vice Mayor Marsha Grilli said the council was following legal advice from the city attorney to not speak publicly about it, even though it has been a topic of discussion in multiple closed council sessions.
Neither Grilli nor Councilman Bob Nuñez would comment about any potential actions against the mayor as a result of the report.
But Nuñez acknowledged he thinks the council needs to “say something” to the public about the Kramer report, “and my hope is that we do that sooner than later.”
In separate interviews Thursday, Williams and Tran both said the respective reports into their behavior are politically motivated.
Tran said the Kramer report is “a nasty political move by those that are opposing my transparency,” orchestrated by Williams and timed to come out in the year he’s seeking reelection.
“Tom Williams has been known to target his opponents’ weaknesses,” Tran said. “And I’m a young, friendly mayor.”
Tran said he denies ever discriminating against Williams over his age. He also said there was nothing sexual about the “side hug” he gave the department head, and his comment about single friends was a joke.
Williams said he hired the law firm to respond to Tran’s comments because City Attorney Chris Diaz knew about the allegations against Tran for months and “did nothing.”
Calling the ARI report a “hatchet job” against him designed to protect Diaz’s reputation, Williams said the city should also release information about his years of excellent performance reviews to show fairness.
“I would never, ever ever abuse city funds. … I would never do it,” he said.
“It’s been blown of proportion, and it’s unfortunate,” Williams added. “It’s just an unfortunate political mess.”
Williams has been trying to arbitrate with the city to collect $1 million in alleged damage from the dispute.
Williams was hired in April by Millbrae, his home city, as its interim city manager until February 2019.
Grilli said she’s happy the lawsuit holding back documents was dismissed so the public can now see them.
“I think that knowing the truth is a way for the city to also heal … from the chaos,” she said. “We owe the public the truth.”