Council announces pick for new attorney
City pushes back 'stingray' discussion
The Vallejo City Council announced Veronica Nebb as its selection for new city attorney and discussed how upcoming ballot Measure G might be spent should it be approved by voters during Tuesday’s meeting.
Nebb is currently the assistant city attorney in Martinez and Novato, according to the bio on her page from the law firm of Walter & Pistole.
The city is offering her a contract and should it be adopted, a formal announcement of her position will be released. Nebb would replace retired Claudia Quintana, who stepped down in April.
The meeting began with a moment of silence and remembrance of Vallejo resident and “real estate icon” Fred Sessler,” who died on Oct. 7 at the age of 94. “He was a delightf ul gentleman,” said Mayor Bob Sampayan, adding that Sessler would often stop in to say hello to him and was always a pleasure to speak with.
The mayor offered a proclamation celebrating Filipino-American History Month, outlining a brief history of Filipinos in California and Solano County, pointing out that Filipino-Americans in Vallejo make up the majority of Asian and Pacific Islander residents in the county. He also acknowledged realtor Verna Mustico for her appointment as a Lifetime Member to the Vallejo Chamber of Commerce, an entity she has been involved with for over forty years, he said.
On the agenda for the evening was a discussion of the controversial cell-site simulator— AKA a “stingray”— that the police department would like to use to track cell phone activity and pinpoint the area of a given phone’s usage.
The simulator collects “pings” similar to that of a cell phone tower. Some residents are concerned that the use of the device raises serious privacy and Fourth Amendment issues, and a judge has tentatively ruled that the city
shirked its duty to create a privacy policy about the stingray before agreeing to purchase it.
The discussion had been moved from Oct. 27 of this month up to Tuesday’s meeting, but was again placed back on the Oct. 27 agenda so that privacy groups and others have more time to review it further.
During public comment, two residents expressed their displeasure with the police department and its current controversy involving alleged “bent badges” that denoted officer- involved shootings of suspects and badges that reportedly have portrayed a swastika. One woman also said that the gag order placed on the Sean Monterrosa case was “shameful” and “just another in a long series of efforts from the city to silence the public.”
Monterrosa was fatally shot by police on June 2 of
this year in front of a Walgreens.
Finally, the council discussed upcoming ballot Measure G, which would add a three- quarter of a cent sales tax (excluding groceries) and is expected to generate $12 million annually.
The money would not be officially earmarked for anything specific, so opponents of the measure fear that the revenue could end up going to bail out the city’s pension problems, for example.
In order to curtail this, City Manager Greg Nyhoff called for a polling of citizens to ask what issues they see as the most important for Vallejo and would most like to see done with the money.
The results were — police transparency and accountability, mental health crisis response, community policing enhancement, racial equity measures, maintaining police and fire response times, dealing with the economic effects of COCVID-19, addressing homelessness, reaching out to youth, re
opening the Glen Cove fire station, and job training and apprenticeship, as well as job retention.
Nyhoff would like to see a citizens advisory board created to oversee the use of Measure G funds and he also wanted the council to adopt the resolution recommending that the money be spent on the above issues. The money will be treated like a general tax, so there will still not be any official requirement for it to be spent as such, according to Interim City Attorney Randy Risner, which prompted Robert McConnell to say “that pretty much makes it meaningless, in my opinion.”
Nevertheless, the resolution was adopted, with the idea that an oversight committee will be created and could effectively monitor how the money is being spent.
The next council meeting takes place on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m.
Meetings are streamed live on the City of Vallejo website.