Former Vallejo City Manager Greg Nyhoff, who left the city following allegations of corruption and a string of high-profile incidents involving Vallejo police, has been hired as the acting chief executive of a small city in northeast Texas.
The Mount Pleasant City Council selected Nyhoff as interim city manager for the community of roughly 16,000 people on May 28, public records show. He started work the next day. The council unanimously approved his contract, which was not immediately available, at a meeting on June 4.
Flanked by his son and a local pastor, Nyhoff addressed Mount Pleasant council and community members at the June meeting. He said he moved with his family to a small town in the countryside near Mount Pleasant about two years ago. Although he was “not looking for a job,” Nyhoff said he consulted with his pastor about the interim city manager opening.
Nyhoff did not respond to a request for comment.
Mount Pleasant’s former city manager, Ed Thatcher, stepped down in May after more than four years in the role, according to city council meeting minutes.
Nyhoff served as Vallejo City Manager from January 2018 to July 2021. He abruptly resigned amid several mounting scandals. The Vallejo City Council voted to pay Nyhoff a severance worth nearly $600,000.
Several months before his departure, three former Vallejo employees sued Nyhoff and other city officials in Solano County Superior Court for wrongful termination and other alleged harms. The complaint alleged that Nyhoff engaged in “improper, unethical, corrupt, and illegal conduct” and fostered a hostile work environment rife with discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
The plaintiffs accused Nyhoff of firing them for raising concerns about his handling of a major development deal on Vallejo’s historic Mare Island shipyard, according to the complaint. They allege that Nyhoff renegotiated the land deal in favor of the private developer and to the city’s detriment.
The city reached a $1 million settlement earlier this year with Joanna Altman, a former Vallejo assistant city manager, but appears headed to trial against the two other plaintiffs, Slater Matzke and Will Morat, who also worked in senior roles under Nyhoff.
Nyhoff’s tenure in Vallejo was also marked by turmoil in the police department. In July 2020 this newsroom revealed a longstanding tradition in which officers bent their star-shaped badges to commemorate shootings.
Former Vallejo Capt. John Whitney raised concerns about the badge-bending ritual and other misconduct with Nyhoff and former police chief Andrew Bidou, according to a lawsuit he filed against the city later that year. Both officials failed to investigate the practice and instead terminated Whitney in retaliation for speaking out about problems within the department, the former captain alleged. The city of Vallejo settled Whitney’s lawsuit for nearly $1 million last September.
The following month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Vallejo to impose sweeping reforms on the city’s police department, leading to a historic settlement earlier this year.
At the June Mount Pleasant City Council meeting, Nyhoff said his priorities include better understanding the city administration and crafting a municipal budget.
“This is our home now and what better way to feel like I can help,” he said. “For me, I believe that I’m supposed to be here with you all, and only through God’s grace will I be able to really do a good job for you.”
