Vallejo city leaders apologized and said they will consider hiring a citywide equity officer in response to public outcry over the absence of Black residents on a recent police chief interview panel.
City Manager Andrew Murray said during a Tuesday night Vallejo City Council meeting that the community’s response to the bungled interview process “identified a blind spot for me, as well as, I think, an organizational blind spot.” Open Vallejo revealed the city’s failure to ensure Black participation on the community panel earlier this month, sparking concern from residents that reached the California Department of Justice.
Although he initially dismissed concerns about the issue, Murray thanked community members for their feedback during Tuesday’s meeting and said he “failed the community.” The police chief hiring process was designed with good intentions but “frankly, missed the mark,” he said.
“It wasn’t thoroughly enough planned and it didn’t have enough contingencies to make sure that it was fail-safe,” Murray said. “I’ve learned an awful lot about how simply following some things off of the bookshelf as standard best practices sometimes need to be better customized.”
Three panels, including one with community members, interviewed six candidates for Vallejo Police Chief on Sept. 6 and provided Murray with feedback ahead of his momentous decision. The representative from District 2, who is Black, did not attend the interviews due to a personal emergency, according to a statement from the city. Staff and recruiters then failed to contact the alternate panelist, saying there was “insufficient time.”
The idea to hire an equity officer originated with several community members, including Jasmine Salmeron, the whistleblower who came forward with concerns about the interview panel’s lack of equity and representation. On Tuesday night, she asked the city to staff a new equity and ethics position to audit city processes, publicly report findings, and advise the council on policy. Salmeron said the equity officer should report directly to the city council, which would put the position on par with the city manager and city attorney within the municipal hierarchy.
The city manager appeared open to such an initiative, saying he would consider developing a diversity, equity, and inclusion plan, and hiring a part- or full-time staff position. Mayor Robert McConnell and Vice Mayor Mina Loera-Diaz appeared to embrace the idea.
“I support that 100 percent and I would hope that my colleagues up here would support that too, because in the city with the population that we have, we need to make sure that everybody’s voice is heard,” she said, adding that she would like to see the matter agendized “as soon as possible.”
During public comment on Tuesday night, Salmeron’s daughter, 17-year-old Azelya Alonzo, stepped up to the lectern with a message for the city manager that was met with loud applause. Alonzo said Murray’s messages in recent days displayed “harmful, racist ideologies.”
“I stand here today to remind you and everyone in this room listening that this community will not be silenced,” Alonzo said. “We won’t sit quietly while our concerns are dismissed or our unity is questioned. We will continue to fight for what is right and for what is just, and for what every person in this city deserves: respect, dignity, and equity.”
Sharon McGriff-Payne, a former newspaper reporter and the author of two books about Vallejo’s African American history, spoke out immediately after Open Vallejo first reported on the city’s blunder. On social media, she urged people to share their concerns with local officials and the state Department of Justice, which is engaged in an ongoing police reform effort in Vallejo.
Members of the state DOJ met with Murray last week and shared concerns that the agency had received from the Vallejo community, according to the city. That conversation appears to have influenced Murray’s decision to convene a second community panel, according to reporting by the Vallejo Times Herald.
On Tuesday night, Payne spoke before Murray and the city council, telling them that the incident reminded her of Vallejo in the 1960s.
“We are repeating bad history. We have no business doing that,” she said. “We are in 2024 and we should be moving ahead.”
Perhaps even more hurtful than the omission of Black residents from the interview panel, she said, was the response from the city’s leaders. Murray “shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘Let’s move on,’” Payne said. “And then there was the silence from all of our city council members.”
In his first public comment on the issue, Mayor Robert McConnell on Tuesday night apologized to the community, calling the incident “a mistake.” He called for a more structured process of appointing panelists for important interviews, noting that under California’s Brown Act, council members cannot discuss their selections as a group outside of a noticed meeting.
As diversity, equity, and inclusion offices come under fire in Texas and other states, the practice is not uncommon among Bay Area cities. The City of Benicia hired a part-time Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Manager in 2021 at the direction of the City Council. Last year, Contra Costa County appointed two co-directors to lead an Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice. The City of Hayward employs an Equity & Inclusion Officer, Albany has an Equity Impact Plan, and Oakland staffs a four-person Race & Equity department.
Vallejo will now convene a 10-person community panel to interview three finalists and provide additional feedback to Murray, who will ultimately select the city’s next police chief.
The city manager asked each city council member to nominate eight people for the new panel. From their recommendations, Murray said he plans to choose a racially, ethnically, and geographically diverse group of people. The panel will also include two representatives from the NAACP Vallejo Branch, which met Tuesday with the city manager but appears to have been excluded from earlier community outreach efforts.
City council members encouraged residents who wish to serve on the panel to contact them directly.
