The JL Group report shows how San Bernardino lost a city administrator and paid 800,000 US dollars

How was the name of a top leak by the city administrator's candidate -and who is responsible for cost the city of San Bernardino a settlement of $ 800,000? This question is the focus of a confidential investigative report created by the JL Group and an application for California Public Records Act.

The report describes a worrying series of events related to Steve Carrigan, the former city administrator of Salinas, who became the top candidate for San Bernardinos City Manager role in mid-2023. Although Carrigan never officially accepted or started the position, he ultimately withdrew from the recruitment process and quoted internal leaks, racistized political pressure and public opposition, which he described as “orchestrated”.

The administrative investigation – carried out by Jeff Brouwer and Jason Kravetz, Special Investigators with JL Group, and Jeff Love, lawyer, are determined several points of the collapse: Confidential materials, which was drained by a member of the council, and the investment combat, which is not deducted shortly before the Staplicats Staplicer promotion services.

Carrigan, which was contacted by the media and confronted before the public examination before the city officially announced a decision, said the situation was increasingly unstable. In the JL group report, he described this compounding print as the basis for his formal withdrawal on September 28, 2023.

Carrigan informed Frank Rojas, personnel manager for Koff & Associates, about his decision. Rojas had previously recruited Carrigan for the role of the Salinas City Manager and had continuing professional relationships with other important employees-in such a sense of the then state city manager Suzie Soren. The proximity of these relationships led some observers about the impartiality of the process.

Just four days later, on October 2, 2023, the city council of Salinas voted to end Carrigan's employment – a consequence that he believes that it was triggered by the leaks and the perceived instability that was bound with the San Bernardino recruitment process.

“We cost you your job”: Shorett and Sorens Calls to Carrigan and the Council's voice dynamics

Carrigan's testimony provided further clarity. In his interview with the investigators of the JL Group, he said that both Mayor Fred Shorett and the then state city manager called him directly called both the Mayor of Fred Shorett and the then manager of the city, Suzie Soren, after his retreat from San Bernardino's position.

According to Carrigan, Shorett said: “I'm so sorry. We cost her your job.” Carrigan remembered that Suzie Soren expressed a similar repentance and told him that it was sorry and that the situation went wrong. Carrigan interpreted both calls as sincerely, but he remained skeptical about her motivations.

Both Shorett and Soren asked Carrigan to rethink his decision to withdraw according to the interview. “Would you rethink to be the manager of San Bernardino?” They asked.

Carrigan said he was stunned by the calls and had not taken any legal steps up to this point. “My head went here – do you want to be our city manager?” He remembered. “But I also thought … they only did it to legally cover themselves.”

In the JL group report it was also found that Carrigan referred to a 5: 3 vote by the San Bernardino city council during his personal interview, which indicates a divided but favorable consensus at one point to offer him the job. Carrigan also noticed that all three “black council members” – Kimberly Calvin, Damon Alexander and Ben Reynoso – voted against his appointment. However, Carrigan explained that he was increasingly concerned after an “orchestrated” campaign formed around the public opposition to his appointment.

“There were people who had stood against me at this special council meeting, and it just felt coordinated,” Carrigan told the investigators. The report does not indicate who organized the opposition, but he realizes that Carrigan believed that the effort was not spontaneous. According to Carrigan, this moment was another turning point, which ultimately urged him to withdraw from the process.

Council member Alexander admits to leave Carrigan's public acts in public

At a crucial moment within the JL group report, the council member Damon Alexander admitted to leaving a confidential recruitment binder with the information from Carrigan at an event of public fatherhood. Alexander explained that he had brought the notebook with him so that he could study during the game. When he went, the book was on the table, where he was sitting next to Mr. Berryman.

“I brought it with me so that I could study,” said Alexander to the investigators and admitted and admitted that he accidentally let the folder on a table before he later regained and returned to the mayor's office. The content of the folder was not secured, which potentially introduced the candidate information to the members of the public.

Update – April 17, 2025

In a call to IECN on April 17, 2025, Alexander offered new information and said: “The folder went back from Ryan Berryman from San Bernardino fatherhood to the mayor, back to me. I left it on the table and it went from him to the mayor and none other.” What the book did about the book. “

Alexander also explained that he had controlled a complete forensic examination of all electronic devices from the council members. “I asked for all of our electronic objects to be submitted to the city's lawyer to be forensic – computers, laptops, personal objects such as phones – and I was ready to enter my as soon as I made the statement. I wanted to find out who the leak was.”

In a separate phone call with IECN, the former council member Ben Reynoso Alexander's application for forensic investigations and his willingness to submit devices. “Yes, Damon Alexander wanted forensic investigative efforts and he released his electronic devices in advance because all these allegations that the leak came from his left notebook,” said Reynoso. “There were easier guilty and it became a scapegoat in his folder. In a meeting, he said: 'Why do everyone come to me?”

Reynoso also alluded to his conviction that the leak was probably left in front of Alexander's binder.

Back in the investigation report, Alexander also admitted that details for closed sessions in a Facebook group appeared by an employee of the council member Kim Calvin. When asked how the information was carried out, Alexander said: “You know who you look at”, which implied that the internal council displaced. Although he did not call anyone directly, his remarks were interpreted as a testimony to Treasure Ortiz, now as a member of the council who had previously been accused of having passed information – a reproach that the report in question.

Racial frames: “You wanted someone who looked like it.”

According to Carrigan, the tensions were already running in Salinas before his release. He told the investigators that some members of the Salinas city council wanted to hire a Latino candidate.

“They wanted someone who looked like them,” said Carrigan. Days after his retreat from San Bernardino, the city council of Salinas was publicly – in the middle of rumors and obvious leaks through the Sentinel.

Despite Carrigans E -Mail to the San Bernardino officials on September 28, 2023, the city council of San Bernardino, who had decided to stay in Salinas and later voted for approval of an agreement of 800,000 US dollars without admitting misconduct.

Metadata show internal changes to Soren before the Council votes

Further information on the topic contained in the reaction of the public recording law of the city of San Bernardino show that the then urban city manager Suzie Soren on the investigation report of the JL group on August 7, 2024 has accessed the city council of San Bernardino in a closed meeting.

The document activity protocols show that Soren was the last person who changed the report before his distribution to the Council. While the specific type of changes it has not been described in the released materials, the time of changes has expressed significant concerns about the independence and reliability of the investigation to justify the billing of 800,000 US dollars to Steve Carrigan.

“Residents have friends from the inside,” a city source told IECN. “And they want better for San Bernardino.”

Calvin and Ortiz may have been falsely held responsible

So far, a large part of the guilt for the Carrigan Leck was held on the council members Kimberly Calvin and Treasure Ortiz. The report of the JL group, together with the admission of council member Damon Alexander, that he left Carrigan's confidential binder at a public event, emphasizes that the leak comes from other sources within the city – not from the two previously accused council members.

Overall, the report draws a picture of systemic failure to protect confidential information. Nevertheless, the suspicion was largely aimed at Calvin and Ortiz, both of which seem to be in a broader collapse of internal accountability.

Constitutional concerns about the payment

As already reported by IECN, the former city councilor Kimberly Calvin California Constitution Article XVI, Section 6 – forbids public funds – when he criticized the city's decision to settle with Carrigan.

“Every sitting council member at this moment, the public prosecutor, the city clerk and many employees were the wrongly authorized and edited report, who was created on behalf of Steve Carrigan,” said Calvin during a meeting of the council meeting in March 2024.

Carrigan did not sign a contract and started working in San Bernardino. Nevertheless, the council voted 5: 1 for approval of the comparison in the closed session. Only council member Sandra Ibarra was disapproved; Calvin was absent in the vote.

What's next?

With revelations of internal negligence, improper changes and non -authorized contact between police authorities, residents and legal analysts are based on the basis for the agreement of 800,000 US dollars – and whether Carrigan's entitlement would have been successful in court.

“The council voted to pass on 800,000 US dollars to someone who did not earn our money,” said a reliable source. “And now we know the truth.”

After the publication, Bill Gallardo acts as an interim city manager of San Bernardino, and the city is in the middle of a nationwide search for a permanent replacement. In view of the results of the JL group report, this moment offers a critical opportunity for council members and employees of the city to restore integrity and discipline. If the attitude process progresses, the maintenance of strict confidentiality and shielding of candidates from public and political interference should remain a top priority.

The full report we received is attached below.