Former city manager sues Santa Clara, claims scrutiny of 49ers led to her firing
In the lawsuit against the city filed Thursday, Deanna Santana accused the so-called '49ers Five' of orchestrating a campaign of intimidation to prevent her from 'blowing the whistle' on suspected legal violations involving the city and 49ers.
At one point, the lawsuit claimed, the city even hired an unknown person to conduct surveillance on her and her family when they were on a weekend trip to their vacation home in Pacific Grove.
Santana, who served as city manager from 2017 until her 2022 firing, reported the alleged surveillance to police, 'who said they feared for her safety,' according to the complaint. The incident caused her and her family to suffer 'extreme fear, stress, anxiety, insomnia and health consequences," she complained.
Soon thereafter, Santana told the council 49ers President Al Guido had potentially illegal conflicts of interest in connection with the team's effort to bring World Cup soccer matches to publicly owned Levi's Stadium. Two days later, she was fired.
The council's rationale for firing Santana was a 'lack of confidence' in her, according to actions passed on the day of her dismissal. Mayor Lisa Gillmor had said she believed the 49ers wanted Santana fired because of her suggestion Guido had conflicts of interest involving the World Cup bid. Guido and the 49ers have denied wrongdoing.
Thursday's lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, said her firing was orchestrated by council member Anthony Becker, leader of the 49ers' bloc. Becker was convicted of perjury last year and lost his council seat in connection with election improprieties involving a 49ers lobbyist.
A Santa Clara spokesperson declined comment, beyond acknowledging the city has been 'engaged in ongoing settlement negotiations' with Santana and her attorneys.
After she was fired, Santana contends the city failed to comply with her termination agreement, withholding promised severance pay and even meddling with her CalPERS pension to deprive her of benefits.
The lawsuit doesn't specify how much money is at stake in the dispute. As city manager, Santana was paid about $469,000 per year, according to the Openpayrolls website. She is now acting city manager of Milpitas.
Many of the lawsuit's allegations concerning the 49ers and the City Council were first contained in a 2022 civil grand jury investigative report called 'Unsportsmanlike Conduct.' The watchdog agency rebuked pro-49ers officials, saying they 'put the 49ers' interests ahead of the city's interests.'
The report also praised Santana and Gillmor for raising 'financial, safety and ethical concerns' about the city's relationship with the team.
Santana, a former Oakland city administrator, came to Santa Clara when the council was dominated by 49ers critics. She led a move to replace the 49ers with an independent stadium management company, saying she feared the city was being short-changed on revenue from concerts and other non-NFL events at the stadium.
The effort infuriated the 49ers, and in 2020 then-CEO Jed York (now owner) spent $2.9 millionto elect a team-friendly council majority. The new council dropped efforts to replace the 49ers as stadium manager and fired city attorney Brian Doyle, who had defended the city in a series of lawsuits brought by the team.
The new council members also began complaining Santana was overpaid and rebuked her, often in sharply personal terms. At one point, council member Kevin Park referred to her as a "dog," the suit says.
The allegations about surveillance appear related to a Jan. 26, 2022 article posted on a news website called San Jose Inside. The story accused Santana of being overpaid and reported that she and her husband had just bought the Pacific Grove home.
The post was illustrated with a photo of the home, with Santana's car in the driveway. Both the story and photo were attributed to a writer named Alexander Cicak.
Days later, the website re-posted the story, replacing the photo of Santana's house with a photo (credited to Cicak)of a public beach. The website soon re-posted the story yet again, this time removing the writer's name from both the byline and photo credits.
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