A judge has ordered the city of Stockton to pay nearly $2.3 million to former City Manager Kurt Wilson after a jury trial into his lawsuit alleging breach of contract and violations of California’s open-meetings law.
The City Council ousted Wilson by a 6-0 vote in July 2019, saying he had broken his contract by using city time to pursue other career ambitions. Court documents filed by Stockton’s lawyers at the time alleged that earlier that year, Wilson had used city business hours to complete a seven-week police academy training in Southern California.
The “city alleges Wilson breached the contract, by spending egregious amounts of time doing projects unrelated to his employment as the city manager during working hours,” the documents said. Wilson’s contract required him to “devote his entire productive time, ability and attention to the business of” the city, they stated, according to reporting by Stocktonia…