The exterior of Milpitas City Hall
Milpitas City Hall is pictured in this file photo.

An ousted Milpitas city manager wants the former mayor to be penalized for failing to show up for a deposition prior to a court hearing.

Former City Manager Steve McHarris filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Milpitas in December 2023, accusing city officials of intimidation and unethical behavior — including from former Mayor Rich Tran and current Mayor Carmen Montano. As part of the pretrial process, witness depositions take place outside the court where they answer questions under oath. These depositions help attorneys prepare for what the witnesses will say in court.

However, Tran did not respond to several attempts by McHarris’ lawyer to question him. McHarris’ lawyer, Stephen Jaffe, filed a motion earlier this month requesting the court penalize Tran for obstructing the pretrial process.

“Tran is the most critical witness affiliated with the defendant and is the principal actor behind the allegations of wrongdoing made in plaintiff’s complaint,” Jaffe wrote in the filing. “Indeed, to illustrate how probative and relevant Tran’s testimony is to this case, the factual allegations in plaintiff’s complaint recite Tran’s name 62 times.”

Tran could not be reached for comment.

To penalize Tran, Jaffe is asking the Santa Clara County Superior Court to remove Tran’s response to the lawsuit, leaving him with no defense statements, and have the court officially declare Tran has lost the case due to a failure to respond in a timely manner.

In addition, the filing claims Tran lied about his whereabouts as an excuse to not show up for a deposition. Tran claimed he was traveling internationally and unavailable on Dec. 23, the date of his deposition. But he was playing pickleball in Milpitas on Christmas, according to the filing.

“Such obvious dishonesty from the former elected Mayor of the defendant city surely justifies the most extreme consequence,” Jaffe wrote.

Jaffe and McHarris declined to comment.

In November, the court granted Milpitas a protective order that bars Harris and Jaffe from releasing information gained during pretrial to the public.

“The city has every reason to believe that (Jaffe) will continue to utilize his contacts with the media to disseminate confidential material to gain any advantage he can,” attorneys with Meyers Nave, the law firm representing the city, said in a motion. “This misuse of the discovery process has imposed a substantial burden on the city and its employees who have a right to privacy.”
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The city has denied any wrongdoing in regards to McHarris’ accusation of its unethical behavior, and hired an outside law firm to conduct its own investigation into the issues.

McHarris served as city manager from May 2020 to June 2023, when the Milpitas City Council voted him out. McHarris is the third city manager to be let go since 2017.

McHarris publicly accused Milpitas administrators of a hostile work environment in a claim filed May 2023, detailing instances of intimidation against himself and other city employees. McHarris also claims Tran and Montano pressured him to fire an employee without a reason. When McHarris resisted, he felt he was retaliated against.

Former Councilmember Anthony Phan, who wanted to keep McHarris, previously said City Hall fell apart after his departure.

“There’s been a mass staff exodus, from the entry level to the very top executive team level,” Phan previously told San José Spotlight. “I think it’s a testament to the kind of eroded trust that people have in city leadership.”

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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