By EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
Eugene Whitlock, who got $2.28 million to quietly resign as HR chief of the San Mateo County Community College District, went to the District Attorney with information that led to a criminal investigation of his then boss, Chancellor Ron Galatolo.
Whitlock was interviewed by DA investigators on April 17, 2019.
Nine days later, on April 26, 2019, Whitlock was fired, and he began negotiating his severance package.
Four months later, Galatolo stepped down after 20 years as chancellor. And two weeks after that the DA confirmed that Galatolo was under investigation for harassment and mishandling construction contracts.
When Whitlock was fired, Galatolo was still in charge. But the district reached the $2.28 million separation agreement with him in April of this year — seven months after Galatolo was shown the door.
Whitlock’s role in the DA’s case
“Mr. Whitlock did report to us much of what got us going on the case,” DA Steve Wagstaffe told the Post yesterday.
Whitlock first approached the DA’s office in November 2018, according to the separation agreement.
Wagstaffe said that Whitlock was interviewed before his office knew if there was a case to be investigated. Since then, the DA’s office determined that there is enough for an investigation.
Wagstaffe said that his investigators are hoping to announce a decision about charges in the case by the end of November.
Of the money Whitlock got, $336,028 was in severance, following the board’s decision to fire Whitlock “without cause.” In a letter dated April 26, 2019, then-board president Maurice Goodman wrote that Whitlock’s without cause firing and payment was “an olive branch.”
Union ‘stunned’ by payout
Prior to the Post speaking with Wagstaffe, Skyline professor and AFT union vice president Katherine Harer said the union, which often knocked heads with Whitlock, was “stunned” by the agreement.
“We thought the district was happy with him,” Harer said, adding that the district’s unions were not pleased with Whitlock when he was head of HR for the district and his negotiating practices.
Meanwhile, John Pimentel, who is running for a seat on the college board, said that the district should increase its transparency surrounding items such as the Whitlock agreement and payout.
Lisa Hicks-Dumanske, who is running against Pimentel, found it interesting that Whitlock was running despite his separation agreement saying that he is not to have any sort of relationship with the district.
Two incumbents won’t comment
Goodman and his fellow trustee, Dave Mandelkern, told the Post to speak with Board President Karen Schwarz, who responded through Vice Chancellor Mitch Bailey, who said that the board is not commenting on Whitlock’s employment at the district, beyond what is in the “public record.”
Half Moon Bay resident Lisa Petrides, who is running against Whitlock for the seat that represents half of Menlo Park, San Carlos and the coastside, did not have a comment on Whitlock’s settlement agreement. When the Post asked Whitlock about running, he pointed out that a California court has ruled that a former school employee in Southern California with a similar separation agreement was allowed to run for that district’s board.