Woodside’s town manager has been put on paid administrative leave after he demanded $400,000 to keep a secret a report on the alleged misdeeds by council members, the town said in a statement Thursday (Feb. 19).
Jason Ledbetter sent the secret report that he wrote to the council on Tuesday.
He then called the town’s attorney and demanded $400,000 no later than midnight on Sunday, Feb. 22, or else he would release the report, according to an unsigned statement sent to the Post by City Clerk Jennifer Li.
Council met in closed session Thursday and rebuffed Ledbetter’s demand that he be paid by Friday, according to the town’s statement.
Ledbetter told the Post previously that $400,000 is the amount owed to him to end his contract. Ledbetter was hired in April to replace Kevin Bryant, who was retiring.
Ledbetter’s contract is set to expire on May 15, 2028, and his base salary is $300,000. He was previously the town manager in Yreka in Siskiyou County, a town of about 7,800 that is about 20 miles away from the state’s border with Oregon.
Ledbetter claimed in his report that Mayor Brian Dombkowski and Vice Mayor Paul Goeld would regularly make sexist remarks about Councilwoman Jenn Wall and racist remarks about Councilman Hassan Aburish.
Ledbetter’s letter claims that he was harassed because he is a man by Wall. He said she contacted Ledbetter at all hours about “non-emergencies.”
Ledbetter also says Dombkowski ordered him to put off plans for a low-income housing project in Dombkowski’s district.
Ledbetter also says Dombkowski ordered him to put off plans for a low-income housing project in Dombkowski’s district.
No Woodside council member has responded to the Post’s inquiries about the letter.
Thursday morning, Ledbetter was told by San Francisco Attorney Richard Bolanos, who is now representing the town, that he wasn’t getting the money and that he would be on leave for 60 days.
“I feel a great sense of relief by telling the truth. I put a mirror up to the members on that council, and they have to live with that. I have a clear conscience,” Ledbetter told the Post.
Ledbetter said he was invited to two dinners by Councilmen Dombkowski and Goeld after accepting the town manager position in May. At the first dinner, Ledbetter said that Dombkowski used derogatory terms to describe Councilwoman Wall, such as referring to her chest as “marbles on a billiards table.”
Dombkowski would regularly call Wall names over the nine months he has worked for the town, Ledbetter said.
At the second dinner, Goeld allegedly told Ledbetter that Wall opposed his hiring because he was a white male who was from a conservative area of the state, Siskiyou County.
Goeld also allegedly said Councilman Hassan Aburish was easy to manipulate, Ledbetter alleges. At that dinner, Goeld speculated about Aburish’s nationality. During that conversation, he referred to Palestinans as the “original” n-words, according to Ledbetter’s report.
Ledbetter said Wall would text him at 3 a.m., midnight, weekends and holidays, expecting immediate responses, Ledbetter said.
Ledbetter said he told Town Attorney Jean Savaree he was being bullied by Wall but was told to ignore it. Savaree compared it to the harassment she experienced early in her career, Ledbetter said. Savaree also told Ledbetter not to tell anyone he was told about the hiring process because it would be a violation of the Brown Act to leak a closed session discussion. The Brown Act is the state law that regulates meetings by government bodies.
Ledbetter begins his 15-page, single-spaced report with a quote from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, a collection of sayings discovered in 1945. Later in the report he writes, “The statements in this document are 100% fact, and I retain the right to speak truth to power and daylight them for public consumption and government oversite (sic).”The statements in this document are 100% fact, and I retain the right to speak truth to power and daylight them for public consumption and government oversite.
Ledbetter sent his report to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, which is now reviewing it for any Brown Act violations, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Wagstaffe said it’s too early to tell if any crimes were committed, either by council members or Ledbetter.
Ledbetter seems to be a very strange person. The council members may be angry that he’s doing this, but why did they hire him in the first place?
Political extortion has been a fairly common policy practiced by numerous politicians at all levels of government. It’s surprising and disconcerting that he only demanded $400,000. Because he’s willing to go to jail for 10-20 years, it would’ve made more sense to stiff the town council for at least $500,000 to $1,000,000….. Ledbetter’s just a beginner.
I don’t think he’s a beginner–i think he’s just telling the truth and the town is trying to spin a request for severance pay into something that it’s not.
Ledbetter, it seems, already makes $300+benefits every year until 2028. If he wanted $400k, all he had to do was show up and do nothing all day, which is way easier than what he is doing now.
The towns attempt to deflect by calling this extortion is so transparent that it’s frankly embarrassing
I hope the report is released in full to the public.
I think it has been. Go to the top of the page and you’ll find the link.
As someone who has lived very near both towns in which Ledbetter was City Manager, I can say with confidence that he’s is an incredibly qualified man with both skill and a heart for the people he serves. And I can also say confidently that Woodside has a long, storied, and very public history of NIMBY behaviors. It did not surprise me in the least to hear that its leaders are doing much worse in private. Why wouldn’t they make all these accusations to protect themselves from the fallout? If you’re asking why would he ask for so little to risk serious prison time, look for the simplest answer: he probably wouldn’t. Think horses, not zebras.
Nor Cal: Ledbetter candidly states, in his whistleblower letter, that he now questions the motives of the Woodside Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem in hiring him for the position of city manager, and speculates further that both presumed they were hiring a fellow conservative. Why did the esteemed Ledbetter not recognize he was considered for the job by two conservatives who serve a moderately liberal community where the average home price is $3.5 million, and a family of four require an income of $675,000 to live? Think not horses, nor zebras; a more accurate description here is the analogy of a pig wearing lipstick.
I read the report, and I believe him. It’s especially a little ridiculous for the town to claim that Ledbetter extorted them for $400K, when his salary was $300K + benefits. No one who is basically already making ~$400k is risking jail time and expensive defamation lawsuits for the same salary.
The risk-to-reward here make sense in only one context–that Ledbetter is telling the truth.
Ledbetter is only out for himself, and always has been. That was no secret during his tenure in Yreka. Any town would be foolish to hire him going forward. If it were truly and only about severance pay to end his contract it would have ben handled behind closed session and done. He is attempting to circumvent any repercussions for failures on his part or perhaps trying to end run around a council that got wise to his self serving ways.
I reached out to Jason Ledbetter, in August of 2025 regarding an abandon property where the owner has been in violation of the San Mateo County Ordinance (7.16.040 PROPERTY NUISANCES). The property had been abandoned for over 20 years and the property have been declared uninhabitable.
I forward emails to Jason of the correspondence I had with the previous Town Manager, Kevin Bryant. Jason responded that he was going to work with the Town Community Preservation Officer and the Town Attorney to have a broader discussion about a possible receivership or other superior court judgement on this property to legally initiate the actions required by the San Mateo Ordinance.
Jason called me to outline the process, which he believed would require hiring a legal firm that had expertise in property nuisance abatement. Jason told me that based on town documents he reviewed regarding the abandon property, it indicated to him the town was only issuing requests and not taking the needed actions to either bring the property up to code or more drastic legal actions to resolve the problem.
In early September of 2025 I sent an email to Jason asking on the status of his efforts regarding the abandon property and he replied that he had it on the September 23rd council meeting.
On October 3rd I send an email to Jason and asked if he could update me on the outcome of the 9/23 council meeting and he responded as follows:
“Unfortunately, with closed session I have limited ability to share some details, but here is what I have been told I am allowed to share. The Council has escalated Code Enforcement on this item to the Town Attorney, and the Town Attorney is now engaged on the legal pathways. I will continue to follow up with the attorney on a weekly basis to ask if they have any info I can share with you on progress.”
Nothing has happened regarding any progress and the concerns that Jason outlined regarding the town council may be the reason I’ve not seen any action.
Based on my brief encounter with Jason, he was professional and highly ethical.
The Whistleblower complaints should be investigated by a outside legal group and not the town attorney.