Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli told his colleagues in the city council that he would ignore their demands that he resign, and then listened quietly when dozens of speakers strongly urged him to quit, some even swearing, during a extraordinary emergency meeting held by the city Wednesday night.
Foppoli, who in a recent Chronicle investigation accused several women of sexual assault, was placed on the screen in the middle of the public Zoom meeting, surrounded by the same colleagues and employees of the city council who convened the meeting to to thank.
As mayor, Foppoli ran the first half of the meeting, although it was about his own alleged misconduct. He introduced speaker after speaker through the segment of public commentary and reminded people to mute, just to download it to him. They sob, throw swear words at him and call him a ‘gross joker’, a ‘sociopath’, a ‘narcissist’ – and a ‘rapist’. Several people accuse Foppoli of additional sexual misconduct.
Foppoli acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the attendance at the meeting, and Foppoli left after a three-hour break. Before leaving, the remaining councilors voted 2-1 to accept a mostly symbolic motion in which he resigned, with Foppoli the dissenting vote. Foppoli left the meeting without a single speaker, out of the dozens, hearing him support, including one who accused him of assaulting her.
“I’ve experienced and seen some of this behavior firsthand, and I have to say I’m so sorry,” said a speaker who identified herself as Carson Davis and said she had lived in Windsor for ten years. ‘I grabbed my butt through him and I saw a few things people were referring to. And we should have just taken it more seriously. I am very sorry for these women that it did not come out earlier. ‘
Foppoli asked the next speaker and noted that the meeting was not interactive.
The virtual gathering – a confluence of the #MeToo movement, the pandemic and the moderate activities of municipal management – is the latest development in response to a Chronicle investigation in which four women’s allegations of sexual assault against Foppoli are set out. The alleged incidents range from tasing to rape and range from 2003 to 2019, which is closely monitored with the rise of Foppoli in Sonoma County.
On Saturday, a fifth woman told The Chronicle that Foppoli had sexually assaulted her dozens of times during a three-year relationship that began in 2001 when they were both 19 years old.
Without addressing the allegations specifically, Foppoli vehemently denied any misconduct and refused to resign his post. Foppoli, who was first named mayor in 2018 by his city council colleagues, won Windsor’s first mayoral election in November 2020. Because he was elected by the electorate, Foppoli can only be stripped of his title by a violation or a revocation election.
At the start of the Zoom meeting, Foppoli reiterated his refusal to resign. The meeting eventually lasts six hours and will attract more than 1,800 viewers.
“I know deep in my heart that I have done nothing criminal wrong and that it will eventually be cleared up,” the mayor said. “I’m not wrong, but I’m not a criminal.”
Councilor Esther Lemus, who publicly accused Foppoli of sexual assault, withdrew her from the meeting. “It’s very personal and traumatic for me, so I will not be attending tonight,” Lemus said in a statement read by City Manager Ken MacNab.
All three colleagues of the city council of Foppoli told him to resign. Councilor Debora Fudge – until last week his main ally in the council – was tearful but blunt when she begged him to heed their calls on Wednesday.
“If you love Windsor as much as you say you always have, thank you tonight,” she said.
“I feel like we’re all manipulated and betrayed, and I mean we’re all different in different ways, depending on what our relationships were,” Fudge said. “The women who have been physically and mentally hurt will be like that for the rest of their lives, and we are sad about that.”
MacNab said that city employees had expressed discomfort at Foppoli’s presence, virtual or not, and that Foppoli had agreed not to enter City Hall until MacNab had obtained permission to do so.
MacNab called the allegations “shocking and appalling” and said the city had no knowledge of an employee being harassed or assaulted by Foppoli, but that officials in Windsor were providing advisory services to these city workers.
The Chronicle investigation also documented a 2017 email sent to Fudge in which a woman alleged sexual misconduct by Foppoli in 2013. The complainant – whose name was traced by city officials – said Foppoli tried to remove the bathing suit of a woman who had rented. the guest house at Christopher Creek Winery, among other allegations.
City councilors and employees defended their handling of the email, saying they did not contact law enforcement in accordance with the complainant’s wishes. Some speakers at the Zoom meeting said they were unhappy with this response and also asked Foppoli’s colleagues to resign.
Windsor officials only planned the Zoom meeting on Saturday when it became clear that Foppoli, despite widespread condemnation, would refuse to resign.
“Rest assured that I will not succumb to any pressure to resign my office as I have done nothing to justify your attacks,” he said in a statement released that evening.
In addition to his city council-elected colleagues, more than a dozen elected officials have called on Foppoli to resign, from the eight other mayors of the cities in Sonoma County, to both U.S. congressmen representing the North Bay, Jared Huffman of San Rafael and Rep. . Mike Thompson of St. Helena.
In his statement on Saturday, Foppoli denied any wrongdoing, criticized The Chronicle’s investigation and spoke out against his critics: “To my fellow officials who thanked me, you were cowardly rushed to the judgment without evidence a particularly worrying reflection of the state of affairs our dwindling Democracy; an indication of your lack of commitment to critical thinking and logic; as well as an absolute collective failure to fully evaluate a challenging situation before making statements and condemning a fellow colleague and citizen. ”
In the statement and the ensuing days, Foppoli and Lemus – who is also Sonoma County’s deputy district attorney – dealt with allegations about each other, which were reported by other media. The Chronicle continues to investigate the rulings.
Uninspired by Foppoli’s response – and in some cases spurred on by it – dozens of speakers told Foppoli that he was no longer fit to lead Windsor at Wednesday’s Zoom meeting.
“When you make a statement like the one you made to defend yourself against these terrible things, you let every survivor in this country relive the terrible things that happened to us,” said one speaker, who just Zoom identified as H. ”” I have a little sister who works for the county, who works for the city of Windsor, and I have to relive that fear every day, not knowing if she’s going to be safe with any of you. ”
Tyler Wilcox, the fiancée of Allison Britton, one of the women who accused Foppoli of assault in The Chronicle’s investigation, spoke at the meeting on Wednesday.
“It’s a joke that a famous rapist is having a meeting about his own rape allegations,” Wilcox said. “What kind of man calls his own rape victims a liar?”
Foppoli’s decision to leave the Zoom after the break at 21:10 prompted Fudge to vote in favor of an earlier motion to demand his resignation. After a brief argument, Fudge and Deputy Mayor Sam Salmon voted yes and Foppoli no. The motion, which is mostly symbolic, was passed. The meeting continued with more public comment that lasted until almost midnight; although the city council lost its quorum with Foppoli, the official meeting was adjourned.
“I want you to know how upset, angry and disgusted I am that Mayor Foppoli wants to pull out of this sitting,” Fudge said. ‘And everyone had the right to be heard, and now he will not hear you. My blood pressure went through the roof. I’m so sorry I did not expect this. I think he’s a coward and we’re all angry and you deserve to be heard. ‘
Later, when the meeting was busy, Fudge would add: ‘I hate Dominic Foppoli. I am finished.”
Salmon said Windsor officials asked Foppoli to relinquish his right as mayor to chair the meeting before it began, but that he refused to do so. Lemus’ lawyer, Traci Carrillo, told The Chronicle on Wednesday night that Lemus would have attended the meeting if Foppoli had agreed not to go.
Speakers exploded Foppoli after his sudden departure.
“It was just a coward to control the situation,” said Dan Levy, a Sonoma County resident. “As a survivor of sexual violence and connected to many people who have suffered sexual violence, my blood is a mixture of boiling and I am just as tired.”
A Santa Rosa resident named Rachel, who did not share her surname about Zoom, suggested that Windsor board members walk out if Foppoli shows up for future council meetings. “It’s going to stop Windsor, but I really need to point out that you’re at 11:21,” she said. ‘It has stop Windsor. It’s Sonoma County stopped. Everyone holds their breath. ”
A woman who previously told The Chronicle that Foppoli raped her twice in 2004, when she was 18, was one of the last speakers of the night. The woman, who told reporters that she went out with Foppoli while volunteering for his first public office campaign, used the alias ‘Joan’, saying she rumbled through the support of her co-speakers.
“I definitely feel that my trust in Windsor and this community has been restored,” the woman said, adding that she wanted to see Foppoli prosecuted.
The sheriff at Sonoma County is investigating allegations of sexual assault against Foppoli.
Residents of Windsor said earlier this week that they were moving forward with the attempt to recall Foppoli from office. Tim Zahner, chairman of the Recall Foppoli campaign, said on Sunday that the group was motivated by Foppoli’s ‘attempt to divert attention from the allegations against him with a strategy of blatant lies and misrepresentation’.
“It’s part of a larger pattern of narcissistic and dangerous behavior by the mayor that not only harms his reputation but also creates unnecessary tension on our community,” Zahner said. ‘Mayor Foppoli must go. If he does not resign, there should be no doubt that the people of Windsor will remove him from office. ”
Hours later, Joe Foppoli – the older brother of the mayor and co-owner of Christopher Creek Winery – said he also wanted Dominic Foppoli to resign. Joe Foppoli said he had asked his brother to step down as CEO of the winery, and that Dominic Foppoli had “reluctantly” agreed.
The Board of Supervisors in Sonoma County on Tuesday unanimously revoked the approval of Dominic Foppoli’s appointment in the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. Earlier this month, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees to represent the half-million residents of Sonoma County in the operation of the bridge and bus and ferry services in the district.
Last week, the League of California Cities also voted unanimously to remove Foppoli from a leadership position he held in the organization. Both the Russian River Valley wineries and the Sonoma County Vintners have announced that they are severing ties with the Christopher Creek winery.
Alexandria Bordas and Cynthia Dizikes are authors of San Francisco Chronicle staff. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @crossingbordas, @cdizikes