FORMER SANTA CLARA City Manager Deanna Santana is suing the city for numerous allegations, including breach of contract, retaliation and harassment.
The suit, filed Aug. 14 in Santa Clara County Superior Court, says Santana is seeking damages for withheld wages and emotional distress for an amount of more than $50,000. The City Council fired her in 2022. The lawsuit also claims councilmembers terminated her in retaliation for publicizing deals made by the San Francisco 49ers on behalf of Levi’s Stadium for the FIFA World Cup without consulting the city.
The lawsuit claims Santana revealed the team was withholding FIFA-related legal documents from the city, which Santa Clara officials should be privy to considering the magnitude of the event and amount of public resources required.
“Not only did Ms. Santana uphold her duties to the City and its residents, she became a whistleblower by advising the City Council at a public meeting of illegal activities that would harm the City,” the lawsuit reads.
Therese Cannata, Santana’s lawyer, said her contract is a public document, and Santana performed her contractual duties until her final day. She said the city violated Santana’s contract by retaliating against her for whistleblowing about the 49ers.
“As alleged in the complaint, Ms. Santana risked her job and her career to stand up to very powerful persons,” Cannata told San José Spotlight. “She now has the right to tell her story to a jury of her peers.”
Santana alleges the city hasn’t paid her for her final two weeks, accrued leave and full severance package. Santana had the highest base pay for any city manager in California in 2020, earning more than $448,000, and some officials have questioned the city’s high compensation spending.
City representatives declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. Santa Clara hasn’t yet responded to Santana’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit said Santana held the 49ers accountable for code violations and unfavorable administrative practices, which led the city council to vote to remove the team as manager of non-NFL events. Councilmembers at the time — a majority of whom sided against the 49ers — also questioned the city’s declining revenue from Levi’s Stadium.
“Ultimately, in late 2019, this responsible and proper oversight work resulted in the City Council unanimously taking action to terminate the 49ers’ role as Stadium Manager,” the lawsuit stated. “The franchise was unforgiving and recognized that it needed a political strategy because it could not perform professionally or in compliance with the law.”
The 49ers sued the city over the vote, and again over public safety payments. Since then, the city has settled all lawsuits with the 49ers, including an August 2022 settlement over the stadium managerial disputes and a May 2024 deal to reconfigure payments for the stadium’s public safety costs.
The 49ers began investing more in local elections and supported five councilmembers through independent expenditures, overturning the former council majority. The lawsuit alleges this power shift created an environment more favorable toward the 49ers, which led to Santana’s firing and harassment from city officials.
“While pushing for its own candidates, the franchise also sought revenge against Ms. Santana for having the audacity to do her job by pointing out several state code violations, violations of public procurement and contract laws, and questionable administrative practices, resulting in the villainizing of Ms. Santana through several campaign mailers and local blogs during the November 2020 election, and making her compensation a key issue with regards to political strategy and message,” the lawsuit reads.
The first court hearing is scheduled for March 2026.
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at sakura@sanjosespotlight.com or @SakuCannestra on X.
This story originally appeared in San José Spotlight.