It took them a while to figure out what a bad city manager Laura Snideman was, but like Richmond before, Calistoga allowed her to resign while letting her pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars
while avoiding telling the truth about her incompetence. In addition to her incompetence, while at Richmond, Snideman illegally, and egged on by RPA City Council members, initiated an investigation of me that went on for over a year, ultimately costing hundreds
of thousands of taxpayer dollars, that went nowhere and was a complete waste of time and money.
I tried to make a case for her dismissal at the time, but the RPA City Council members kept her around for a while criticizing me for telling the truth about her.
If you want to read some of the gory details about Snideman in Richmond, see below:
- https://tombutt.com/mayor-demnlus-johnson-and-former-city-manager-laura-snideman/
- https://ccpulse.org/2021/11/10/richmond-terminates-city-manager-mayor-may-face-litigation/
- https://tombutt.com/resignation-letter-from-city-manager-laura-snideman/
- https://richmondconfidential.org/2021/11/16/richmond-mayor-butt-investigation-no-merit/
- https://www.ktvu.com/news/richmond-mayor-calls-for-resignation-of-employees-who-spent-city-funds-investigating-him
- https://tombutt.com/rpa-alternate-universe-where-facts-are-simply-inconveniences/
- https://ccpulse.org/2022/05/06/city-council-decides-to-cut-losses-in-battle-against-mayor-tom-butt/
- https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/richmond-mayor-city-council-trade-barbs-over-criticisms-of-city-manager/
- https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/11554
Following are stories of the Calistoga drama.
The opinion of the Napa Valley Register
Strange things are happening in Calistoga. For years, residents and employees say City Manager Laura Snideman was difficult,
even hostile. Complaints piled up. Morale tanked. Staff left. Yet not only did she keep her job, she got a $57,000 raise, pushing her salary to an eye-popping $382,301. That’s around $75 per capita for a city with about 5,000 residents.
Fast-forward to last month. In an extraordinary spectacle, five department heads (including, amazingly, the director of
HR) and the fire chief stood before the City Council and, in public, aired their concerns. Emotions ran high; some wept. By the end of the meeting, Snideman was out.
It’s tempting to call this accountability, but really it raises more questions than it answers. Why now, after years of
turmoil? Why the raise, if things were as bad as so many claim? And why does Calistoga — a charming, small town with a budget to match — pay its city manager like she’s running a metropolis?
This is not Snideman’s first abrupt exit. She left Richmond before her contract was up, with a nearly $300,000 separation
payout. Is that a pattern or a coincidence?
The city council, meanwhile, offered polite thanks for her “dedicated years of service.” But the real story is in the voices
of employees who said they felt threatened and demeaned, and in the tears shed in a public meeting that, it seems, should never have had to happen in the first place.
The new interim manager, former Police Chief Mitch Celaya, is already credited with lifting spirits. That’s a start. But
Calistogans deserve more than a change in tone at city hall. They deserve transparency about how the dysfunction was tolerated, why it was rewarded, and what the eventual cost of this resignation will be.
The Register has filed public records requests, which we believe will shed some light here. They are pending. For now,
though, we can say something smells like the dumpster outside Susie’s Bar after a three-day weekend. We’ll keep pressing.
City Manager Laura Snideman resigns following closed session on Wednesday
August 28, 2025Getting
your Trinity Audio player ready…
Calistoga’s City Manager Laura Snideman resigned from her position following a City Council closed session performance evaluation on Wednesday morning.
Mayor Donald Williams confirmed Snideman’s resignation on Wednesday and said Mitch Celaya, Calistoga’s assistant city manager and former police chief, would step into
the role as interim city manager, effective immediately.
“The council and I appreciate all the excellent and hard work (Laura) has done and we’re glad Mitch is able to step in, in the interim,” Williams told the Tribune.
“The council looks forward to the successful operation of the city as it serves the citizens of Calistoga.”
During Wednesday’s closed session, which lasted roughly two hours, Williams said there was public comment from department heads and members of the public. While he
did not say what was discussed, he confirmed city staff who spoke included Fire Chief Jed Matcham; Planning and Building Director Greg Desmond; Fairgrounds Director Sheli Wright; Finance Director Connie Cardenas; Deputy City Manager Rachel Stepp and Human
Resources Director Rena Lariz.
Calistogan Brian Durnian spoke during public comment and said he also listened to what the city employees had to say about the environment at City Hall.
“It was sad to see it had to get to this point where you had to have employees coming forward to council and get emotional and honest about talking about what was
wrong with the city manager and being fearful of losing their jobs because of the power that she wields,” Durnian said.
He added, “When your HR comes out and says, ‘We have an issue,’ that says a lot. And when you have a city attorney in attendance to guide the city council members
along, they better listen. It’s unfortunate it took this long.”
A joint statement from the city and Snideman was shared with the Tribune on Wednesday afternoon.
“The city thanks Laura Snideman for her great work during her dedicated years of service to Calistoga, including moving significant capital projects along and modernizing
many IT needs. Laura is very proud to have served a community so dear to her since her childhood and is excited for its future. The council wishes her the best in her future endeavors,” the statement said.
Snideman has served as Calistoga’s city manager since February 2022. Throughout her tenure with the city, she has been involved in multiple controversies surrounding
her management.
In August 2023, the City Council launched an investigation following a formal complaint from an unidentified city employee filed that July, alleging Snideman had engaged
in harassment and had fostered a hostile work environment at City Hall. That September, the city’s planning director, Jeff Mitchem, made similar accusations of improper behavior by city management in his letter of resignation.
In November 2023, following the months-long investigation, the City Council unanimously concluded the complaints that Snideman had fostered a hostile work environment
were unfounded.
Last July, the city hired both an assistant city manager, former Police Chief Celaya, and a deputy city manager, former Parks and Recreation Director Stepp. That same
month, the council approved a $57,000 pay raise for Snideman. Critics have argued that adding the two director-level positions is excessive for Calistoga, a city with a population of roughly 5,200.
A recent Tribune request for city employee records shows that the salary, including benefits, for the city manager, assistant city manager and deputy city manager
in the current fiscal year are $382,301, $345,651 and $280,674 respectively, totaling just over $1 million for the three positions.
Earlier this year, in February and March, the city council again met for multiple closed sessions to discuss Snideman’s performance. At the time, multiple council
members confirmed to the Tribune that the meetings were triggered by a noticeable increase in emails to council members from members of the public, expressing various concerns regarding city management.
Councilmember Scott Cooper said at the time City Attorney Michelle Kenyon was conducting a 360-degree performance evaluation of Snideman. Following those closed sessions,
no reportable action was taken by council.
The news of Snideman’s departure this week also comes following reports that her executive assistant, Shannon Mattingly recently resigned from her position after a
little more than a year in the role. Previously, Jennifer Minitti, the former executive assistant to the city manager, resigned, also after nearly a year in the position.
The city has not said what, if any, severance package Snideman will receive. According to her initial employment contract, signed in January 2022, “severance shall
be paid to the employee when employment is terminated without cause,” and “if employee voluntarily resigns her employment with the employer, she shall not be entitled to any severance pay nor continued compensation and benefits, except as otherwise might be
agreed by employer in this employment agreement.”
Calistoga city manager resigns after years of staff complaints, council evaluation
An informational sign displayed along Lincoln Avenue (Highway 29) in downtown Calistoga ,
Tuesday, June 20, 2023. (Beth Schlanker / The Press Democrat)
By Edward
Booth | edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com
UPDATED: September 4, 2025 at 3:02 PM PDT
Calistoga City Manager Laura Snideman has resigned after less than three years on the job, ending a tenure marked by staff complaints and public
criticism of her management.
Mayor Donald Williams confirmed Snideman’s resignation, which followed a closed-session performance evaluation by the City Council on Aug.
27. The Calistoga Tribune first reported her departure.
The City Council has appointed Assistant City Manager Mitch Celaya, a former police chief, to serve as interim city manager. Williams said
members will meet with Celaya in the coming days to outline their priorities before beginning a search for Snideman’s permanent successor.
“There may be some bumps along the road, but so far so good,” Williams said.
Horoscope for September 16, 2025
Snideman joined Calistoga in February 2022 after serving as Richmond’s city manager. In July 2023, a city employee filed a formal complaint
accusing her of harassment and fostering a hostile work environment. The council later found those claims unsubstantiated, but concerns about her leadership persisted into 2024 and 2025.
At last week’s meeting, several department heads — including Deputy City Manager Rachel Stepp, Human Resources Director Rena Lariz, Fairgrounds
Director Sheli Wright, Planning and Building Director Greg Desmond, Finance Director Connie Cardenas, and Fire Chief Jed Matcham — spoke during public comment about her management. The closed session lasted about two hours, Williams said.
In a joint statement, the city and Snideman praised her work and framed the transition amicably.
“The City thanks Laura Snideman for her great work during her dedicated
years of service to Calistoga including moving significant capital projects along and modernizing many IT needs,” the statement said. “Laura is very proud to have served a community so dear to her since her childhood and is excited for its future. The Council
wishes her the best on her future endeavors.”
Want to receive TOM BUTT E-FORUM delivered to your email address?
Click here to sign-up to receive the E-Forum. Tom Butt is the former mayor of Richmond, CA, having served 27+ years until January of 2023, eight of those as elected mayor. Tom Butt is an architect and founder of the 50-year
old Richmond architecture-engineering firm Interactive Resources. He serves on the board of two Richmond nonprofits,
Rosie the Riveter Trust and
East Brother Light Station, Inc. Visit the
Tom
Butt website for additional information about Tom Butt’s activities and a digest of past E-FORUMS going back to 2000,
http://www.tombutt.com. Subscription to this service is at the personal discretion of the recipient and may be terminated by selecting “unsubscribe from
this list” at the bottom of this email. This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental,
political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section
107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|