Staff Anxious About New City Manager
In Which: City Staff speak against City Manager Alvarez's recent actions, Council talks hotel tax increase, And Mayor Salinas votes against campaign finance conversation
City Staff Protest On Recognition Day
Dozens of City Staffers once again took to Public Comment on Tuesday over City Manager Dr. Ana Alvarez’s controversial decisions. Among them are a Return to Office (RTO) policy which eliminates the ability of any Staff to work from home, and the sudden removal of former Human Resources Director Brittney Frye. The comments were given on the same day that the City Council sought to celebrate Public Service Recognition Week, which was only attended by three people.
Opting Out Of Recognition
Mayor of Hayward Mark Salinas read a proclamation celebrating Public Service Recognition Week for 2025 and invited representatives of all of the City’s unions to receive a certificate:
International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1909
Hayward Fire Captains Association (HFCA)
Hayward Association of Management Employees (HAME)
Hayward Police Management Unit (HPMU)
Hayward Police Officers’ Association (HPOA)
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 21
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021 - Clerical
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021 - Maintenance
Unrepresented Management, City Attorney, and Human Resources employees were also invited to come up. However, only three individuals stepped forward: 2 police officers—likely members of both HPMU and HPOA—and one person who seemed to be from SEIU 1021 Maintenance.
No other City Employees stepped forward for the recognition.
City Staff Has Entered Comment
After the recognition was finished and the Mayor moved to Public Comment, over two dozen City Staff walked into the Council Chambers and took a seat near the front. Four members of City Staff took to the podium to highlight their concern about City Manager Dr. Ana Alvarez’s recent decisions to end the remote work policy and publicly remove outgoing Human Resources Director Brittney Fry.
Management Analyst for the Community Services Division, Emily Hwang, spoke first and took time to celebrate her fellow City Staff. “Every employee in this room plays a vital part in delivering essential services to the Hayward Community,” she said. “Public Service Recognition Week feels different this year.” She referenced the public comments from April 15th, which we covered earlier, and said “Since then, the City Manager’s actions have only increased instability and concern within our organization.”
HR Director Escorted From City Hall
According to anonymous reports and public comments, HR Director Brittany Frye had already resigned, with an intended final day in early May. However, on April 30th when she returned to City Hall to attend her going away party, Director Frye discovered that her key card had been deactivated. Ms. Hwang alleged during her comments that Director Frye had been notified at 10pm the night before via email.
“[She] arrived at City Hall the next day unaware that she was going to be forced to pack up and leave that day,” Ms. Hwang said. “She walked out of City Hall in tears while her team found out via email that she was gone and that the replacement is the interim Finance Director, who is a temporary employee and just joined the City a few months ago.” Interim Finance Director Sharif Etman joined City Staff at the request of City Manager Alvarez. “This decision,” Ms. Hwang said, “was calculated and unnecessary and it sent a clear message to our Staff: loyalty and service mean nothing here. We have lost all trust.”
Return To Office Order
Manny Grewal, an Analyst in Maintenance Services and HAME Treasurer, highlighted the return to office policy. She said that when the work from home order was initially rolled out “it included collaboration with bargaining groups.” However, she said the return to office order “was made pushing a personal agenda… Employees, those most affected, were left out of the conversation entirely.”
Rick Rivera, an Analyst in the Community Services Division, revealed that he had been diagnosed with a disability recently which would enable him to work from home. However, he felt that the ability to work from home shouldn’t be restricted. “I don’t see why I should have to have a disorder in order to have a work/life balance,” he said. “That should be something that is open to everyone.”
Management Decisions
Ms. Grewal spoke about the morale of City Staff after the removal of former Director Frye. “Employees are afraid of voicing opinions or sharing ideas,” she said, “especially if seen as opposition, for fear of retaliation.” She framed City Manager Alvarez’s leadership style as “top-down, authoritarian leadership” and referred to the changes as a “hostile takeover.”
Dr. Amber Green, who revealed she had resigned from the City in response to the return to work announcement, took issue with the appointment of Sharif Etman to the position of Interim Human Resources Director. She said it “bypass[ed] internal staff and process [and] demonstrates a disregard for collaboration and support.”
Dr. Green further alleged that meeting recordings are banned, suggestion box feedback is ignored, and that major changes are being made without explanation. “Even concerns about the City Manager’s past leadership have remained unaddressed,” she said. “We don’t know what kind of vetting took place… City Staff no longer feel respected, safe, or heard under this new City Manager.”
All of the City Staff left before the City Manager’s Comments section of the Agenda.
City Soon To Raise Hotel Tax
The City Council considered raising the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) or hotel tax from 8.5% to 14% starting July 1. The tax increase aims to make a dent in the coming budget deficit. However, there were some questions about different types of taxes and concern from local hotel operators about the effect of a tax increase on the still-recovering hotel industry in Hayward.
Would It Be The Highest Tax Around?
The City Council considered raising the hotel tax to 14%, though Interim Financial Director, Sharif Etman, said that the City also imposes an excise tax on hotels of 2%, which would functionally raise the hotel tax to 16%. A 16% tax on hotels would put Hayward higher than even San Francisco—it would be the highest functional tax in the region.
Councilmember Roche asked if there had been a conversation around doing a gradual tax increase, to ease any damage on the hotel industry. The response was unclear, since Mayor Salinas and Interim Director Etman said there had been no discussion, but Councilmember Bonilla recalled that there had been. “I thought the committee landed somewhere closer to 12%,” Councilmember Bonilla said, but he admitted that Staff said a phased approach could be confusing.
Councilmember Bonilla asked Interim Director Etman what he thought about a phased approach. “We’re trying to gather revenue wherever we can,” the Interim Director said, before turning the question back to Council. “Where’s the sweet spot where Council feels comfortable” but still makes enough money for their liking?
Councilmember Zermeno asked if other local cities had an excise tax on hotels, as well. Interim Director Etman said he didn’t look for that information. “It might make a difference,” Councilmember Roche said.
Hayward Isn’t San Francisco
Hotel owners were, unsurprisingly, against the proposed tax increase. One hotel owner said that his hotel’s average daily rate had fallen from $143 per night in 2019 to $101 per night now. “At $101 and with our expenses up 30%, we’re not making any money,” he said. “There’s a brand new hotel in Hayward—just opened. It went right back to the lender. That guy couldn’t even open his doors.”
Other hotel owners followed suit against the tax increase, though one admitted that an increase to 9 or 10% would be fine, but that a 5 point increase was too high. Another owner said that the loss of local sports teams is hurting the hotel industry. “Since the Raiders left and the Oakland A’s left, the revenues sunk,” he said.
Multiple owners pointed out that Hayward isn’t a tourist destination on its own. “We’re a secondary market,” one owner said of Hayward. “We are not Silicon Valley.” Another said, “The City of Hayward does not have a famous type of tourism where you’re going to have tourism coming to Hayward… We get all the overflow.”
A Both/And Approach
In the end, Mayor Salinas suggested putting off deciding on the hotel tax until after some more information is brought to the Budget and Finance Committee. He specifically asked for information about a phase-in approach, if other cities have excise taxes, and a breakdown of what the real-dollar cost would be for local hotel guests. “It gives us an opportunity to sort of flesh this out a little bit more,” the Mayor said.
The rest of Council appeared to agree. Councilmember Goldstein also said he had done some research of his own on hotel taxes. He said that while San Francisco has a 14% hotel tax, they also have a 2.5% Special District Tax in some areas, and perhaps other fees on top of it. Importantly, “[Economists] say… these things have no impact on driving business to the hotels,” he said. “What does are the events.”
“Consider what the impact would be if we had more events here that people want to come here to Hayward [for],” Councilmember Goldstein said. “We just really have to manage this from an economic development perspective and not be afraid of the tax thing.” He alleged that he had talked to a hotel promotor who seemed to have plans for the Performing Arts Center and the downtown theater.
Councilmember Andrews agreed with the importance of having more events in Hayward, something she’s long been an advocate of. “We rely too much on other cities for activities,” she said. “We need to be more self-sustaining and people want attractions. They want to come to events.” She specifically mentioned public art and beautiful shopping streets as potential tourist attractions. “We need to start thinking internally ‘What are we going to do to be an attraction?’”
Pivoting to a tourism-based economy would be a significant change to the City, which has historically focused on industry, local commerce, and families. But Mayor Salinas recognized the need to take advantage of upcoming regional events, specifically the coming FIFA World Cup and Superbowl—both of which will come to the Bay Area in 2026. “I want to make sure we can capture that,” the Mayor said.
Mayor Votes Against Campaign Finance Reform
Councilmembers Syrop, Zermeno, and Bonilla offered a joint referral to discuss changes to the City’s campaign finance limitations. Councilmember Syrop stressed that this was not an issue in Hayward so far. “Hayward has done good with campaign finance rules,” he said. He noted a lack of Political Action Committees (PACs) that frequently try to influence other elections.
“We’ve done a good job around this,” Councilmember Syrop said, “However the landscape has changed.” With the transition to district-based elections, voting districts are 1/6th the size they used to be. This, he argued, would be a good time to discuss how to maintain a “healthy campaign culture.” He stressed that the referral was just to have the conversation, which he suggested having after the Summer Recess in July.
The only voice of dissent was Mayor Mark Salinas. “Historically, the City has been arguably one of the most progressive cities when it comes to campaign finance,” he said. However, he alleged that Independent Expenditure Committees (IEs) and PACs have still gone after candidates—though that wasn’t in evidence during the last election.
The Mayor’s concern was simply that it was too much change too quickly. After reiterating his dislike for how the districts were created, he said, “I was hoping… let’s give the districts time to breathe.” He continued, “I was hoping we could let an election cycle go through and then we can assess everything from financing to rules to whatever else… It’s too early to start tinkering.”
Mayor Salinas also alleged it was unfair to candidates running in 2026, despite one of the sponsors of the referral being one of those candidates. “I think we owe it to them to let them go through a cycle,” the Mayor said. Councilmember Syrop insisted that the point was simply to have the conversation, but the Mayor was unmoved.
The vote passed 6-1, with Mayor Salinas being the only vote against it.