Daly City Councilwoman Pamela DiGiovanni refused to cooperate with the mandatory training she was ordered to complete after council gave her another chance to address wrongdoing found in two investigations, including harassment of city employees and misuse of a city car for personal errands.
Council voted 4-1 on Monday to censure DiGiovanni for not completing the training she was assigned last year after a $100,000 investigation council issued. DiGiovanni voted no on the censure and said she won’t complete the training, arguing that the accusations are politically motivated with the November election looming.
“It’s all bias anyway. Political bias,” DiGiovanni said.
Mayor Glenn Sylvester said council could consider other ways to address the situation, including determining whether any criminal violations occurred if DiGiovanni does not adhere to council’s directives.
“I don’t want to go there,” Sylvester said.
Councilmembers urged DiGiovanni to take accountability for her actions. Councilman Dr. Rod Daus-Magbual compared DiGiovanni’s character to President Donald Trump.
“We want accountability,” Daus-Magbual said. “We want it really bad and as an elected official, along with my colleagues here, we’re trying to keep accountability. We want this at the federal level, all the way to the local level.”
The city hired third-party investigator Ellis Investigations in April 2023 after receiving multiple complaints about DiGiovanni. Attorney Investigator Karin Bailey sustained 18 of 21 of the allegations. DiGiovanni refused to be interviewed for the investigation after her attorney, Geoff Carr, advised her not to participate.
Bailey found that DiGiovanni kept a city-owned car for two years and used it for personal errands including birthday parties, dance classes in South San Francisco, a golf tournament, a Mother’s Day celebration and trips to the grocery store.
DiGiovanni also accepted paid meals and borrowed money from city employees, according to Bailey. In one instance, she borrowed $500 from an employee to purchase a tablet for her first council meeting in 2018 because she couldn’t afford one, Bailey said. The employee later asked her to repay the money, but, according to Bailey, DiGiovanni refused.
Weeks later, DiGiovanni crumpled the money into a ball and threw it onto a counter, and the employee said she counted it and found only $200, according to Bailey. DiGiovanni gave the employee the remaining $300 weeks later, crumpled it into a ball again, and threw it through her car window, the investigation stated.
Bailey also found allegations that DiGiovanni acted unprofessionally at events to be true. She interviewed 20 witnesses whose names were redacted, except for Daus-Magbual.
DiGiovanni said the investigation lacked substance because the interviews were not conducted under oath.
“Nonetheless, the investigation proceeded under the good faith expectation that witnesses would answer truthfully,” Bailey wrote.
Bailey’s findings were based on interviews and evidence including documents, text messages, emails and photos.
In January 2024, council urged DiGiovanni to apologize to city employees and attend workplace anger-management training after the investigation’s findings.
Another independent investigation, which exceeded 200 pages, was conducted in April 2025 after council continued to receive complaints from city employees.
Council censured DiGiovanni in October 2025, removing her from all committees she served on, restricting her use of city vehicles, mandating training on harassment and anger management and placing the city manager in oversight of any direct interactions with city employees for six months.
DiGiovanni was set to complete her training by Aug. 7, 2026, but she requested more time, according to City Attorney Rose Zimmerman. DiGiovanni said on Monday that she couldn’t complete the training because she had multiple blood clots and almost died.
“What I went through was a death experience, so it takes 10 months to a year to recover from almost dying,” DiGiovanni said.
Council received an update on May 11 that DiGiovanni had not completed the training and Sylvester asked her to find a way to reschedule to complete it.
Daly City residents asked council on Monday to take action and remove DiGiovanni from council.
“This is a position of public trust, and unfortunately, the trust has been broken,” Luis Landons said during public comment. “It’s time for Daly City to reach a conclusion regarding this matter and for the people’s voices to be heard.”
This is not the first time Landons has spoken during public comment, alongside others such as Stephanie Balon.
“I’m completely disheartened,” Balon said. “After five years of investigation, I call for action to address these egregious issues.”
Balon previously spoke after Councilwoman Juslyn Manalo said DiGiovanni assaulted her in 2022. Manalo said she went to the hospital after DiGiovanni allegedly slammed a door on her back. District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said his office investigated the incident and declined to press criminal charges.
“It is not political to protect our community members. This investigation cost $100,000. It would be a shame for that to go to waste,” Recreation Commissioner Fernando Montanes said.
Resident Amelia Clark said she was surprised that people thought DiGiovanni was difficult to work with, saying the councilwoman was simply vocal about her opinions.
Councilwoman Teresa Proaño said the investigation was not a “witch hunt” and not politically motivated.
“There are issues, and it’s our responsibility to protect the employees, to protect the people. People who are abused need to be heard, and the worst thing to hear is that this investigation happened and that people are insinuating that they’re going after her,” Proaño said.
Proaño said DiGiovanni also “abused” her at an event where she said DiGiovanni snatched a microphone out of her hand.
“At some point, this has to stop, because look at the pattern,” Proaño said.
Proaño asked whether the public was waiting for the third or fourth investigation before recognizing that DiGiovanni had hurt people.
Council will discuss at a future meeting how to proceed after DiGiovanni said she wouldn’t complete the training or apologize.
DiGiovanni was elected to council in 2018 and reelected in November 2022. She is running for reelection this year along with Daus-Magbual, Proaño, Tony Bayudan, Thomas Nuris, Barry Rodriguez and Asia Su.
Such crap
It is a travesty that Daly City voters don’t stand up and tell the council to grow up