OAKLAND — A high-ranking Oakland city official who said he provided federal investigators key evidence that led to criminal indictments against ex-Mayor Sheng Thao and others is leaving his role to take a leadership job in another East Bay city.

The official, G. Harold Duffey, was an assistant city administrator who worked closely with Thao during her fraught tenure as the Oakland’s top elected leader, placing him the crosshairs of the former mayor’s opponents during a particularly toxic era of the city’s politics. His last day at the city was Sept. 25.

Duffey is in line to be the new city manager in Brentwood, an eastern Contra Costa County town with about 67,000 residents — roughly six times smaller than Oakland’s population. Brentwood had been without a permanent city manager since April.

“His deep experience in budgeting, economic development, capital improvements, solid waste and emergency operations will support strong collaboration and trust,” Brentwood Mayor Susannah Meyer said Wednesday in a release announcing the hire.

The Brentwood City Council is expected to officially hire Duffey when it meets on Oct. 28. The job comes with an annual salary range of up to $315,967, plus benefits, and the new city manager will be expected to help address Brentwood’s most pressing issues, including the imbalance between jobs and housing and the long commute times residents face.

Harold Duffey, a former assistant city administrator in Oakland, is being considered as the next city manager in Brentwood. (Photo courtesy of Brentwood City Government). 

Duffey, whose exposure as an apparent witness in the federal corruption investigation in Oakland heightened his public profile, said in a statement to this news organization on Wednesday that he was “extremely proud of the city’s resilience and the way we bounced back from emergency after emergency.”

Among the challenges that the city overcame during his time there, he said, were a ransomware attack that froze Oakland’s technological systems in 2023 and a series of atmospheric river storms the same year that worsened potholes in the city’s streets.

“As a professional city manager, my role is to provide policy makers with the leadership and expertise necessary to advance, maintain, and expand the quality of life for our residents, local businesses and stakeholders,” he said in the city of Brentwood’s release.

The former assistant city administrator’s departure further marks Oakland City Hall’s transition away from the top-level staffers who predated Mayor Barbara Lee’s shortened term, which began in May.

Duffey first arrived to Oakland as the city’s director of public works in July 2021, after serving leadership roles in the California cities of Grand Terrace, Compton and Oroville.

He became noteworthy in the public eye after he told this news organization in January that then-Mayor Thao had approached him in early 2023 about appointing a city employee, Larry Gallegos, to a director role.

Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her lawyer Jeff Tsai leave the Federal Building after appearing at the Federal Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., for her indictment on bribery and conspiracy charges by federal prosecutors on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. Also, her boyfriend, Andre Jones, California Waste Solutions owners, Andy Duong, and his father, David Duong, were indicted. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) 

Duffey’s statement to authorities became evidence presented by federal prosecutors in charges of conspiracy and bribery against Thao, her romantic partner Andre Jones and the father-and-son business duo David and Andy Duong, whose family owns Oakland’s contracted recycling company.

Federal prosecutors have accused Thao and Jones of accepting bribes from the Duongs and another unidentified co-conspirator before the 2022 mayoral election, in exchange for a promise to appoint handpicked officials who could guarantee the businessmen access to lucrative city contracts.

Thao, Jones and David and Andy Duong have all pleaded not guilty; a trial date is expected to be set later this year. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in federal prison on the most serious charges alone.

The timeline of the alleged scheme, as laid out in the federal indictments, appears to suggest that Gallegos, who resigned from the city in January, was the employee courted by the Duongs to carry out their bidding. Gallegos was not named in the indictments and has not been charged with any crimes.

Duffey said in a January interview that he felt pressured by Thao to place Gallegos in a director position, but he ultimately promoted Gallegos instead to a lesser role in Housing and Community Development.

“I believe the mayor has a right to have people that she trusts,” Duffey said in the January interview. “She wanted Larry to join her team; I said, ‘I can’t in good conscience do that.’ So I pivoted and found (another) position for Larry to join her team.”

California Waste Solutions co-owner Andy Duong, middle, leaves the Federal Building after appearing at the Federal Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., for his indictment on bribery and conspiracy charges by federal prosecutors on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. Also, his father, David Duong, former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, and her boyfriend, Andre Jones, were indicted. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) 

He described recounting these events to FBI agents ahead of the indictments filed against Thao and others in January.

Duffey, who had been the interim city administrator in early 2023, was later hired by Thao as an assistant city administrator in the office under City Administrator Jestin Johnson — a role that Duffey continued to serve even after Thao was removed by voters in the November 2024 election.

The federal investigation heightened the public’s scrutiny of city officials who worked closely with the former mayor, including Duffey, who had overseen the Public Works Department when the city sought a new security contractor to guard City Hall and other municipal facilities.

The Oaklandside reported last year that Duffey had intervened in the city’s search, personally advocating for ABC Security, the company that held the incumbent contract for Oakland’s security services.

ABC’s owner, Ana Chretien, is a close ally and associate of Mario Juarez, a man widely believed to be an unidentified co-conspirator who the feds accuse of working with the Duongs in the alleged bribery scheme.

Seneca Scott, a conservative provocateur who posts online criticisms and often-unverified allegations against Oakland government officials, later directly accused Duffey on social media of accepting bribes from ABC Security.

Duffey unsuccessfully pursued a restraining order against Scott, vowing to sue him for defamation, the Oaklandside reported. He did not respond Wednesday to questions about whether he is still considering a lawsuit.

Scott, meanwhile, is pursuing a run to be Oakland’s mayor in 2026, city officials confirmed this week.