SAN DIEGO, Calif. \u2014 The City of San Diego hired a San Francisco law firm to conduct a confidential investigation into workplace allegations made against Police Chief Scott Wahl, Team 10 has learned.<\/p>\n
Police sources told Team 10 the investigation was launched earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Invoices obtained by Team 10 reveal taxpayers spent $37,400.92 on legal fees charged by the Renne Public Law Group.<\/p>\n
In July, Team 10 submitted a public records request to the city, asking for all invoices from outside law firms hired to conduct workplace investigations into allegations made against Wahl in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n
The invoices show investigators with the firm were paid $300-$450 an hour and started their \u201cfact-finding\u201d work back in January.<\/p>\n
Nothing in the documents suggests any wrongdoing on Wahl\u2019s part. The police chief was sworn in last June.<\/p>\n
Police refuse to disclose allegations<\/b><\/p>\n
The police department has refused to disclose what allegations were made against the leader, who has been with the force since 1998.<\/p>\n
Dave Rolland, a spokesperson for Mayor Todd Gloria, said the mayor has \u201cfull confidence\u201d in Wahl.<\/p>\n
He refused to say what prompted the city to hire the law firm. \u201cAs a matter of policy, we don\u2019t comment on internal personnel issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The invoices obtained by Team 10 show that at the end of April, the law firm billed the city for legal support expenses, including proofreading, edits and comments related to a \u201creport.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amol Brown\/Team 10<\/p>\n
San Diego City Attorney Heather Ferbert stood in front of reporters at a July press conference with Police Chief Scott Wahl about an illegal business shut down. Team 10 has learned Ferbert’s office hired a law firm to investigate workplace allegations made against Wahl. Her office refuses to release the final report on the matter.<\/p>\n
As part of their investigation, lawyers were tasked with interviewing SDPD command staff, witnessing officers and the complainants, according to the contract between the firm and the city.<\/p>\n
Investigators were asked to determine if city or department policies were violated and were paid to write a final report that concluded whether the allegations were true or unfounded.<\/p>\n
Firm hired to ensure ‘impartiality’<\/b><\/p>\n
The City Attorney refused to release the report to Team 10 in a public records request.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no comment and cannot provide any additional information,\u201d said San Diego City Attorney\u2019s Office spokesman Ibrahim Ahmed.<\/p>\n
Records obtained by Team 10 show Assistant City Attorney Jim McNeill approved the contract with the law firm in January.<\/p>\n
San Diego police refused to release the report to Team 10 and didn\u2019t return a request for comment sent last month.<\/p>\n
But after we obtained the invoices for the firm\u2019s work late Friday, the department finally responded.<\/p>\n
Ashley Nicholes, a spokesperson for the police department, said the law firm\u2019s work has finished. She called the issue a \u201cpersonnel matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if it was appropriate for taxpayers to spend thousands on an outside law firm, she defended the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not uncommon for the city to hire outside law firms to conduct independent investigations to ensure impartiality,\u201d she said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n
Team 10 Investigative Reporter Austin Grabish is a government watchdog. He covers military investigations, the Medical Board of California and the border. If you have a story for him to investigate, email\u00a0austin.grabish@10news.com<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO, Calif. \u2014 The City of San Diego hired a San Francisco law firm to conduct a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[4090,5229,1582,276,10082,5022,3549,82972,7264,82973,82974,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-138525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-allegations","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-chief","13":"tag-investigation","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-police-chief","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-scott-wahl","18":"tag-team-10","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115013454675888584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}