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Did Woodside’s town manager demand a $400,000 payout in exchange for quashing a scathing list of complaints against Town Council members? Or was Jason Ledbetter just asking for a partial buyout of his contract? These are among the claims currently roiling Woodside in the wake of a detailed whistleblower report from the town’s top employee.
On Thursday, Feb. 19, the town announced that Ledbetter was placed on paid administrative leave, just hours after he sent a 14-page whistleblower report to the press. In it, Ledbetter alleged that Mayor Brian Dombkowski and Mayor Pro Tempore Paul Goeld pressured him to delay housing projects and that Council member Jenn Wall discriminated against him because he’s male.
Shortly after Ledbetter released the report, Woodside’s town clerk emailed a statement claiming that Ledbetter had demanded the town pay him more than $400,000 to keep it from going public.
Ledbetter characterized his request differently.
“I have 26 months left on my contract and felt that I could no longer work under the current circumstances,” Ledbetter told this news organization.
Feeling that remaining quiet would leave a “stain” on his resume, he explained that he asked the town to provide a separation package with salary and benefits for a year or until he gets a new job. He also requested getting paid for his accrued vacation time. Adding that together appears to be how the town came up with the “over $400,000” sum they claimed he demanded, Ledbetter said.
In the complaint, Ledbetter alleged that three members of the Town Council created a hostile workplace “built on corruption, abuse and dishonesty.” This report was shared to other members of the town staff and committee members, according to the town clerk’s statement.
Ledbetter’s report claims that Dombkowski and Goeld tried to manipulate him and were discriminatory toward council members Jenn Wall and Hassan Aburish. Ledbetter also claims that Wall has bullied him for being male, in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).
Paul Goeld did not respond to requests for comment.
Ledbetter was hired by the town in April 2025, prior to the retirement of former Town Manager Kevin Bryant. He officially took over the reins in May, bringing over 25 years of experience in project management and local government.
The council was made aware of the whistleblower report on Tuesday, Feb. 17. According to Town Clerk Jennifer Li, Ledbetter contacted Town Attorney Jean Savaree shortly thereafter and demanded that the town pay him over $400,000 no later than midnight on Sunday, Feb. 22, or he would release the report to the public. On Wednesday, Feb. 18, he demanded that the money be paid no later than Friday, Feb. 20, according to the statement from the town.
Also on Wednesday, the town council held a special meeting in closed session to discuss a performance review of the town manager. The council rejected Ledbetter’s demands, according to the town’s statement.
“Although the Town does not believe that Mr. Ledbetter drafted and released this report in good faith, the Town is now determining the proper steps to take to ensure that an impartial investigation of its allegations, as well as Mr. Ledbetter’s demands, is completed,” the statement said.
Dombkowski and Wall denied all allegations made in the report. This news organization has reached out to all five council members for comment, but has not gotten a response from the other three.
“This shocked everyone involved. I have never seen anything like it,” Dombkowski said. “I tried my best to support (Ledbetter) and do whatever I could so he could succeed. It’s very hard for everyone to put aside their personal reactions but our primary goal is to protect the town.”
On Thursday afternoon, the town announced that Assistant Town Manager Melissa Cardinale was appointed as the interim town manager. The upcoming Town Council meeting for Feb. 24 has been canceled due to lack of quorum, as of Friday morning.
Blocking low-income housing
Woodside has struggled to fulfill state mandates for new housing creation and building low-income housing has been a point of contention in the community. Ledbetter alleges that Mayor Dombkowski repeatedly pressured him to postpone seeking developer proposals for building low-income housing on a site in his district known as the Raymudo parcel.
The report describes conversations “behind closed doors” in which the mayor asked Ledbetter to not act on initiatives that could bring low-income housing to his district.
“He states that I need to postpone these actions until after he is reelected and no longer Mayor, and at the first meeting in December of 2026 that this will be current Mayor Pro Tempore Paul Goeld’s ‘problem to deal with,’” Ledbetter wrote in the report.
Dombkowski said the town is already in the process of developing the request for proposals on the parcels listed in the Woodside’s housing element, which is a kind of blueprint for adding housing in the current eight-year cycle. He added that the town is trying its best to meet its mid-cycle housing goals by this time next year.
Ledbetter claims in his complaint that Goeld also asked him not to take any action to find a housing developer for the low-income housing site on High Road, in the election district Goeld represents.
“At two different dinners where I was taken to the Village Pub by Mayor Dombkowski and Mayor Pro Tempore Goeld it was made very clear to me that the two would be very unhappy with me if I followed through on the Housing Element that they had both voted on to approve,” Ledbetter wrote in the report.
Claims of sexist and racist slurs against council members Wall and Aburish
Ledbetter claims that during his first official meeting with Dombkowski and Goeld, he was taken aback by the use of derogatory terms used to describe Wall, including comments about her physical appearance, with one term describing her chest allegedly popularized by the mayor and used by Goeld and former Council member Chris Shaw behind her back.
Dombkowski said he “absolutely” denies those allegations.
“I comport myself with courtesy and professionalism toward my fellow council members. Jenn and I don’t always agree with policy decisions but I respect her opinion, even though it might differ from mine,” he said. “She is an amazing professional with a brilliant mind. These allegations that are made about any statement about Jenn are refuted by the public record of our working relationship together.”
Ledbetter also recounts racist remarks toward Council member Hassan Aburish in his allegations. The report details a dinner meeting with Goeld and Dombkowski alleging that Goeld said, that as a Jewish person, he approves of the genocide in Gaza and hinks Aburish is Palestinian. Ledbetter also claims that Goeld used the N-word to refer to Palestinians.
Dombkowski told this news organization that he has never heard Goeld use those words and has no recollection of ever being present for the dinner in Ledbetter’s report.
Ledbetter characterizes his frequent lunch and dinner meetings with Dombkowski as part of a pressure campaign but Dombkowski explained that he was trying to make Ledbetter feel welcomed. Occasionally he would invite Goeld to join them because he was next in line for mayor, Dombkowski said.
Alleged hostility from Jenn Wall
Ledbetter accuses Wall of discriminating against him because he’s male, in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). His report details numerous incidents of what he describes as bullying from Wall, and speculates that she might have “justifiably” believed that Ledbetter shared the alleged misogynistic views expressed by Dombkowski and Goeld.
Ledbetter describes Wall texting him about non-emergency topics excessively and at all hours — in the middle of the night, on weekends and holidays — and accuses her of having a “belittling engagement style.” He details an incident when Wall saw multiple Sheriff’s deputies near her home and allegedly sought to issue an alert on San Mateo County’s SMC Alert system over Ledbetter’s objections and the eventual denial of Sheriff’s Capt. Frank Dal Porto
“Not only was this demoralizing and problematic for the relationship I was forming with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, it was also tone deaf and purposefully demeaning toward me,” Ledbetter wrote.
On another weekend, Ledbetter accuses Wall of “abusive and aggressive texting led to high anxiety and a ruined weekend” after she contacted him at midnight with questions about a vegetation fire along I-280 earlier that afternoon.
During a heated discussion at the Feb. 10 Town Council meeting, about the Flock Safety automated license plate cameras in Woodside, Wall was also outspoken in her objections to using ALPRS. She directed multiple questions toward Ledbetter, which he describes as an “abusive line of questioning.”.
Alleged misuse of power from Mayor Dombkowski
During the same Feb. 10 council meeting, the council members voted to ask the California Department of Transportation to lower the speed limit to 15 mph in front of Woodside Elementary School over safety concerns raised by the town’s Circulation Committee.
Shortly after joining the town, Ledbetter wrote that Circulation Committee Chair Ehsan Farkondeh requested the speed limit reduction be added to an upcoming council meeting agenda.
Ledbetter alleges that Dombkowski pressed him to remove the agenda item and “bury it” because the lower speed limit on Woodside Road would slow down his daily commute. Ledbetter claims he was instructed to hold off on the item until the summer.
Ledbetter added that Dombkowski pressured Farkondeh into holding off on the item and threatened to take away the committee’s direct line to the Sheriff’s Office by having it report to the council on traffic concerns instead.
Ledbetter cast doubt on Dombkowski’s motives for seeking a lower speed limit on Highway 84 between Churchill Avenue and Moore Road in support of a road median beautification project funded by private donors. Caltrans, which controls the roadway, required a speed limit of no more than 40 mph in order for trees to be planted.
During this time, Ledbetter also received a request to add an agenda item for a resolution requesting Caltrans reduce the speed limit at the intersection between Highway 84 and 35 from 40 mph to 25 mph, which the council approved on Feb. 10.
Facing Dombkowski’s alleged demands to hold on the speed limit requests for Woodside Elementary School, Ledbetter explained to him that he could no longer hold off on it when two similar requests had been added to the agenda.
“He seemed baffled as to why I couldn’t just ‘bury it’ and that ‘the last Town Manager would have just buried it,’” the report claims. “Ironically Mayor Dombkowski played both sides on this item and voted yes in public after all his manipulation and bullying behind the scenes.”
Ledbetter questioned the relationship between former council member Shaw and Dombkowski. Shaw allegedly told Ledbetter that he and Dombkowski “spend many days of the week gossipping about town policies at the gym.”
“It appears to me that inappropriate information shared by Mayor Dombkowski to Chris Shaw allows Shaw to manipulate situations for his favor or unknown gain,” Ledbetter wrote.
“There is always conflict and discussion and back and forth leading into every public session,” Dombkowski said in response to the allegation. “Council members have a right to express their opinion as they think through these issues. That’s what the government does.”
The town will be investigating the allegations and will be making public statements in the months ahead, said Dombkowski to this news organization. He said he believes that the allegations will be shown to be without merit.
“If you know me, you know who I am, my character, integrity and commitment to doing good. The same is true of my elected colleagues, who also now bear the burden of these allegations,” he added. “It takes a personal toll on everyone involved the council, our staff and the volunteers but the Town Council is unified in its response here.”
Woodside town manager on leave after releasing whistleblower report against mayor, council membersFebruary 19, 2026 12:10 pm
