by Mark McDermott
Former Manhattan Beach City Manager Mark Danaj, fired under mysterious circumstances locally four years ago, has been indicted on felony embezzlement charges.
Danaj’s most recent employer, the City of Fremont, has accused Danaj of using a city credit card to make more than $18,000 in personal purchases over the past four years. Danaj resigned as city manager of Fremont earlier this year.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office filed the felony charges in late February, and Danaj was arraigned on March 9 in Alameda County Superior Court. The story was first reported by the San Jose Mercury News.
In a court filing, the DA’s office detailed the alleged embezzlement.
“These improper, personal charges included the use of the credit card for travel, accommodations, Apple products, medical services, and food delivery,” wrote Inspector Thomas Cleary wrote. “These actions deprived the city of public funds and were for his personal benefit.”
Danaj was released from his contract in Manhattan Beach in January 2018 following a three-week administrative leave and an investigation by City Council. No cause was given, but later investigations by the Easy Reader indicated an unease among City officials about Danaj’s frequent absence and his increases to City staffing. In his nearly four-year tenure in Manhattan, Danaj drew criticism for $10.5 million spent on outside consultants, nearly $1 million added to the city budget annually for newly created management positions, and a low-interest $2.3 million home loan given to his assistant city manager, Nadine Nader.
Danaj, who was hired in 2014, at the time of his departure issued a statement in which he emphasized the “without cause” aspect of his termination.
“I was always confident this Council’s inquiry would find no wrongdoing,” he said. “In fact, when I was originally hired, I insisted that ICMA’s [the International City/County Management Association] professional code of ethics be incorporated into my contract. This separation without cause speaks for itself.”
Danaj was subsequently hired in May of the same year by former colleagues who now worked for the City of Santa Clara, including Nader. Though he was never subjected to a background check, issued a City identification badge or keys, and by some reports never entered City Hall, his employment at Santa Clara kept his CalPERS premium retirement status intact, and two months later he was hired as city manager of Fremont.
Manhattan Beach Councilperson Richard Montgomery, a critic of Danaj’s before he was elected to the Council in 2018 (having previously served a decade earlier), said that what occurred in Fremont saddened but did not surprise him.
“It’s unfortunate that this happened in another city, but for those people who thought we made a hasty decision in dismissing Mark Danaj and finding a new city manager — now they can take a step back and realize we made the right decision,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery said that rather than dwell on what occurred with Danaj, he preferred to dwell on the positive, which is that his dismissal led to the promotion of Bruce Moe as city manager.
“Bruce Moe bleeds MB blue,” Montgomery said. “He was our finance director for a long time. He is one of ours…Choosing the leader for over 300 employees is crucial. And we hit a home run.” ER
