The East Bay is abuzz with the news of the recall of Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price. But little has been reported about her temporary successor Royl Roberts.

Longtime Peralta Community College District (PCCD) employees may be familiar with him: Roberts served in management roles at the district for nearly six years before Price tapped him for Chief Assistant District Attorney. Days after passing the California Bar Exam, Roberts was named General Counsel and would serve in that role for four months before his departure early last year.

Price said her goodbyes Thursday, the same day the Alameda County Registrar of Voters certified the results of the election. Roberts will helm the DA’s office until the Alameda County Board of Supervisors appoints a new Interim DA.

Under a proposed timeline for the appointment, the new DA could be sworn in by Jan. 28, but that could change if supervisors extend the timeline at their next meeting on Tuesday.

District 1 Supervisor David Haubert named “demonstrated experience” and “leadership capabilities” as the top qualities he’s looking for in the next DA. Regarding Roberts, Haubert said he’s only met him “a few times.”

“So I don’t really have a strong opinion one way or the other,” Haubert said. “But I’m confident that between him and the people and his department, [they can] keep the department as smoothly as possible.”

Roberts did not respond to two requests for an interview.

Roberts’ rise through the ranks

Roberts’ history at Peralta dates back to the summer of 2010, when he interned for PCCD’s Office of the General Counsel while a law student at Golden Gate University. At the time, PCCD’s General Counsel was Thuy Thi Nguyen, who would later move on from the district to become Foothill College President.

After graduating, Roberts worked as a law clerk at Price’s law office, Price and Associates, for two years, according to his LinkedIn.

In December 2013, he returned to PCCD as the Executive Assistant to the General Counsel.

During this time, Roberts also taught part-time at the ITT Technical Institute, a private for-profit college chain that closed in 2016 after the U.S. Department of Education imposed sanctions following allegations of predatory student recruitment practices.

He left in 2015 to serve as the Director of Operations at The Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center, a nonprofit organization housed at Merritt College that focuses on civic engagement and leadership development for low-income families and youth. Congresswoman Barbara Lee is a founding member of the center, and former PCCD chancellor Elihu Harris is its presiding chair.

The organization’s tax records show that Roberts took home a $74,000 salary while serving as director.

Roberts returned to work for PCCD in March 2017, when he was hired Risk & Safety Programs Manager, at a salary of $109,458.

In February 2018, Roberts was “re-assigned” to “support the areas of Employee Relations and Diversity Programs” at a salary of $124,655. In July 2018, he was appointed Interim Director of Employee Relations and Diversity Programs at a salary of $156,307.

Peralta trustees approved a raise for Roberts in his interim role in July 2020, bringing his salary to $167,167.

That October, Roberts was appointed Interim Special Assistant to The Chancellor and Chief of Staff at a salary of $184,460.

At the time, the district was under the leadership of Interim Chancellor Carla Walter, who stepped in on Oct. 1, 2020. Walter resigned in April 2021 and was subsequently replaced by former Interim Chancellor Jannett Jackson.

Roberts was sworn onto the The State Bar of California on July 22, 2022. Five days later, Jackson announced that he would be transitioning into General Counsel, effective Sep. 1, 2022.

The General Counsel provides legal advice to the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor. They may also represent the district in legal proceedings and help draft and negotiate contracts.

Roberts served as General Counsel for four months before Price tapped him for Chief Assistant District Attorney in January, during her first week in office.

Under California law, attorneys’ bar exam records, including scores and the number of times they attempt the exam before passing, are not public record.

Roberts in The Citizen

Roberts has been named in several articles published in The Peralta Citizen throughout the years.

Trustee Vacancy — Feb. 6, 2023

Just before his departure to the District Attorney’s Office, Roberts counseled the PCCD Board of Trustees on the process of filling a vacant seat left by the midterm resignation of Kevin Jenkins.

Trustees deliberated on what questions to include in the trustee application. According California Education Code, anyone who is a registered voter residing in the district that hasn’t been convicted of certain crimes is eligible to serve as trustee “without further qualifications.”

Roberts expressed concerns that including any additional questions past the minimum requirements in the application could violate the Ed Code. One trustee disagreed, arguing that additional information was needed in order to narrow down candidates.

After some discussion, trustees added a candidate statement to the application.

Prior to the board’s approval of the agenda item at the Jan. 24 meeting, Trustee Nicky González Yuen expressed dissatisfaction with the limited questions in the job posting.

“We wouldn’t know who we want to interview until we’ve seen an application,” Yuen said, adding that the board could “set up minimum qualifications based on the law and then it’s up to this board to make a determination [sic] who we appoint. But we need some information, knowledge, and criteria in order to make that determination”.

Roberts explained that the decision to leave more specific questions out of the application was based on the criteria laid out by EDC § 72103.

“It’s pretty prescriptive and it sets out what the criteria is and it’s pretty clear,” Roberts said.

Roberts specifically pointed out that EDC § 72103 states that if an individual meets the minimum requirements, then that person “is eligible to be elected or appointed a member of a governing board of a community college district without further qualifications”.

Roberts suggested that additional questions could potentially be used as further qualifications for each candidate.

“If it would be used to limit the qualifications of someone moving forward, it would go against what the Ed Code says,” Roberts explained.

Yuen challenged this interpretation of the law, and argued that some additional information is needed in the decision making process. Yuen suggested that under this interpretation, statements of qualifications and résumés would also be limiting.

“Obviously you need some criteria that will inform the decision. So that interpretation can’t be correct – that you have no other qualifications. Because then you could be like, ‘let’s draw by lottery, because they’re all qualified,’” Yuen explained.

The board eventually agreed to add a candidate statement to the application and unanimously voted to approve the process and timeline.

DA’s office recuses itself, then reverses course on Thomas case— Feb. 19 & April 21, 2023.

The hiring of Roberts led the DA’s office to evaluate whether his history at Peralta posed a conflict of interest in a criminal case involving former PCCD Executive Director of Public Safety, Tim Thomas.

The DA’s office told The Citizen in February 2023 that it was recusing itself “out of an abundance of caution.”

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office (ACDAO) announced in an Oakland courtroom on Feb. 3 it has a possible conflict of interest in a case involving Tim Thomas, the Director of Public Safety for the Peralta Community College District (PCCD). Thomas was charged with three misdemeanor crimes stemming from an altercation near the district offices with Tom Jensen, the elderly resident of an RV, on May 6, 2022.

Judge Armando Pastran, Jr. rescheduled Thomas’ pre-trial hearing for April 14 to allow time for the district attorney’s office to confirm if a conflict existed and, if so, to determine who would take over prosecution of the Thomas case.

During the hearing, the conflict was discussed during a sidebar conversation with the attorneys and Pastran. No details were revealed in open court once the hearing resumed. In a hallway conversation during a break in the hearing, however, deputy district attorney Jason Quinn informed Jensen the recent appointment of Royl Roberts as Chief Assistant District Attorney was the source of the conflict. Prior to joining the district attorney’s office, Roberts was general counsel for the Peralta district.

A statement provided to The Citizen on Feb. 8 by Angela Ruggiero, Public Information Officer for the ACDAO confirmed that the district attorney’s office is recusing itself from the case. It also clarified the extent of Roberts’ involvement in the Thomas case.

[Editor’s note: Ruggiero has since moved on from ACDAO and currently works in communications for the Alameda County Office of Education.]

“As Peralta Community College’s General Counsel, Mr. Royl L. Roberts removed himself from any communication from the case once he knew he was coming to work at the District Attorney’s Office,” according to the ACDAO statement.

“Although his work in our office is to oversee the office’s administration, operations and finance, and not work directly with prosecuting cases, the District Attorney’s Office is recusing itself out of an abundance of caution.”

Ruggiero said the Thomas case will probably be turned over to either the California Attorney General’s office or “another local district attorney’s office,” but a decision will not be made before the April 14 hearing.

In a subsequent email to The Citizen on Feb. 27, Ruggiero said that while ACDAO is recusing itself from the Thomas case, it is not yet confirming there is a conflict. “Just because we are recusing ourselves, does not mean we agree there is a conflict,” according to Ruggiero.

The DA’s office ultimately decided not to recuse itself, after evaluating the potential conflict.

At the April 14 hearing, Jason Quinn, deputy district attorney at ACDAO, told Presiding Judge Armando Pastran, Jr. that his office conducted research on the conflict issue and consulted with the California Attorney General’s office before reaching the decision not to recuse itself. While not mentioning Roberts by name, Quinn told the judge that the “individual with a potential conflict” will have no contact with prosecutors handling the Thomas case and “will not be consulted.”

Thomas ultimately received six months probation and 24 hours of community service for the case.

Conflict of interest disclosures — Sep. 17, 2024

Roberts was one of many current and former Peralta officials named in The Citizen’s deep dive into financial disclosure documents, which shed light on the district’s pattern of noncompliance with California political reform laws. Public officials are required to report potential conflicts of interest on a state form each year, but the Peralta had no record of half of these forms over a six-year period.

According to the records, Roberts did file a disclosure for 2019. The Citizen noticed that Roberts reported two gifts from insurance firms, which Roberts said were provided during a conference.

Royl Roberts, a former administrator who held multiple positions during his time at the district, reported receiving a “​​Wine Walk @ Consortium” valued at $91.61 on Jan. 16, 2019, from the company Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an insurance, risk management, and consulting firm.

Roberts also disclosed a gift valued at $52.52 with the description “Celadon Restaurant,” on Jan. 17, 2019 from insurance company Brit Global Specialty. The restaurant is located in Napa, CA.

At the time he received the gifts, Roberts was serving as Interim Director of Employee Relations and Diversity Programs, which is listed as a “designated” position in the district’s conflict of interest disclosure policy. Roberts also held the permanent position of Risk and Safety Programs Manager.

District records show that PCCD has a financial relationship with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. dating back to at least 2013, with payments of about $5,000 per year.

In an email to The Citizen, Roberts provided a copy of the agenda for the Community College Risk Management Consortium, held July 17-19, 2019. The consortium, hosted by Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., included workshops and seminars on topics such as the campus safety, Title IX regulations, and the Clery Act, according to the agenda.

“I can assure you unequivocally that this dinner overage in the amount of approximately $41.61 in no way directly or indirectly affected my ability to manage a wide variety of insurance programs or my ability to negotiate insurance programs with insurance brokers on behalf of the District,” Roberts stated.