Form 990-EZ for tax year 2022

Totals

Total revenue

$173,431

Total expenses

$224,367

Contributions and grants received

$173,110

Grants paid

— not reported

Program service revenue

— not reported

Membership dues (line 3)

— not reported

Investment income (line 4)

— not reported

Gain or loss on sale of assets (line 5c)

— not reported

Gaming and fundraising events, net (line 6d)

— not reported

Gross profit on inventory sales (line 7c)

— not reported

Other revenue (line 8)

$321

Total assets, end of year

$18,025

Total liabilities, end of year

$22,073

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

-$4,048

Program service expenses (Part III)

$183,592

Program services were 81.8% of total expenses calculated — Part III's total program service expenses over total expenses, both as filed.

Mission and programs · 2022

• Investigative Reporting in the public interest Open Vallejo published groundbreaking, original stories in 2022 that have generated major impact in Vallejo, in Solano County, and at the state level, and which have earned our website approximately 13,339 page views per month. Our investigative reporting, some of it in partnership with the national nonprofit newsroom ProPublica, was followed by the resignation of the police chief and the formation of a task force dedicated to complying with an ongoing review of the Vallejo Police Department by the California Department of Justice. For the first time in the known history of the Vallejo Police Department, an officer was fired as a direct result of a fatal use of force. Our work is now a basis on which civil rights attorneys are seeking federal receivership of the department, and information we uncovered is playing a major role in local criminal cases. Vallejo police officers have quit or retired. And our work is referenced by the public in numerous city council meetings, public rallies, and other forums.For their work in 2022, Open Vallejo and its employees won the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter Excellence in Journalism Award for Community Media, as well as the 2022 James Madison Freedom of Information Award for Professional Journalism; the 2023 First Amendment Coalition Open Government and Free Speech Award, which is a national award; and the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice Journalistic Integrity Award, which is only presented when truly merited, according to the group. The news organizations reporting also made the semifinal round of the prestigious Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, which is administered by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.Here are some of the stories we published in 2022:Deputy police chief arrived impaired to Vallejo homicide, memo alleges: Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams was notified in March that his second-in-command had been drinking before he showed up to a homicide scene in a department SUV, according to an internal memo obtained by Open Vallejo. Now, sources say the city has opened an outside investigation which the chief says he knows nothing about.Termination overturned for Vallejo police lieutenant who threatened journalist: The combative head of Vallejos police union was cleared of wrongdoing by an arbitrator 18 months after he was fired for sending a threatening email to a reporter and other alleged misconduct.Vallejo patrol staffing drops below 1975 levels: As Vallejo's police union publicly suggests that Police Chief Shawny Williams is responsible for a staffing "crisis" within the agency, Williams has downplayed the issue, pointing to a recruitment push that some sources say is hampered by the department's violent reputation.One thing is clear: the real story is more complicated, and more serious, than either side would like to admit.Vallejo police reforms stall despite scrutiny over killings: Two California attorneys general have tried to reform the Vallejo Police Department, one of the most violent law enforcement agencies in the state. More than two years into a three-year reform agreement, however, the department has little to show for its promises. In this new investigation, Open Vallejo and ProPublica asked: what went wrong and who is causing the reforms to stall?Vallejo tolerated officers mistakes. Then they killed again.: For years, Vallejo residents have called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate their police department's high rate of fatal shootings. In this first-of-its-kind investigation, Open Vallejo and ProPublica examined what happens after those killings occur and how Vallejo compares to cities that have fallen under federal scrutiny.This article is Open Vallejo's most comprehensive investigation to date. It is based on more than 15,000 pages of police, forensic, and court files related to the citys 17 fatal police shootings since 2011. Most of these records were disclosed in response to dozens of public records requests and two lawsuits filed by this newsroom. When we reviewed those records we found a pattern of delayed and incomplete investigations, with dire consequences. This is a portrait of a city where impunity became policy.Shake-up looms as Vallejo police chief takes time off: The Vallejo Police Department is hiring a new deputy chief, promoting multiple officers to the upper echelons of its command staff, and disbanding two key programs all while the police chief is expected to be out of the office for weeks, Open Vallejo has confirmed.Vallejo police chief resigns, former Sacramento chief to consult: Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams has reached an agreement to resign from the City of Vallejo, which last week signed a $100,000 contract with former Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn to provide strategic planning advice, as well as "leadership coaching and mentoring" to department staff.

  Expenses $183,592

• Public records requests and litigation Open Vallejo filed numerous public records requests in 2022, which has contributed to the public understanding of local government. A lawsuit filed in September of 2021 has uncovered thousands of pages of records. This generated news reporting on the killing from this newsroom as well as others, and has informed the public both in Vallejo and across the country. During a May deposition of Vallejos then-public records coordinator, Open Vallejo discovered that senior Vallejo officials deliberately destroyed records, which were due to be disclosed to this newsroom, amid an investigation by the California Department of Justice. This led to an early 2023 news article that has forced the city to launch a third-party investigation into the destruction of evidence after months of inaction.

• Press freedom Open Vallejo has been an early and active partner in the Protecting Journalists Pro Bono Program, a collaborative effort of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, and Microsoft. The program has provided tens of thousands of dollars worth of pro bono support to this newsroom through pre-publication review of news articles and representation in the public records litigation mentioned above.In addition to participating in this program, Open Vallejo signed on to several RCFP amicus briefs and letters supporting press freedom and other First Amendment rights.

As filed on the 2022 return.

Listed in Part IV

Compensation is as filed in Part IV of the Form 990-EZ: compensation, contributions to benefit plans, expense account, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total.

Grants on this return

No itemized grants to organizations on this return.

Provenance

Return type

form_990_ez

Tax year

2022

Filed

18 March 2023

IRS schema version

2022v4.1

Source object

202340779349200719

Check it against the return as filed: the GivingTuesday Data Lake hosts a public copy of the original XML.

The source document this was parsed from is served over the API, which is where bulk and document access live.