Oakland’s city administrator resigned Friday after text messages between him and a top lieutenant were made public discussing female employees and colleagues in degrading ways.

The text messages of Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson were recently taken into possession by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of the agency’s corruption investigation into former Mayor Sheng Thao, who hired Johnson in June 2023, as Oaklandside reports. The messages were reportedly made available through the city’s public records portal last week prior to Johnson’s resignation Friday.

According to the Chronicle, Johnson’s contract, which was set to expire in January 2027, granted him a salary of $340,000 a year, plus $750 per month for transportation. Johnson is reportedly Oakland’s highest-ranking official.

“On Friday evening, I learned about certain degrading and unprofessional communications involving Mr. Johnson,” said Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, who kept Johnson in the role when she became mayor last year. “Under my watch, I will not tolerate transgressions of this nature.”

ABC 7 reports that Assistant City Administrator Elizabeth "Betsy" Lake, who’s worked for the city for eight years, will take over the city administrator position on an interim basis. Lake previously practiced law for 30 years.

In Johnson’s text exchanges with another top official, Harold Duffey, he said one female employee had a “helluva walk” and that another made him “a little giddy,” explaining he had a hard time looking her just in the eyes.

Per Oaklandside, the subject of one of the more egregious text exchanges was Johnson’s former assistant city administrator, LaTonda Simmons, implying that she used her femininity to influence powerful men and calling her “emotional.” Johnson fired Simmons last June.

"Reducing women to sexualized functions and labeling women as emotional undermines and delegitimizes their value. Given his references to me and what his text shows, it comes as no surprise," Simmons said in a statement. "I reported to then-Interim Mayor, now City Council President, Kevin Jenkins, and others that Jestin was disparaging me and interfering with my work, but I received no support."

Oaklandside notes that Simmons’s spokesperson, Reese Walters, was awarded a $1 million settlement last year in a lawsuit against the city, which alleged that during her time as the Department of Violence Prevention’s public information officer, her boss Guillermo Cespedes regularly spoke about her offensively and inappropriately. She said he also paid her less than male colleagues in similar roles and fired her for submitting whistleblower complaints.

Related: Federal Judge Rejects Motion By Sheng Thao and Co-Defendants to Toss Evidence In Corruption Case

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