SAN MATEO — A top community college administrator has been fired while prosecutors continue investigating allegations that he engaged in unethical activities during his 20-year tenure.

The San Mateo County Community College District board unanimously voted in closed session Saturday to end its contract with Chancellor-Emeritus Ron Galatolo after he held that paid position for 18 months but only worked a week. Mike Claire, former president of the College of San Mateo, will take over his post.

Galatolo’s termination letter says he received “high-end travel,” concert tickets and meals from the college district’s contractors which he did not disclose to the state. The board also noted he failed to disclose “apparent use of public funds for retirement incentives” as well as “undisclosed personal relationships with vendors.”

Galatolo was previously the district’s chancellor for 20 years until he entered into an agreement with the district board in Aug. 2019 to transition out of his role over three years under a new position. After dealmaking between trustees and Galatolo to negotiate a transition, Galatolo assumed a newly created post as “chancellor emeritus” under a $1.6 million contract set to expire in March 2022, according to trustee Maurice Goodman.

The position was ostensibly to explore the possibility of having a California State University campus on the Peninsula, but just a week after starting, the district the district placed him on paid leave after learning he was being investigated by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Galatolo is being investigated over allegations brought up in his contract termination as well as other undisclosed details.

Wagstaffe said in an interview Thursday the investigation started in Mid-2019 and is drawing to a close. The office should have a report ready in the next three months, he added.

Board trustees said that in addition to the DA’s ongoing investigation, they also let Galatolo go because they learned he was receiving gifts from contractors.

As part of his job, Galatolo managed a portfolio of about $1 billion in construction contracts at Cañada College, College of San Mateo and Skyline College, the district’s three campuses. He was the top paid employee for the district earning $467,700 a year, or about $39,000 monthly.

Galatolo now must return the $662,575 he earned while in his emeritus position since August 2019. And the board could charge him for benefits he was paid too.

The district also said Galatolo did not provide “any services to the district for over 18 months” — since he was placed on leave soon after starting his post — and called his objection to answering inquiries about his dealings “specious.”

“The board asked you, in good faith, to respond to its concerns… in an effort to determine if the concerns were warranted or if further information should be considered,” the board said in its letter to Galatolo. “You have refused to respond in any genuine manner. Given this refusal, we continue to believe that you withheld material information during the course of the negotiations leading up to the College District’s offering the Chancellor Emeritus position to you.”

The district said that had it known about the allegations of financial impropriety, it “would not have entered into the 2019 agreement” with Galatolo.

Galatolo said during a brief interview on Thursday that he did not want comment based on advice from his attorney but there is “certainly a story to be told.”

Wagstaffe said the gifts Galatolo received from contractors while with the district are part of the investigation. He said his office is looking into everything involving Galatolo from the first time he was brought in to work at the district until the last day.

For district trustee Goodman, who was vocally opposed to and voted against entering into the emeritus position contract with Galatolo in 2019, the firing gives him a sense of closure. He said the board’s decision was “a long time coming.”

“There’s a sense of completion and an opportunity for closure, certainly,” he said. “But at the same time I don’t want it to be lost that I also believe our board had our fingerprints on this as well for passing that contract to begin with. I believe Ron should’ve been gone before his contract was extended.”

Goodman said the board’s decision was not related to Wagstaffe’s investigation closing out soon. He said he’s glad that this is the “end of one chapter of many chapters.”

“It created a tremendous amount of instability for our district, for morale, for trust, and so that’s what we as a board have been thinking about, a way to self-correct or reset,” Goodman said. “Right now we can at least start to exhale and think about next steps for focusing on our students and faculty who were hurt by the pandemic.”