The Stockton City Manager's Office announced Tuesday that an investigation has been launched into a $50,000 payment made months ago.

This was allegedly to prevent the cancellation of a comedy show that Vice Mayor Jason Lee was involved with.

The "Wild 'n Out" comedy show happened in May at the Adventist Health Arena in Stockton. Lee is friends with some of the performers and posted a video of him participating in the event on his Facebook page.

The city manager says it has recently come to light that $50,000 from the city's risk mitigation fund was used in connection with the event without his knowledge or approval.

Lee is also calling for an independent, outside investigation into all of this, calling it a politically motivated retaliation. He believes this is all in response to his own investigation into budget and hiring concerns by the city manager's office.

He discussed this during Monday's Audit Committee meeting.

"This whole week has been a political witch hunt to prove somehow that the vice mayor conspired with city staff to go in the bank accounts to give $50,000 to a brand that lost $175,000 on top of the $50,000 in an approved fund that they've used in the past," Lee said in the meeting. "It was also an opportunity to silence the voice of staff who are bringing forward serious concerns with respect to internal controls that are out of control."  

Mayor Christina Fugazi also commented on his investigation into the city manager's office.

"An outside investigator will be looking into money that was authorized to be spent that maybe shouldn't have, or I'm not quite sure. I only say that because it didn't go through the city manager, and all of that kind of stuff should be going through the city manager," Mayor Fugazi said. "Anything that has to do with disbursement of funds, the city manager should know about."

Lee also says the Audit Committee reviewed the city's partnership with ASM Global, the event promoter of "Wild 'n Out," created by Nick Cannon. Lee says the committee's recommendation for an outside investigation will go before the city council immediately.

The interim city manager says his investigation will look into whether any city policies or procedures were bypassed and if any lines were crossed.