I've been able to upgrade castles with my castellan after many years but as far as I can tell the castellan can only upgrade castles. So my question is how does one trigger a city upgrade after spending the cash to improve the city?
I'll be more specific. I don't own the city it's a vassal of my county. The castellan doesn't work if you don't own the city; I've tested it by triggering the upgrade event in the console.