Gilroy
– City attorneys have released the police chief’s employment
contract after initially arguing such documents are not open to
public scrutiny.
Gilroy – City attorneys have released the police chief’s employment contract after initially arguing such documents are not open to public scrutiny.
The two-page document dates back to 1998 and outlines the employment and termination conditions for Police Chief Gregg Giusiana, whose hush-hush retirement inspired a political firestorm when it was exposed two weeks ago. The controversy heated up when city attorneys advised City Hall to not disclose the chief’s new contracts.
“It’s a movement in the right direction to the transparency we keep talking about wanting in government,” Councilman Craig Gartman said, referring to the decision to release Giusiana’s old contract. “I’m encouraged by it.”
In a prelude to their permanent departure from active duty, Giusiana and Assistant Chief Lanny Brown formally retired earlier this winter and “returned” to work as part-time employees. Neither city council nor the 60-plus officers in the Gilroy Police Department were informed of the change in employment status until last month.
The deal, brokered by City Administrator Jay Baksa, will save the city $100,000-plus in medical and retirement payments and double the earning potential of each chief. Both now stand to make more than $240,000 in pension payments and hourly wages.
Suspicions about the secrecy surrounding the deals mounted after city attorneys at Berliner Cohen, in San Jose, advised City Hall to shield the chiefs’ new employment contracts from public view. The decision, based on what the firm called a “conservative” reading of open records laws, flouted statutes calling for the disclosure of all public employee contracts, according to Californians Aware, a nonprofit open-government group.
In hopes of taming the controversy, the chiefs volunteered copies of their post-retirement agreements Feb. 21, at which point city attorneys also released the agreements. Yet Berliner Cohen continued to insist that police chief contracts are not typically open for public inspection – unlike all other public employee contracts.
On Monday, City Attorney Linda Callon was called before city council for an impromptu job evaluation, after the Dispatch and open government advocates questioned the firm’s decision to withhold the documents.
On Wednesday, city attorneys complied with a supplemental records request by e-mailing a copy of Giusiana’s 1998 employment agreement. The document lays out in broad strokes the terms for compensation, annual performance reviews, and termination. It calls for Giusiana, whose formal retirement took effect in December, to notify his employer of his resignation three months in advance.
“As long as you keep personal information out of it, I believe public employee contracts should all be made public,” Gartman said.
An address, social security number and other personal information should be protected, he added, while the city should release information that answers basic questions about how taxes are being spent.
“Is this a one-year contract? Are they getting paid hourly? Do they get a car allowance, a housing allowance?” Gartman said. “The terms and conditions of employment should be transparent.”
City attorneys said they are “still researching” an additional Dispatch request for top city officials’ written exchanges about the retirement deals.
