The interim city administrator and the mayor have agreed to hold
another closed city council session so the body can discuss new,
confidential information about the next police chief.
Update: Mayor Al Pinheiro comments on upcoming closed session meeting.
The interim city administrator and the mayor have agreed to hold another closed city council session so the body can discuss new, confidential information about the next police chief.
The council planned to confirm the new chief Tuesday, but interim City Administrator Anna Jatczak received a letter from the Gilroy Police Officer Association Jan. 10 that she said included new information about Denise Turner, a chief with a 26-year career at the King County Sheriff’s Office, which covers Seattle. The information could prompt the council to delay an official decision until Feb. 4, or later, or it could confirm her Tuesday night.
Jatczak said she had questions about the letter because it relies partially on anonymous sources that describe a work environment different from Turner’s. This calls for a degree of skepticism, Jatczak said before acknowledging that anyone can say anything about anyone.
The possibility of formally hiring Turner and then learning something damning about her could put the city in legal trouble. Firing someone after such an exhaustive interview process is no easy chore, and for this reason council members have said they want all the information Mayor Al Pinheiro called for a closed session after he met with Jatczak Monday to discuss the information. It deserves a closer look, he said, and all the council members should be able to see it before they vote.
“We will take that vote when it’s appropriate … We will keep the council abreast of the information,” Pinheiro said, emphasizing the non-urgent nature of Turner’s approval that will now probably happen at the Feb. 4 council meeting. Turner is set to replace current Gilroy Police Department Chief Gregg Giusiana.
POA President Frank Bozzo declined to elaborate on the letter or the type of information included in it.
“Stuff has come up, but it hasn’t changed our position at this time,” Bozzo said.
Bozzo was referring to a letter former POA President Jim Callahan sent to the city council Dec. 10 weighing the pros and cons of Turner and the two other finalists at the time: Morgan Hill Police Commander Joe Sampson and San Jose Police Department Deputy Chief Donald Anders. While the letter conveyed the POA’s approval of Anders and Turner, but not Sampson, Callahan also cautioned that the officers in the King County POA had not returned calls.
“My e-mails to their POA officers have not yet been returned,” Callahan wrote. “I would guess that (Turner’s) Technical Services Division is not the hot-bed of POA/Management issues.”
Councilman Perry Woodward has surmised that negative responses to these e-mails must have gotten back to Callahan. For this reason, Councilman Craig Gartman said he looked forward to seeing what Jatczak had to present Monday so the said POA information can remain confidential, as Bozzo intends.
Personnel matters justify closed session meetings, but if Bozzo were to send the information to all council members, it would become public record. Jatczak, however, can deliver the information to the full council in a closed session.
The new information has already been incorporated into Turner’s ongoing background check, drug test and psychological and medical evaluations. If she passes everything, and Pinheiro decides not to hold any more closed sessions after Tuesday, the council could vote formally to approve Turner’s hiring that night, or at its Feb. 4 meeting. In a controversial move, the council voted 4-3 Dec. 17 to informally approve Turner, but that decision was not legally binding, and Pinheiro said he was open to a vote some time after Jan. 22: “There is nothing magic about Jan. 22.”
Woodward agreed with the cautious approach.
“If we’re going to have Turner come down here only to discover that she is not suitable, we may be exposing the city to liability,” Woodward said. “It seems to me that we need to go back into closed session to discuss this information as a personnel matter before any decision is made.” Woodward added that former Gilroy Police Department Chief Roy Sumisaki was investigated by the district attorney, and the city had to pay him $80,000 so he would resign.
