The interim city administrator will likely ask the mayor Monday
to hold another closed city council session so the body can discuss
new, confidential information about the next police chief.
The interim city administrator will likely ask the mayor Monday to hold another closed city council session so the body can discuss new, confidential information about the next police chief.
It appeared that the council would confirm the new chief Jan. 22, but interim City Administrator Anna Jatczak received a letter from the Gilroy Police Officer’s Association Thursday afternoon 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.
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, so if Pinheiro calls for a closed session, the council should also take the new information with a grain of salt.
Mayor Al Pinheiro agreed and said that if the information is warranted, “then we’ll get further information and keep the council abreast of what is happening.”
“Most likely we will have a closed session … We will take that vote when it’s appropriate,” Pinheiro said, emphasizing the non-urgent nature of Turner’s approval that will now probably happen in February. Turner is set to replace current Gilroy Police Department Chief Gregg Giusiana, who retired in December 2006 but has subce headed the force as its interim chief.
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 responded.
*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 surmised Thursday that negative responses to these e-mails must have gotten back to Callahan. For this reason, Woodward said he would not be opposed to holding another closed session meeting on the said information so that it 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 a closed session before Jan. 22, the council could vote formally to approve Turner’s hiring then. 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.”
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 Woodward said he wanted all the information he could get.
*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.
