Micromanaging the police department, part 1
The following notice is being circulated among the residents of this city. It has been discussed in many places for a while how City Manager Brad Hudson has apparently been micromanaging the police department, as well as other city divisions.
SUPPORT THE EFFORT
TO RETURN CITY HALL TO THE COMMUNITY!
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
6:30pm
City Council Chambers
City Hall
The current city administration, with the blessings of the current City Council, have been in the process for months of micro-managing the city departments with various staff moves, eliminations and resignations.
On Friday, March 16th the City Manager’s Office once again entered into the promotional process, by appointing for the Police Department, a new Assistant Chief of Police and a new Deputy Chief; both positions being “at will” and contracting directly with the City Manager’s Office.
If you can see how problematic this type of management is for a Police Department, then you will join members of the community in support of our efforts to return the police department to the control of the Chief of Police.
We must clearly state to the City Council, the danger in unqualified intervention within the law enforcement arena.
We must clearly state to the City Council, that we desire a city government that is ethically strong and equitably sound.
If this is what the plan is, then it's just wrong and it's bad city management. It is the job of the police chief, not the city manager to hire, fire and promote personnel from bottom to top. But if Hudson and his sidekick, Asst. City Manager, Tom DeSantis are now taking over the selection, which means promotion and potentially the firing(as being "at will" means you serve at the pleasure of someone else and have little job security) of police employees, then what is the police chief there to do?
Traditionally in many law enforcement agencies, it is the chief or the sheriff who selects his management team, be it assistant chiefs or deputy chiefs. It is not the city manager who selects these positions. His or her job is to be involved in the hiring, selection and firing of department heads. But now Hudson and DeSantis(who is also head librarian these days among other things) are interested in playing police chief. What credentials does either bring to the position?
And how long will the individuals be in this position until they are fired "at will"? One high-ranking police employee has been the subject of much concern by community members in recent weeks. Is he also now an "at will" employee of the city manager or the police chief?
Perhaps both Hudson and De Santis can submit their resumes and explain it at the next city council meeting. If you want Hudson and De Santis to be the next police chiefs, then you can voice your support of this to City Hall. Of course, Hudson and De Santis couldn't manage to conduct negotiations with the police department's two unions without upsetting everyone and they have also in their great wisdom and experience in this area, decided that the 25 police positions that were to created in an attempt to meet the demand of civic growth were no longer needed.
Why, because most likely, the Riverside Renaissance five-year plan that Hudson unleashed to a salivating city government needs the money instead. As long as he keeps these "projects" coming, he and De Santis get free rein to micromanage the city to their collective hearts' desire. After all, how many questions has the city council asked about the demoralization of many people in the city's workforce?
Is it true, for example that nonsworn police positions in the police department are not currently being filled when employees vacate them? That's a question people have been asking, but what would be the city's answer?
The community can do its part to express its views of this latest development and ask questions about the process even though the city manager's office, not to mention the city government, has made it clear what they think of the city's residents and what interests they actually represent. Ultimately, it's the employees of the Riverside Police Department who will decide whether they will be led by the police chief or the city manager. It is how these individuals respond which will make the most difference.
If you are reading this and think it stinks, you can call your local elected official at (951) 826-5991. If you have questions about what exactly is going on, use the same contact information.
The morning sun broke over the city of Riverside, where only one day earlier, rain had fallen on the spires of the Riverside County Superior Courthouse.
So began the day that Lawrence Rivera went to trial on an infraction charge of disturbing the peace, by fighting in public.
Originally, he had been arrested on Dec. 14, with a deep cut on his forehead on P.C. 69, which is felony resisting arrest with force. However, the case was not actually filed until Jan. 17, the day before his scheduled arraignment. By the time, Rivera came to court to be arraigned, the felony had turned into P.C. 148(a)(1), which is misdemeanor deterring or delaying a police officer.
This charge would stay in the legal books a little bit longer than the other, but it too would be dismissed and replaced by not another misdemeanor, but an infraction. And infractions are not tried by a jury, they are tried by a judge.
Finding a judge and a courtroom for a trial expected to last several hours took most of yesterday and involved five different stints in four different courtrooms, in two different courthouses. Not to mention time spent waiting in the crowded corridors of Riverside's Hall of Justice and the relatively quiet lobby of the older building next door, which ordinarily hears civil cases but given the 1,000 case backload of felonies and an unknown number of misdemeanor trials, it hasn't seen a civil trial in months.
To be continued...
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Police Department's gang units were audited and experienced problems, including the lack of proper procedures used for search warrants and inadequate supervision.
(excerpt)
"The supervision is not as tight as it should have been," Commission President John Mack said.
"It's very important that we have adequate and effective supervision, particularly at the middle management level. That's at the level where we have the potential of things going awry."
SUPPORT THE EFFORT
TO RETURN CITY HALL TO THE COMMUNITY!
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
6:30pm
City Council Chambers
City Hall
The current city administration, with the blessings of the current City Council, have been in the process for months of micro-managing the city departments with various staff moves, eliminations and resignations.
On Friday, March 16th the City Manager’s Office once again entered into the promotional process, by appointing for the Police Department, a new Assistant Chief of Police and a new Deputy Chief; both positions being “at will” and contracting directly with the City Manager’s Office.
If you can see how problematic this type of management is for a Police Department, then you will join members of the community in support of our efforts to return the police department to the control of the Chief of Police.
We must clearly state to the City Council, the danger in unqualified intervention within the law enforcement arena.
We must clearly state to the City Council, that we desire a city government that is ethically strong and equitably sound.
If this is what the plan is, then it's just wrong and it's bad city management. It is the job of the police chief, not the city manager to hire, fire and promote personnel from bottom to top. But if Hudson and his sidekick, Asst. City Manager, Tom DeSantis are now taking over the selection, which means promotion and potentially the firing(as being "at will" means you serve at the pleasure of someone else and have little job security) of police employees, then what is the police chief there to do?
Traditionally in many law enforcement agencies, it is the chief or the sheriff who selects his management team, be it assistant chiefs or deputy chiefs. It is not the city manager who selects these positions. His or her job is to be involved in the hiring, selection and firing of department heads. But now Hudson and DeSantis(who is also head librarian these days among other things) are interested in playing police chief. What credentials does either bring to the position?
And how long will the individuals be in this position until they are fired "at will"? One high-ranking police employee has been the subject of much concern by community members in recent weeks. Is he also now an "at will" employee of the city manager or the police chief?
Perhaps both Hudson and De Santis can submit their resumes and explain it at the next city council meeting. If you want Hudson and De Santis to be the next police chiefs, then you can voice your support of this to City Hall. Of course, Hudson and De Santis couldn't manage to conduct negotiations with the police department's two unions without upsetting everyone and they have also in their great wisdom and experience in this area, decided that the 25 police positions that were to created in an attempt to meet the demand of civic growth were no longer needed.
Why, because most likely, the Riverside Renaissance five-year plan that Hudson unleashed to a salivating city government needs the money instead. As long as he keeps these "projects" coming, he and De Santis get free rein to micromanage the city to their collective hearts' desire. After all, how many questions has the city council asked about the demoralization of many people in the city's workforce?
Is it true, for example that nonsworn police positions in the police department are not currently being filled when employees vacate them? That's a question people have been asking, but what would be the city's answer?
The community can do its part to express its views of this latest development and ask questions about the process even though the city manager's office, not to mention the city government, has made it clear what they think of the city's residents and what interests they actually represent. Ultimately, it's the employees of the Riverside Police Department who will decide whether they will be led by the police chief or the city manager. It is how these individuals respond which will make the most difference.
If you are reading this and think it stinks, you can call your local elected official at (951) 826-5991. If you have questions about what exactly is going on, use the same contact information.
Or you can email them at the following addresses:
Or if you are at City Hall this afternoon, you can speak with Councilman Ed Adkison personally about this at his counseling sessions being held at 2:30 pm on the Seventh floor of City Hall.
Updated: Councilman Art Gage is inquiring into the matter and Brad Hudson assured people that it's the department that is asking its employees to select the "at will" option and that they receive slightly higher pay. Most employees in the city eagerly pick this option when it's offered, as they did in this latest situation in the police department, Hudson said. He added that for more information, to contact the police chief. There's still no response to who these employees will be "at will" to, the police chief or the city manager.
Or whether these three employees are the only ones representing the department's management who have been offered this opportunity to go "at will" or whether there are more planned to be added to the list in the future.
Hopefully, more information on this development that has many people concerned will be forthcoming but it seems odd to provide this opportunity to these three employees at this juncture in time.
The morning sun broke over the city of Riverside, where only one day earlier, rain had fallen on the spires of the Riverside County Superior Courthouse.
So began the day that Lawrence Rivera went to trial on an infraction charge of disturbing the peace, by fighting in public.
Originally, he had been arrested on Dec. 14, with a deep cut on his forehead on P.C. 69, which is felony resisting arrest with force. However, the case was not actually filed until Jan. 17, the day before his scheduled arraignment. By the time, Rivera came to court to be arraigned, the felony had turned into P.C. 148(a)(1), which is misdemeanor deterring or delaying a police officer.
This charge would stay in the legal books a little bit longer than the other, but it too would be dismissed and replaced by not another misdemeanor, but an infraction. And infractions are not tried by a jury, they are tried by a judge.
Finding a judge and a courtroom for a trial expected to last several hours took most of yesterday and involved five different stints in four different courtrooms, in two different courthouses. Not to mention time spent waiting in the crowded corridors of Riverside's Hall of Justice and the relatively quiet lobby of the older building next door, which ordinarily hears civil cases but given the 1,000 case backload of felonies and an unknown number of misdemeanor trials, it hasn't seen a civil trial in months.
To be continued...
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Police Department's gang units were audited and experienced problems, including the lack of proper procedures used for search warrants and inadequate supervision.
(excerpt)
"The supervision is not as tight as it should have been," Commission President John Mack said.
"It's very important that we have adequate and effective supervision, particularly at the middle management level. That's at the level where we have the potential of things going awry."
Labels: Black city employee watch, business as usual, City elections, consent decrees and other adventures
posted by Five Before Midnight | 9:02 PM
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