Whose "will" are they serving?

It was women's day for the Riverside County Sheriff's department yesterday, according to an article in the Press Enterprise.


Riverside County Sheriff's Department helps women make the force




The physical agility course at the Ben Clark Training Center was the setting for a training session to assist prospective female deputies with passing the physical agility course.



The Riverside County Sheriff's Department was about 9% female in 2002 in terms of the sworn positions. Within its corrections division, women made up about 22% of the deputies.

The Riverside Police Department installed a similar course at Boardwell Park in the Eastside to allow city residents to practice their agility skills. Its percentage of officers in the department that are female stands at just under 10%.

Corona Police Department was about 10.5% female in 2002 and Rialto Police Department, 14%.
That same year, about 7.8% of the officers in the San Bernardino Police Department were women.


In the article, Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle appeared enthusiastic about the training event for women.

(excerpt)


"It's tough to find qualified candidates, period. And then to find qualified women candidates is really hard," said Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle, adding that female deputies are important because they communicate with the public differently than males.

"They're more skilled at talking them down, having a calming effect," Doyle said.




The controversy surrounding Colton Police Department Chief Kenneth Rulon continued with scores of community members showing up at a public meeting to give him support not long after about 90% of the officers in his department cast a no-confidence vote against him.

The residents who picketed City Hall said that they wanted Rulon reinstated off of paid administrative leave and Colton's city manager, Daryl Parrish fired from his job.

Rulon was placed on leave pending an investigation by Parrish's office into allegations of misconduct in his department. The decision to do the investigation came only a short time after Rulon had reported allegations of misconduct against another city councilman to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.

Councilman Richard DeLaRosa called for an inquiry into the matter.


(excerpt)


DeLaRosa called for the right to hire and fire public-safety chiefs and department heads to be shared with the City Council.

"I believe that it is an enormous responsibility and liability for the city to have our public-safety chiefs serve at the will of one administrator," DeLaRosa said.



The San Bernardino Sun has published articles about prior law suits against Rulon that were filed against him by officers at Huntington Park Police Department for racial discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation.


(excerpt, Sun article)


"I think this just brings validity to our complaint and where we stand with Chief Rulon," said Wesley Bruhn, president of Colton Police Officers' Association.

"This is not an isolated incident. He has a pattern for creating this type of work environment."



Not every officer in Colton opposed the police chief. One of them was Officer Paul Tapia.


(excerpt)


After speaking in favor of Rulon at a special City Council meeting Wednesday, Tapia said he found a bunch of "junior officer" stickers in his mailbox, implying he is not a real officer.

"I'm waiting for somebody to not back me up in the streets," he said Thursday.

Bruhn said the association has not received formal complaints of retaliation against any officers and denied that Tapia is being retaliated against.



Colton's firefighters also joined ranks with its police officers against Rulon despite what they called attempts to drive wedges between themselves and the police officers' union.

Rulon spoke out for the first time in yet another news article by the San Bernardino Sun.

Colton police chief breaks silence


Surrounded by members of the community, Rulon spoke before a city council session in which he wasn't on the agenda, but people still showed up anyway. He also addressed people at the council meeting.

(excerpt)


"I know I'm not perfect, believe me," he told council members.

"I know there are things I can improve on. But I have given my heart and soul to this department and this community."




One county away, and not yet in the newspapers, are concerns being raised surrounding the decision by the city of Riverside to convert an assistant chief position and two deputy chief positions in the police department to serving "at will" and contracting out of the city manager's office.

City Manager Brad Hudson assured me in an email that this was a routine practice in the city, that he was not involved in the promotion process in the police department and that many city employees, 100 so far, have embraced the opportunity to serve "at will" in their positions. He added that signing the contracts out of his office was in compliance with current city policy.

He said to refer further requests for information on this matter to Chief Russ Leach, who as the community has noticed is pretty hard to find in public these days. But then Leach wouldn't be the first employee under Hudson to stop appearing as much in public, including at meetings after having spent years attending them and doing outreach into the community. Not a day goes by that a community leader or member doesn't comment on that situation and that it bothers them a great deal.

It's difficult to know the extent of the city manager's influence in the police department given the blue wall of silence that surrounds any law enforcement agency, but it's unlikely that it will stop here, if it mirrors situations faced by other departments in the city. On the other hand, perhaps it is what it is, merely a formality. Although after hearing accounts of how Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis has apparently been spending time at the city's libraries telling them where to shelve books, one wonders if the police department is being told where to shelve its books in a matter of speaking.

The trouble is, that the decision to create "at will" positions in this city's police department doesn't appear to be merely routine in this case. That's not the sentiment that has been expressed regarding this situation. In fact, the opposite has occurred. Concern has been expressed and questions have been asked both in the community and apparently inside the police department as well.

Even though Hudson said that what had happened in the police department was a routine practice, at least one city councilman, Art Gage, has said that he plans to inquire into the matter and that there will be discussion on this situation as there should be in his opinion. It's not clear where this discussion will take place or when, but the public has decided that it is interested in raising this issue as well, beginning with the city council meeting on Tuesday.

Other than Gage, so far there is silence across the dais. You would think that at least the reality that it was an election year would motivate a response from two more of them to look into the matter as well. But as long as Hudson appears to deliver in the development arena, the city council hasn't asked too many questions of him in public on the labor issues affecting this city's employees.

I've run into or have heard from many individuals who are both concerned about the recent developments or at the very least have lots of questions about what is going on. Per usual, the city government has failed to properly inform the city residents about this issue. In addition, its elected representatives, who are also "at will" employees, have failed to provide a forum as of yet for concerns to be raised and questions to be answered.

It's not clear whether like has been done inside the police department either but the news is that individuals working in that agency are not pleased with the chain of events. Actually, I think the word was "livid" at the prospect of serving under management personnel who were serving under Hudson.

If Hudson or the city council that hired him are even surprised that this might be the reaction from employees in the police department then they either don't know much about overseeing police agencies or they don't know much about this city's history in this area. It also puts two or three employees in the position of having their credentials and their intentions questioned when it's not even clear what the exact process is that took place. At least not to the community.

Community members have expressed similar concerns both about at least the appearance that the management personnel will be serving under the city manager's office rather than the police chief. The question of "where's Chief Leach lately," has been replaced by "who's running the department, Leach or Hudson?" and even if these are simply perceptions and inaccurate, they are serious enough to be addressed by the city and the police department and they should be.

If these perceptions are actually the truth and more, then the city council would be derelict in its duties not to inquire into this situation.

Also a concern that has been raised is how much job security these individuals who are being offered these "at will" positions have given up to accept the positions, particularly because all three of them are male Latinos in a city where four Black and Latino management employees also served "at the will" of the current city manager and were soon out of jobs. Will one or more of these three employees soon be added to that list?

These concerns and more have yet to be addressed and they should be.

After all, that is what former Attorney General Bill Lockyer would hope to see happen that if there are situations like this one that create concern that there should be open dialogue among the three partners in the reform process that was initiated with the stipulated judgement in 2001 and continues today.

Hopefully, the city's elected officials will remember that they represent the public who votes in these elections and not the development firms and will foster a dialogue on this important issue.