The other side of Brad Hudson

I was reading a comment at the Inland Empire Craigslist about my blog that stated that for a blog that purported to be focused on the Riverside Police Department, it spent a lot of time on "anti-Riverside government or city council campaign topics".

That person's position is certainly valid enough if a visitor checks out what has been written recently in my blog, but if you read its archives since April 2005, you will find a fair amount of it is focused on the Riverside Police Department. The comment raises interesting issues that I have spent some time recently reexamining and reflecting on in the wake of Election 2007. That's how everyone and everything in this city is ultimately tied together in different ways, as is the case with most cities.

The police department itself does not exist inside a vacuum. It has a relationship with different factions in this city including the city manager's office and the city council. In fact, former State Attorney General Bill Lockyer himself spoke repeatedly about the three-way partnership and relationship between the police department, the city government and the communities in this city. All three had to work together to ensure the continued reform process instituted by his stipulated judgment with the city that existed between 2001-2006.

The police officers in this city, like all city employees are acutely aware of the interactions between their department, the city manager's office and the city council and their leadership both in the agency and in the labor unions participate in these interactions on different levels.

That awareness has been clearly stated out through the actions of both labor unions which represent the police officers through the rank and file level to those that are in upper management. And did anyone miss the two rallies held at City Hall by the Riverside Police Officers' Association and Riverside Police Administrators' Association first over salary contract negotiations and then over the decision to convert several management positions to being "at will"? They understand as well or better than anyone that their department does not exist in a vacuum.

The feelings among Riverside's city employees including the police officers towards City Manager Brad Hudson and Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis play a pivotal role in the present and the future state of the police department which in turn plays an important role in the lives of many residents in this city.

The city elections also play into the present and future of the Riverside Police Department given the current relationships that have been played out between the police department and those who currently sit on the dais, particularly when city council members order police officers to serve as their personal bouncers to eject people they disagree with from the council chambers. Both unions, including the RPAA for the first time in recent history, heavily participated in the endorsement process for those who were running for election for four city council seats.

As for being "anti-Riverside government", that appears to be operating on a philosophy that you're either for us or you're against us and criticism can't be tolerated. That seems to be the philosophy of the current government including the incumbents who ran for office and couldn't sweep through, but apparently not one practiced by many of the city's residents as the first round of elections clearly showed.


When people think of Hudson, they think of his hiring by the city after his stint working for Riverside County heading its economic development agency. They think of his impact on development, redevelopment and Riverside Renaissance, which makes a great deal of sense because that's why he was hired by the city council. In fact, the council had its eye on Hudson way before it hired a firm to conduct its job search for a new one after firing George Carvalho. That's why there's a lot of criticism in his actions in those areas because that is his focus and hence actions that the people object to that he's doing or has done.

But Hudson has other job responsibilities as well.

Hudson and his sidekick have been involved in labor issues within the city's workforce including but not limited to contract negotiations with the city's six bargaining units. The Inland Empire Weekly article on issues involving the code compliance division in Riverside is just one manifestation of how labor issues are handled in this city.

These words by SEIU local 1997 president Gregory Hagans bear repeating.


(excerpt, "Code Red")


“It took one year before the city manager even came and introduced himself to the troops,” Hagans added. “He's out there doing these firings and chopping heads off, and they didn't even know what he looked like. He's out of touch with the community and he's out of touch with his workers. You've got a city management that shows no dignity or respect for its employees. Now, we have a dignity-and-respect article in our contract, but they don't seem to care about that. To them, we are just fodder.”



Hagans is Black as were the 16 plaintiffs who filed a law suit alongside him against the city for racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation in its workforce, in most every city department from public works, to park and recreation to the Human Resources Department.

Several years ago, the city settled with about six of the remaining plaintiffs on that case. All this happened before Hudson set foot in Riverside, but what would happen after caught the attention of many community leaders fairly quickly. Black and Latino employees started getting fired or leaving the city's ranks, this time from management positions inside City Hall.

These employees included:


Art Alcaraz, Latino, Human Resources Department, resigned. In response, some said it was for not relaxing hiring criteria on several key management positions in Hudson's office.


Jim Smith, Black, interim City Manager and Budget Director, resigned, now works as the budget director in Oakland.


Tranda Drumwright, Black, Housing Director, fired. Her supervisor allegedly said she wasn't "management" material.


Pedro Payne, Executive Director, Community Police Review Commission, "resigned to seek better career opportunities". Most don't buy this and believe he was ran out by the city manager's office.



Several candlelight vigils by concerned community members followed the firing of Drumwright, who was a highly skilled and experienced employee. Payne's departure punctuated Hudson and DeSantis' year-long campaign on "improving" the CPRC which began not long after Chief Russ Leach's fury against the CPRC's decision against one of his police officers on a shooting case.

Hagans also leads the city's largest labor union which includes those who perform many of the basic city services. These employees respond to 9-11 calls, they work on public works projects and they clear the city's drains when they flood or it rains along with many other jobs. Like most of the city's unions' heads, Hagans has felt some heat for what he does from city management.


Let's move on to contract negotiations during the long, hot summer of 2006. Here's a tally of actions taken by the six labor unions, all of whom reported that it was the worst negotiations cycle in recent memory.



Law suits: 3

Strike votes: 1

Unions protesting at city council meetings: 4


The labor contracts were signed eventually. Some union heads said that the situation improved after DeSantis was asked to divorce himself from the processes.

After the debacle involving the "at will" positions which brought a crowd of employees and city residents to a city council meeting, it's clear that handling labor issues is not the strong point of the current management team. Was the ability to do this included in the job description? Was it tossed out by the city government the minute Hudson became available?

Then there's the current favorite play thing of the city manager's office, the CPRC.

Here's some statistics on Hudson and DeSantis' management or some say, micromanagement of the CPRC.



Executive director resigns

Four going on five commissioners resign

A recently appointed commissioner accepted campaign funds from several law enforcement unions including the RPOA when she last ran for office

The annual report and presentation to the city council is three months late and has been postponed indefinitely

Several neighborhoods recognized by the city have ceased filing complaints due to frustration with the process

The Lee Deante Brown shooting investigation is going into its second year and no one's bothered to check and report back to the commissioners on the current status of the Douglas Cloud and Joseph Hill shooting investigations.

The CPRC is relegated to a cubicle that is inaccessible by the public.

The CPRC has heard three different interpretations of the same governmental code from the city attorney's office.

The commissioners get some input in the proposed changes and the community gets none.


Training of commissioners especially newer ones is nonexistent.



These are just some of the outcomes of actions instituted by Hudson's office when it was entrusted with dealing with the CPRC. But the CPRC has a short list of friends at City Hall and a longer list of people that are unhappy with it inside and out of it, as the documents filed recently as part of Ryan Wilson v the City of Riverside clearly show.

The funny thing is that some of these individuals play both sides of the fence professing their affection and support for the CPRC while in the communities while apparently being less than affectionate about it behind closed doors. Being all things to all people makes individuals, as some might say, good politicians. But all their micromanagement of the CPRC is showing the community is that they don't have much faith in the city's police department in wake of a C- performance by that department's management last year. That's when the city manager's office nearly failed to carry out a simple mandate of the city council which was to create a mechanism of oversight of the continued implementation of the department's Strategic Plan.


These actions or developments are hardly flattering when it comes to evaluating the job performance of Hudson or DeSantis in this area. But things really get interesting if you consider the fate of another commission, the Human Relations Commission.

Now, the HRC is a useful if as some think, watered down commission that could do more than it does if it weren't kept on such a tight leash, but last year, it took a stand at City Hall by sending a letter to Hudson asking for information on the departures of employees of color including those listed above from City Hall.

The HRC never received a response to that letter in writing but apparently, it did receive a response. The two staff members assigned to provide assistance to this commission full-time were transferred soon after to public works. One of them still put in two days working on the HRC, with the other assigned part-time on the new commission on disabilities. One of these employees ended up resigning when she couldn't take it anymore.

Mayor Ron Loveridge stepped in and pulled the HRC out of the hands of the city manager's office and into his own.

Turmoil also hit the Human Resources Board when its chair, Gloria Lopez resigned in protest of the city stonewalling on information the board had requested about the city's employees including the installation of current Human Resources Director Rhonda Strout without seeking advice from the board.


Speaking of the CPRC, City Hall is currently holding auditions to see if there's anyone brave enough to become the next executive manager of this body. Jobs like these usually attract independently minded people who don't like being a marionette and having their strings pulled from some place else.


Oral interviews are being held all day Wednesday in the selection process of the next executive manager for the Community Police Review Commission.

Whoever is still standing at the end of the all-day process will win the dubious position of becoming the next executive manager of the CPRC and can look forward to a tenure, brief or long, of being micromanaged by the city manager's office and disliked by the police department.


Neither executive director who has served so far since the inception of the CPRC has managed to survive a regime change in the city manager's office.



The first executive director, Don Williams, was hired during Acting City Manager Larry Paulson's regime and lasted through that of former city manager, George Carvalho. When Carvalho was fired in 2004, Williams only lasted another six months. He was removed from his position not long after the charter was amended by popular vote to place the CPRC in its text.



His successor, Pedro Payne, was split between his prior position as Community Relations Director and interim CPRC executive director by Interim City Manager Tom Evans. He made it a year after the hiring of Brad Hudson and his sidekick, Tom DeSantis and it's not clear when his days became numbered. He was finally moved to fill the full-time executive director as an "at will" employee. Unfortunately, like many men or women of color placed in that position, he "resigned" in late 2006.



And inheriting that turbulent history of the CPRC will be whomever is picked to fill Payne's rather large shoes. Independent analyst Mario Lara whose main qualification for the executive manager position is that he once worked for DeSantis hasn't come close to filling those shoes himself because for one thing, he lacked the intensive six-month training curriculum provided by retired police chief and former commissioner, Bill Howe.



The city's tried to lure a new executive manager into its lair, but any candidate worth his or her salt is going to carefully research the background of the CPRC and then maybe it's they who will ask as many questions as are asked of them.


One wonders what the final round of candidates is thinking as they wait their interviews in front of two different panels, one made up of the community, the other city employees. How many of them know about the abrupt departure of the last executive director and have tried to find out why? How many have noticed and wondered about the resignations of five commissioners, going on six? What about the last time the commission completed an annual report?


How many officer-involved deaths are there left to investigate and review? Will there be any more of them this year?

Will any of them wonder how independent they will really be allowed to be, especially when it comes to conducting investigations of incustody deaths or who will be pulling their strings if they do take the job? What would the answer to that question be?






Expect a big turnout at the 3 p.m. public hearing at the city council chambers to discuss whether or not Walmart should receive a conditional use permit to construct a "supercenter" in Riverside. Yes, the controversy that has hit the country involving the construction of similar sized stores has finally come to Riverside again.



Expect at least two council members to be absent from these proceedings. Councilmen Dom Betro and Steve Adams apparently planning to take some serious time off after the arduous city council elections. Both failed to receive the 50% of the vote they needed to win outright and will be facing Michael Gardner and Terry Frizzel respectively this November.









San Bernardino, the trial involving the former San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputy who shot a U.S. airman who was apparently trying to obey his commands to get up continued today with the testimony of a use of force expert called by prosecutor Lewis Cope.

Joe Callanan criticized the tactics used by former deputy, Ivory J. Webb during the incident which concluded with the shooting of Elio Carrion. Webb faces voluntary manslaughter and other related charges during this trial.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



When the chase ended with the crash of a speeding Corvette carrying Carrion and driver Luis Fernando Escobedo, Webb twice gave dispatchers wrong locations, which were nearly 1 ½ miles from his actual position, jurors were told.

"It's one (mistake) that has happened to most of us ... but it's a critical error," Callanan testified of Webb's first radio call with an erroneous location.

As for the second wrong location, Callanan said, "It's substandard."

Callanan also lambasted Webb's failure to park his patrol car so that its headlights could illuminate the suspects and their car and for failing to position the patrol car so that it provided him cover so he could have safely awaited the arrival of backup officers before approaching the suspects.



In light of the scandal hitting Atlanta's police department in the wake of the fatal shooting of Kathryn Johnston, 92, who was shot at over 30 times and left handcuffed and bleeding to death on the floor of her own house, there's been some debate about when this police department starting going down a bad path. Her death led to two police officers getting indicted on murder and other criminal charges and the Department of Justice initiating a probe of the department.

Human Rights' Watch did a study of Atlanta Police Department as part of its Shielded from Justice series in the late 1990s.


(excerpt)



The OPS staff who spoke with Human Rights Watch were suspicious of complainants' motives and appeared to give police the benefit of the doubt. An OPS representative told Human Rights Watch during an interview in November 1995, "People make complaints to get out of trouble."41 When Human Rights Watch questioned the low number of complaints received by the Atlanta police and the OPS's assertion that the sustained rate is very low, OPS asserted, "We don't have a brutal police force here."42 The same sergeant from OPS was not aware of any brutality case leading to dismissal.

The OPS does maintain an early warning system, but when questioned by Human Rights Watch, Chief Harvard refused to disclose the number of officers who have been reviewed under the system.43 If three or more maltreatment complaints are filed against an officer in a one-year period, whether or not the complaints are sustained, a review is initiated. Similarly, four firearms discharges by an officer in a five-year period result in a review. Of course, if the review of an officer results in no retraining or counseling (as seems to have been the case with some of the officers involved in the Zone 3 corruption), procedures leading to review may not be sufficient.




What's interesting about the observations made about the Office of Professional Standards is that they don't differ that much from observations that were made recently, in terms of the low number of complaints, about 3.5%, of them that were sustained. So, it appears that this office will also be included in the federal probe.



A woman died after being tased by an officer in Oklahoma City, which led to a $1.5 million law suit being filed against that city. Milisha Thompson was handcuffed on the ground when she was shocked at least five times.


(excerpt)



It's a legitimate law-enforcement tool," said Florida State University criminology professor George Kirkham, a former police officer. "But it's supposed to be used as a defensive weapon. The problem we're seeing around the country is it's being used abusively."

Amnesty International USA, which has done a study on Taser use, has counted 250 cases in which people died after being stunned with a Taser. The human rights organization cannot say whether the shock from a Taser actually caused those deaths. But some experts contend the weapon can be deadly, particularly when used on suspects who use drugs or suffer from heart problems.

A blurry surveillance video shows Thompson running near the homeless shelter, seemingly agitated. The picture is poor, so exactly what happens next is unclear, but at some point she struggles with officers and is shocked.

Thompson, 35, soon stopped breathing. The cause of her May 19 death has not been determined, pending results of toxicology tests.