Councilor Hartzell on police issues

Cate Hartzell (reposted from ACA), 04.04.2006 13:50

*ON RECENT POLICE DEPARTMENT ISSUES*

In this note, I present my experiences, thoughts, and frustrations around the current situation in the Police Department. I acknowledge that there are many different perspectives on these issues; that is the nature of our human reality. Mine is not the "right" story because there is no "right" story.

I believe that instead of allowing the Police Association to unilaterally define the style and leadership of policing that we have in Ashland, we need to reinvigorate the public process to discuss policing style and leadership and the concept of community policing. In doing so, we can use the organizational review of the police department that is overdue on the City's desk, engage the employees of the department and look to our newly-hired City Administrator to apply her skills in consort with Chief Bianca to resolve the issues that have existed for much longer than the Chief's tenure.

When I was elected to City Council in 2000, I did not have as a priority the reform of the Ashland Police Department (APD). It grew out of citizens approaching me with complaints, and through my experience of taking those complaints to then-Chief Fleuter. I met resistance to any implication that APD officers could do wrong.

I was raised with a strong desire for justice, equity and fairness, especially for those with less social power, so I have been troubled by, and committed to reducing the reputation that Ashland has as a place where people of color and young people are harassed by the police.

I believe that City Administrator Grimaldi and Mayor Morrison are conceptually in agreement with that goal. I believe without a doubt that there are officers in the APD who also agree with that goal and who perform their work conscientiously, responsibly and with dedication. Police officers have a challenging job to perform, even in quiet little Ashland. Dealing with bad and frustrating behavior day after day and operating in the culture of policing, with its insulated social circles and odd schedules is stressful. Our support must remain tangible and strong when the work is well-done.

John Morrison and I were both elected to Council in 2000 and he offered some support of my initiatives related to the police department. However, he worked in Medford and as far as I know, spent little to no time familiarizing himself directly with the department. I spent the last 6 years in two police citizen academies, on ride-alongs, talking with officers, a recent ethics training, etc..

When Chief Mike Bianca was hired in 2004, I believe that Grimaldi supported the change in philosophy that Bianca brought. He acknowledges the dysfunction that we had in the department and the need for change. He acknowledged the fact that promoting from within necessitated additional management training for Bianca and a strategy that incorporated the unique challenges Bianca would face with fellow colleagues. That challenge was especially relevant given that Bianca's style and philosophy of policing reflected the predominant community values but had been marginalized under Chief Fleuter's tenure.

Unfortunately, Mr. Grimaldi never developed a plan to address those challenges. When Bianca began to make changes to bring the dept into alignment with community values, he encountered resistance, not only in the ranks, but from Mr. Grimaldi.

Chief Bianc's leadership in the department resulted in decreases in substantiated and unsubstantiated citizen complaints about officer behavior. However the nature of the behavior that led to the recent firing of an officer indicates that the dysfunctional use of power turned inward onto fellow officers.

I believe that it wasn't until later, when Mr. Grimaldi attended department meetings that he began to understand the unique dynamics and level of dysfunction in the department. When some employees in the department felt emboldened enough to suggest that Bianca was not worthy of leading them, Mr. Grimaldi and Mayor Morrison voiced a willingness to approach the problem in the department systemically but remained open to employees approaching them behind the Chief's back. Neither of them effectively managed the conflict.

I spent many hours on a committee with Mr. Grimaldi, Mayor Morrison, and Chief Bianca fashioning the City's response to the Association's threats and hiring consultants to study the situation. We tried to hire a consultant firm that was at least self-aware of its industry biases; PERF was not my first choice. There was a hope that this organizational review will produce a magic bullet. The Mayor has mentioned the Talent Police Chief in "white knight" overtones, indicating to me his belief that solutions can be singular in nature and will arrive magically from outside the community.

I was shocked last week when, instead of being asked to reconvene to review the organizational review that the City hopes to receive this week, I was contacted by the Mayor with a heads-up that Chief Bianca was being let go.

On Thursday, March 30, Mayor Morrison called me at work to inform me that he planned to talk to Chief Bianca this week. Mayor Morrison said he thinks the Ashland Police Department (APD) is going in the wrong direction. He said he was basing his actions on the recommendations of Mr. Grimaldi and Mike Franell, City Attorney. He said he was calling each of the Councilors because it could result in action that would have to come to the Council. Ashland's Charter empowers the Mayor to hire and fire department heads with the ratification of the City Council. Resignations do not require ratification.

In my phone conversation with the Mayor, I asked why he wouldn't wait for the overdue organizational review report so that our response could address the problem as a whole, rather than scapegoating. The Mayor stated that early reports of the review confirm the memos he's been getting from the department. Mayor Morrison said that the contracted PERF report is a blueprint and he is concerned that Chief Bianca doesn't have the management skills to implement it.

I asked what had changed to cause him to depart from our agreed-upon course. In addition to the imminent report, Mayor Morrison just hired a City Administrator who is skilled at conflict resolution. The Mayor answered that there is a steady decline in the department and that people are leaving the department. When the lead consultant for the team reviewing the department first visited town I asked him how we would get from our troubled state to a better department. He assured me that departments across the country are experiencing this same problem and that it doesn't happen quickly. One town only hires officers starting second careers, he reported. He said that the selection and training of new officers is critical, and that some people who don't like the departmental philosophy have to leave.

This pressured resignation is an important juncture for Ashland in two ways:

1. It sends a clear message to those in the Police Association and
department who supported the Vote of no Confidence that the way
some officers have acted in the last year to take control of the
Police Department works. Morrison empowers an already
out-of-control contingent in the department by removing the
primary check we have had on that energy. It confirms the black
and white thinking that getting rid of a "bad guy" is all that's
needed to make the world right.

2. It reinforces a pattern that ignores situations until they become
a crisis rather than provide leadership, critical analysis, and
resources early on to prevent crises. Mr. Grimaldi and Mayor
Morrison are responsible for a failure in leadership immediately
after Bianca was hired as Department head in not providing the
training and support they knew he would need. Now the solution is
to dump the chief. Respectfully, they are responsible for a
similar failure in leadership that allowed the AFN to cost
taxpayers millions of dollars. I opposed talk of firing managers
responsible for that failure in oversight because it is seldom one
person's responsibility.

The Mayor has offered NO specific reason for pressuring Chief Bianca out
other than this concept that leadership is lacking. Again, anyone who
expected the department to fall inline behind Chief Bianca without
issues arising engaged in risky magical thinking.

Mr. Grimaldi and Mayor Morrison may be responding to complaints about
panhandling and "riffraff" hanging out downtown. An upcoming media
article on vandalism on the plaza and the issues relative to
"undesireable" people hanging out there reflects a small, but regular
flow of requests that the police get rid of the transients or
counterculture residents who frequent the plaza. It is a challenging
problem, and the police have been directed to spend more time there.
Though we outfitted police cars with computers so officers can spend
more time doing community policing, few officers show up downtown.

I have learned a lot about the power of unions in the last year and can now answer those who ask why the Chief can't just fire officers who don't enforce the priorities that the department establishes, like downtown patrol. It's hard to fire an officer and when you do, they can arbitrate and win a return to the department, or sue the city.

Of concern to me is who remains at the department after Chief Bianca
leaves. The second in command at APD was in charge of police patrol
during the years of the highest number of complaints under the last
chief. He failed to follow a directive to hire someone to debrief with officers involved in a critical incident that significantly fermented the vote of no confidence. He failed to give the City Attorney critical legal evidence while in charge of the investigation that resulted in the recent firing of an officer. Four officers, some of them managers, are under investigation relative to events that resulted in the officer's firing. Some officers openly express their dislike for Ashland and its residents.

The Ashland Police Department has had problems for many years. Police
departments are influenced, perhaps more than most, by the department
chief. Ex-Chief Gary Brown and Chief Bianca embody similar styles:
humanistic, community-oriented, emphasis on service. Both endured open disdain from some officers. In between their tenures, ex-Chief Fleuter moved the APD towards traditional policing: militaristic,
equipment-based, and an insulated culture. Few of us are aware of how
the industry is independently moving even our department towards a mode of operating that we would not consciously choose.

My experience is that Chief Bianca is in that nexus of those realities. He asks for an ethic and an approach that goes against the way some officers want to police us. I interviewed the candidates for the chief when Chief Bianca was hired. I assure you, Chief Bianca is rare in his ability to straddle the fundamentally differentapproaches to policing and unique in his understanding of our department. We will not find another like him.

We put tremendous pressure on any chief who we assign to buffer between a department so interested in a militaristic style of policing and a community that is, while not united, predominantly supportive of a style of policing that shares power with citizens. Without someone like Michael Bianca as Chief (hard to find, they are the ones writing books after they get ousted from a department, i.e. Portland, Seattle), citizens must take seriously their responsibility to exercise oversight of its policing.

Ultimately, this is our responsibility and our collective problem, this clash of governance values. It is occurring at the national level for some of us, and it is occurring locally. Rather than looking at it as a crisis, or an internal personnel issue, I encourage residents to embrace this opportunity to influence your governance and policing. THAT is community policing.

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Bravo for speaking up and out! 05.04.2006 - 08:42 Thank you for taking a stand, and speaking truth to power. Thank you for representing me, a thousand blessings! Mike has openly worked to protect civil liberities and free speech against the current tide of militarization of the police. For almost 20 years he has built relationships to increase the peace. It might be nice if a crowd of people were there to show support for Mike Bianca before the executive session (or open session) at 4 pm at the City Council Chambers Thursday April 6? Wouldn't it be great if a cross section of the community also felt like taking a stand and showed up to show Mike their support? Linda Richards> e-mail:: lmrich@mind.net Progressive missteps 06.04.2006 - 08:59 This has been a long series of bungled poltical missteps by Ralph Temple that put more more pressure on Bianca with an ill timed toothless unenforceable Community Policing ordinance and a final push to hasten the forced resignation with a counter prodcutive public letter to the council. instigator> Thanks for coming to meet with us, Mike 09.04.2006 - 16:21 I would like to thank Chief Bianca for addressing our group a few weeks ago. Only in a city like Ashland can a group of regular folks call their police chief and have him return the message in an hour and then spend several personal hours on a difficult conversation. Thank you on behalf of over five thousand of your constituents. Steve Ryan, Director of Adminstration and Finance, Associated Students of Southern Oregon University. Steve Ryan, ASSOU>