SANDERS: Should top police jobs be appointed?

During the first-ever negotiations between Fort Worth police and city leaders under the city’s new "meet and confer" provision approved by voters two years ago, most people have paid attention only to the bargaining over pay raises for officers.

But at a time this summer, when talks stalled between the Police Officers Association (the official bargaining representative) and city officials, there was a controversial subtext to the negotiations that put rank-and-file cops in direct conflict with the department’s interim chief, Patricia Kneblick.

All of this was being played out as Fort Worth was searching for a permanent police chief to replace Ralph Mendoza, who retired this year. Kneblick is a finalist for that position, and many believe she is favored to get it. Final interviews with the three remaining candidates for the chief’s job are expected to be conducted this week, an informed source said.

The acting chief caused a row back in June when officers learned that she was proposing to "appoint" individuals to the captain’s rank, rather than filling those positions under Civil Service testing procedures.

Every one of the employee groups representing police officers, especially associations representing ethnic minorities, objected to that proposal, suggesting it would be a throwback to the days of the "good ol’ boy" system.

One police lieutenant, who was planning to take the captain’s test, took umbrage and let the acting chief know his feelings in a strongly worded e-mail message.

Noting that Fort Worth’s police department, its upper management structure and leadership selection process were envied by other departments around the country, Lt. Duane Paul said he was suspicious why there was a proposed change.

"Is it a coincidence that the last four captains promoted in this department are minorities and now all of a sudden there is a need to change the way we promote to that rank?" asked Paul, the first African-American to make captain in Fort Worth. "Prior to 2002 when I was promoted, there was never a minority captain; since that time, four have promoted and they are the last four and with potential vacancies, this number can rise. Is this the reason why the captain’s rank should be an appointed rank?

Some black officers called the proposed change the "Duane Paul Rule," supposedly designed to keep him from being promoted again.

Paul was a respected leader in the department and one of its most articulate official spokesmen until 2005, when a reality TV show exposed sexual encounters he was having with a woman in his unmarked city car.

He was suspended for 90 days, demoted from captain to lieutenant and assigned duties in the jail.

Paul clearly understands that his problems in the department "were of my own making," which is why he took his punishment without complaint and remained quiet until the two-year period expired and he was able to seek promotion again.

The department eventually relented on the captain’s issue, allowing the position to be posted and setting a date for the test. Paul took the exam this summer and placed third in the ranking, he said.

Negotiations continued on "meet and confer" and both sides have agreed on the major issues, including pay raises over the next four years.

A City Hall source said the association and the city are close to signing their first contract, which also will address the interim chief’s concern for having more appointed positions in the top ranks.

In her reply to Paul’s original message, Kneblick explained she had favored the appointment of captains "because a substantial number of large departments allow the chief to appoint the two levels of rank immediately below the chief."

She added, "It is incumbent on the chief, whomever that person is, to have the ability to appoint top administrators to be able to direct the course of the department. 'Top administrator’ today in a department our size means not just deputy chief.’ "

Because "meet and confer" makes the police department more "unionized," the source said, the chief believes managers who are not appointed would be more loyal to "the union" than the chief or the department as a whole.

So, while leaving the captains’ selection process intact, the department has decided simply to create another layer of management — five new positions — called major, just under the five deputy chiefs. Those positions would be filled from the ranks of the 13 captains, a department spokesman confirmed.

The vacant captains’ positions would be filled at the rate of one a year until they are up to full strength again, a source said.

"They’re going to take this department back a million steps," said Paul, obviously dissatisfied with this latest proposal.

"What they are proposing is unnecessary and truly not required," he said. "It is a return to cronyism. 'Loyalty?’ Loyalty equals cronyism."

There are those of us who can remember those days of an old folksy police department in which the chief was surrounded by his buddies and minorities didn’t stand a chance for advancement.

Regardless what new procedures are put in place, how many new management positions are added or who the next chief will be, the City Council and city manager must make it clear that we will never return to the "good ol’ boy" or "good ol’ girl" system.

Never!