City Proposes Lifetime Appointment of Police Chief Tim Vasquez

It’ll be up to the voters. A recent decision by city council will again place the contested elected versus appointed police chief issue on the November ballot. But there's a catch: Should the voters elect to move to an appointed system, a council decision has already anointed sitting chief Tim Vasquez as the first appointee to a lifetime term.

The City of San Angelo is the last municipality left in Texas that elects, rather than has the city manager or council appoint, a police chief.

On Aug. 4, Charter Review Committee chairman Trinidad Aguirre brought a list of proposed changes before the council for review. Proposition 11, which seeks to amend Section 60 of the City Charter, would delete residency requirements and open up the police chief position to qualified applicants nationwide if the voters elect to move from an elected to an appointed chief system.  

During their discussions of the proposed amendment, all present members voted in favor of placing the item on the ballot, with the exception of Mayor Dwain Morrison and council member Johnny Silvas, who was not present.

“I’d like to pull that one (from the ballot),” Morrison said. “It’s been voted on 14 times; the citizens have been voting on this since 1943. I would like to pull this one off.”

During a subsequent interview, the mayor cited abuse of power at the hands of the mayor and the city manager as the reason citizens ousted the appointed system. The city charter was established in 1915, he said, and included an appointed chief. In the 25+ years after the charter was established, dozens of police chiefs held office, Morrison said, until the public got fed up and took the matter into their own hands.

“I went back and did the research—and it’s been four years since I’ve done it—but every time we’d get a new mayor, we’d get a new police chief,” Morrison said. “The last problem we had was back in the early ‘40s and we had a police chief by the name of Otis Reed. And he was a very popular chief.

When election time rolled around, Morrison said, a new mayor was elected and he “got in cross” with Otis Reed. That mayor called Reed into his office and fired him and all his administrators on the spot, Morrison said.

“If I remember correctly, they put a motorcycle officer that had just been on the force for a couple of months and made him chief of police,” Morrison stated. “And the people absolutely rebelled because Otis Reed was very popular, he did his job, I mean, he was a policeman.

When the mayor fired Reed, the public revolted, Morrison said.

“They went to the city council, and they said, ‘put this on the election; we want to elect,’ and the city council refused,” he continued. “So they got a petition up and got the required amount of signatures, and they forced the city council to put it up for election. When it was forced, they overwhelmingly said that from now on, they would elect their chiefs in the city of San Angelo, that it would not be an appointed position.”

The mayor mentioned a portion of the history in the Aug. 4 meeting, but the council quickly overrode him.

Noting a change in the population and the narrow margin between those for and against the appointed system, as voiced in several public meetings of the Charter Review Committee, council members Rodney Fleming, Elizabeth Grindstaff, Marty Self, Charlotte Farmer and Lucy Gonzalez all expressed a desire to hand the decision to the voters once more.

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Above: San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez. (SAPD photo)

But they also added a caveat: If voters choose to move to an appointed police chief system, incumbent Chief Tim Vasquez will default to the position at the end of his elected term in May. That appointment, council discussed, would be for an unlimited term.

“There is no term limit on the chief,” Farmer explained in an Aug. 25 interview. “An appointment would be just like the fire chief, any of those (director positions). “They’re appointed and they have their job forever unless they mess up. The police chief would just report to the city manager; the city manager reports to the council.”

At the meeting, councilwoman Elizabeth Grindstaff said she’d always assumed that if the city moved toward an appointed chief that Vasquez would be the first to assume the role anyway, and said she believes he’s the best man for the job.

“I’m not sure if that’s the language that’s necessary here, but that would maybe be an addition that I would like to make to this…” she said, proposing that Vasquez’s selection as the first appointee be added to the charter amendment. “…because…for the most people that are supportive of an appointment, I don’t think they see this or want it to be opened wide to the country; that they see Tim as being the most qualified police chief for San Angelo.”

Rodney Fleming agreed with Grindstaff in an interview conducted on Aug. 25, stating that he would prefer to keep someone local in the position. That assumption on behalf of the public, however, is somewhat at odds with what Aguirre named as the primary reason for wanting to move to an appointed chief by proponents of the change in public meetings.

“There were several factors,” Aguirre said in an interview on Aug. 26. “I guess the number one factor is that by going to an appointed police chief, the selection criteria…is much greater and much more in depth than for an elected police chief.”

Aguirre noted that currently, under the elected system, the conditions for running for the position require only that the applicant have been a San Angelo resident for the past two years and that the winner pass a qualification test. The election process also “creates turmoil within the ranks of the police department” that could have “ramifications” and “cause animosity down the line,” Aguirre said.

“From an appointed position, what we do is we follow the normal processes for identifying someone of that nature—a police chief—we’ll take a look at his administrative skills, we’ll take a look at his police skills, we’ll take a look at his financial skills: So there will be a large criteria established of those individuals that wish to run that they must meet,” he said.

Aguirre said that in the past, the average number of individuals that run for the police chief position range between 2-3 to 6-7, a rather shallow pool. He acknowledged that with the relatively scant number of candidates under the current elected system, more stringent requirements could make the local pool even smaller, but also noted that the applicant pool would likely deepen if opened up to qualified personnel beyond the city limits.

“In a lot of cases, people will put in their name to be police chief [but] they’re not qualified to be there, but they have the right to put in their applications,” Aguirre said.

Noting job posting and vetting requirements should Vasquez retire from the appointed position, he added, “If you take a look at the number of assistant police chiefs across the state—and really, across the nation because we can’t limit it—you could get some very good assistant police chiefs that would want to come into San Angelo to become a police chief. I would not state that the quantity would be less; I think it would at least be equal or more…”

At the Aug. 4 council meeting, Aguirre confirmed the proposed addition of naming Vasquez as the first appointee with council. The floor was then opened up for public comment.

Present at the meeting, Vasquez voiced his support of the change, but asked for clarification on the hiring and firing processes that govern appointed positions. The proposed amended language of the city charter states that “the Chief of Police shall be appointed by the City Manager subject to the approval of City Council…”

“One thing that I would throw out for consideration is that also the ‘unappointment,’ as you would say, is confirmed by council as well,” Vasquez proposed. “Is that also in the wording? Obviously there’s always the distrust of having local government—government period, in general…I think that…If our citizens felt there was a council member or someone [who] were upset with the Chief [the Chief] could be fired. I would think that…there would be some type of protection.”

Chief Vasquez argued that by virtue of confirmation, the council is a part of the hiring process. He pointed out that the council is not required to confirm anyone and referenced previous language that had suggested a supermajority by council to remove the city manager. That language, council confirmed, has been removed.

“You better vote with me, Chief,” the mayor quipped as further discussion followed.

In an effort to clarify, City Manager Daniel Valenzuela stated that when he makes the decision to terminate a director, he brings that decision to council as a courtesy and intends to keep doing so should the city move to an appointed chief system.

In later interviews, many council members cited different interpretations about how directors are terminated. Council members Charlotte Farmer, Rodney Fleming and the Mayor agreed that the council must be involved, while Grindstaff dissented.

“The way it is written—to protect the police chief—the city manager would have to bring it to council. It’s the same with the fire chief. That is too important a job because it is safety oriented,” Farmer said. “If the city manager wanted to get rid of him, he could make his recommendation to the council, but it would take four votes.”

Grindstaff, however, disagreed. “Charlotte has a different view of the charter than I do,” she said, adding that she perceives the responsibility to lie with the city manager. She extended this to the hiring, stating that the council shouldn’t be involved at all and pondering why the language was not removed or discussed in the charter review meetings.

Chiming in on the matter as discussed in the Aug. 4 council meeting, Vasquez proposed eliminating the language altogether, to include the requirement that the council confirm or approve the appointment of a police chief.

“I think by having the confirmation put at the council’s feet that if I was politically savvy and I wanted to get this job, I might come to every one of you and try to get you to confirm me or do whatever I need you to do,” Vasquez said. “I think that the city manager is a professional position, educated; we pay him a good salary to make those kinds of decisions. And you have the authority to hire and fire him, but the city manager should have that authority. And this ‘subject to approval by City Council,’ whether it’s me or other department heads, does not allow him to do that.”

Having heard the arguments for and against a complete removal of council involvement, the mayor asked if any members were in favor. All of those present, with the exception of Grindstaff, responded with, “no”.

Before the matter was closed for a decision, a lone citizen, John Bariou, approached the podium to provide input.

“…as with as with any management of a corporation, it’s good to have two echelons of protection in any personnel structure.,” Bariou said. “The appointment by the city manager of an individual may be competent or partial [and] needs to have a committee—the council—to verify that appointment is pure, is good business practice.  It is not as much intended…to politicize it, as to make sure that the best person is put in. If a city manager…were to bring in a crony, this would be our only opportunity as a city to stop that sort of action. To give the city manager sole discretion on that is basically giving him total control of the city.”

Bariou concluded by saying that as a citizen, he favors keeping a second check and balance in place when it comes to appointed positions.

At the end of the meeting, the mayor confirmed the members were in agreement on the action to be taken as presented at the beginning of the discussion, electing to put the item on the November ballot and letting the voters decide whether they want an appointed or an elected police chief. Included in that agreement was a direction to City Attorney Theresa James to work out the language that names Tim Vasquez as the first appointee. Only the mayor dissented.