Management Study of SAPD Stirs Tensions During Early Voting

A Management Study Regarding the San Angelo Police Department made public Wednesday night has caused a bit of tension between SAPD management, chief of police candidates and CLEAT, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas.

According to CLEAT’s statement of methodology, the San Angelo Coalition of Police (SACOP) asked CLEAT to aid in determining levels of job satisfaction at SAPD. In addition to CLEAT members, officers aligned with the Texas Municipal Police Association were also surveyed. These are the two organizations SAPD officers align with.

Therefore, SACOP and CLEAT distributed a confidential survey questionnaire to 149 sworn employees of SAPD, and 123 surveys were completed, resulting in an 82.5 percent response rate. However, some employees didn’t answer all the questions for unknown reasons.

CLEAT’s attempt was to obtain insight into the factors that influence morale and attitudes of employees towards the current administration of SAPD. The questionnaire, set up through Survey Monkey, consisted of 78 questions (click here for the survey questions and responses).

Through their findings, nearly 75 percent of the officers do not believe the police administration treats all offices fairly. Also, nearly 90 percent of officers believe Chief Tim Vasquez has little or no interest in what his employees have to say. However, they do believe their own direct supervisors value their input. More than 88 percent of officers fear they’d be the victim of retaliation for airing whatever concerns they might have.

Finally, more than 75 percent of SAPD officers say they didn’t have full confidence that Chief Vasquez is suited to lead the department into the future. Most officers also believe San Angelo residents hold SAPD in high regard. The officers also had an option of keeping the results of this study out of the public eye, but the majority requested it to be made public through the media.

This study comes amidst early voting in San Angelo.

The Response of the Chief and Assistant Chief

Chief Tim Vasquez said he heard CLEAT planned on doing the survey, but he never received a copy of it.

“This is not at all a true sampling poll; it’s a target push poll,” Vasquez said. “It was done through Survey Monkey, and, if anyone knows anything about Survey Monkey, you can vote 120 times. So, I can’t tell you that this survey is a valid survey.”

Vasquez said if CLEAT had done this survey a year ago like Abilene, he may view it differently. He said they should have asked about individual morale, but he said that wasn’t asked. However, there were two questions asked in the survey about the individual officers’ morale and if it has improved over the past few years.

Vasquez also said Abilene conducted the survey by paper and each individual officer signed for it.

“The survey was anonymous, but they signed for the survey, so they knew who had a survey and who didn’t. That is not the case in this deal.”

Vasquez said the survey was sent out by email to 149 employees, but there were others not afforded the opportunity to take it. Vasquez said there are 166 officers at the SAPD.

“You can look at our web server here and see that there were 187 clicks in the last couple of weeks on Survey Monkey,” said Vasquez. “Does that mean one person did it or multiple? As long as you clear that cookie off, you can take the survey 5 times, 100 times, or whatever.”

Vasquez added that the timing of the survey “is disturbing.”

“I would have given it much more weight in validity if it had occurred say a year and a half ago, or even after the election,” Vasquez noted. “After I’m re-elected, if they want to do the survey, and do it properly where we know that everyone did the survey one time, I’d be open to hear the officers’ suggestions.”

Vasquez said, in 2004, CLEAT, the state union, made him Officer of the Year. Then, not long into his first term, he had to discipline a CLEAT officer member, and ever since then, Vasquez and his elected administrators have been on opposing sides with CLEAT.

“CLEAT has always done what they can to oppose me in campaigns. In 2008, Go San Angelo used to have a bunch of blogs, and the CLEAT representative in this area had three aliases. Standard-Times wrote a story on it, calling him out. He was basically using three different aliases to bash me and say different things about me in order to affect me in the 2008 election.”

Vasquez said, over the years, he has had to discipline and terminate a number of CLEAT officer members, and CLEAT hasn’t gotten anywhere with Vasquez on these issues. He stated, “It is what it is.”

Vasquez maintains the survey is not valid, and if it was, he could move forward with the issues. Vasquez said morale isn’t defined in the survey, nor are the issues.

“It wasn’t given in a valid way, and I think everyone can see it’s a political maneuver,” he stated.

Vasquez said he has been approached by officers who said they didn’t participate in the survey because they knew it was politically motivated rather than a true survey about their issues. Vasquez also said, once a month, SAPD has an advisory board meeting where each shift can send an officer to meet with the Chief and the Assistant Chiefs so they can speak freely about anything they want to.

“The last issue we had this month was they would like more professional pictures than what we have on our board. And then probably another hot topic we had a few years ago was they asked for a popcorn machine. That’s the kind of questions that have been posted.”

Vasquez said they also meet with the sergeants and lieutenants once a month so they can voice concerns and issues, and they meet just with lieutenants once a week.

“We depend on the lieutenants to share the information that comes out of command staff,” he said.

Vasquez also brought up that Frank Carter has the state CLEAT endorsement, and Carter only joined CLEAT two and a half weeks ago; days later, they gave him the endorsement.

“That was the sole purpose of why he joined,” Vasquez said. “They were willing to endorse anyone who runs against me, and he was the one willing to sign up with CLEAT, and then he got the endorsement.”

Vasquez said he does care about the officers in the organization, and he does want to hear what their concerns are, but this was not the way to do it.

“After I’m re-elected, and they want to do another survey correctly, I will open my heart to any suggestions they have to improve our organization.”

Assistant Chief Jeff Fant, who was also mentioned in the survey, said, “Through my education, I have personally designed and analyzed several surveys, and I would have been ashamed to present this to even an undergraduate professor, much less as a professional representation to the public and media. The questions and scales are very poorly designed. The process is suspect and full of potential for fraudulent activity. There are no controls in place, and the fact remains that the whole survey is worthless for anything but slanderous propaganda during an election.”

Fant added that this survey lacks professionalism, judgment and integrity. 

“Overall, many of the questions are poorly worded, or worded in such a way as to solicit a certain response,” Fant continued. “The Likert scale used is not appropriate to many of the questions, and the results are somewhat limited. They provided only a frequency analysis with no additional breakdown based on any of the demographic variables. Judging from the way the survey was written and disseminated and distributed to media and outside sources, the goal was not to improve the organization, but to be a detrimental and influential factor in the upcoming election. It goes to show poor professional judgment and lack of integrity.”

Response by CLEAT

John Moritz, communications and public affairs officer for CLEAT, said this survey is definitely valid, and Survey Monkey is a reputable survey company that makes sure safeguards are in place so only one officer can take the survey one time.

“Each response is an individual response, not a collective response,” Moritz said. “It’s not one guy sitting there making up a hundred dummy email accounts and going through the process of trying to answer each one uniquely.”

Moritz said each individual officer had the opportunity to take the survey.

“We have 100 percent confidence this reflects what the officers are telling us and what the officers believe,” Moritz said.

When asked why 166 officers weren’t surveyed, Moritz said the survey was only sent to the two organizations’ officers, CLEAT and TMPA. The ones not asked are not members.

“We are 100 percent confident that the officers got the survey and that they returned the survey, and there wasn’t any break in custody,” said Moritz.

When asked if this was politically motivated, Moritz said CLEAT proudly supports Frank Carter, and makes no apologies or explanations beyond the fact that they have the confidence of the rank and file officers to give their wishes to CLEAT in Austin.

“It can’t be disputed that the survey went out when it went out,” Moritz stated. “It can’t be disputed that CLEAT endorses the Chief’s opponent.”

Moritz also said people have to keep in mind that the timing doesn’t have any effect on how the officers are feeling, and one of the key questions asked is, “Do you believe the chief values his officers,” and overwhelmingly they said no.

“Clearly, [the] conversation with the chief shows he doesn’t value their input,” Moritz stated. “He clearly disregards his officers.”

In response to Vasquez’s request that this would have been better had it been done before or after the election, Moritz said Vasquez is more than welcome to conduct his own survey.

“CLEAT is confident in the timing of the survey we did, and the timing of the survey was our decision. CLEAT does not work for the chief of police. We do what’s in the best interest of the officers who align themselves with our organization.”

Moritz said the rank and file officers who align with CLEAT convey their choice of candidate for police chief, so they base their endorsement on that feedback.

“We listen to our members, and we’re in communication with our members, sometimes daily. We hear their feedback; we solicit their feedback; we appreciate their feedback, and the act of their feedback.”

Therefore, this survey reflects the survey of the officers who participated in it, he said. This is not a personal vendetta against Chief Vasquez.

Moritz said CLEAT rejects Vasquez’s claims against them.

Frank Carter Responds As Well

Frank Carter, in response to the Chief’s claims about his joining CLEAT only 2.5 weeks ago, and the survey is nothing more than a political move and personal vendetta, said he actually joined CLEAT a month or two ago. He was approached by a local member who said CLEAT, at the state level, asked if they wanted to endorse anybody. They said it’s against the bylaws to get into an election for the chief of police, so it’s up to local members to endorse someone.

At the time, it was just Vasquez against Hernandez, so no one locally wanted to endorse anyone. When Carter signed up, they said they were interested in endorsing him, but it helped if Carter was a member.

“That is why I signed up,” Carter said. “Now, I’m a member of both associations (CLEAT and TMPA). I went through the process. I talked to CLEAT state level requesting endorsement, and they gave me $250. As for the survey, it has no political ties, and my endorsement has no political ties to this survey.”

The survey was developed between board members of both associations, Carter said. It’s not just CLEAT. Board members met in private meetings and ran this survey. The survey goes out to all members of the associations, which is where the 149 number comes from.

Carter said, “They got the results back. They’ve been sent out, and they asked officers if they wanted to go public or not. I did not participate in that particular part of it. Obviously, they voted to go public. I feel it’s not politically motivated. These officers want to group together and have the community hear their voice and concerns about how they feel about the administration. I hate that my name is getting tied to it. Now, it’s politically tied to CLEAT, and that’s why they endorsed; and now it’s retaliatory, or a strike, and I don’t like that.”

Had he known this would have happened, Carter said he probably wouldn’t have accepted anything and went about his business, but CLEAT approached him. He reiterated he has nothing to do with the survey or the actions of CLEAT.

To dispel Vasquez’s rumor that this is all CLEAT, Carter said this survey was department wide and did not just include CLEAT members. He said many police officers in the past have stayed quiet about who they were voting for, but many are “sticking their neck out there” this season to let their voices be heard.

“It puts the responsibility on the association coming out and verbalizing their discontent rather than the individual officer speaking and fearing retaliation, and that’s what [the survey] amounted to.”