Reactions to the Failed Attempt to Appoint the Next San Angelo Police Chief

Citizens living inside the city limits of the City of San Angelo decided Tuesday to reject the charter amendment to appoint rather than elect a police chief. Proposition 8, the last of eight charter amendments, failed by a wide margin, 73 to 27 percent.

San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez, who has held his elected position since 2004, said he was in favor of an appointed police chief, but didn’t believe Prop. 8 would pass this year. “I think the general mood of distrust in government nationwide meant it was going to be tough to pass, an uphill battle,” he said. Vasquez has his political senses about him, too. “Also, I didn’t really see any groups or PACs (political action committees) taking up the charge to appoint a chief,” he said, layering his doubts about Prop. 8’s passage.

The next election for police chief is in May and already at least one candidate, San Angelo Police Lt. Mike Hernandez, has announced his intention to run against Vasquez. This will be Vasquez’s fourth election.

“I love the election process and I love campaigning,” Vasquez said. “I’ll do whatever the voters decide.”

Had Prop. 8 passed, Vasquez was to be named as the first appointed chief in the amendment’s language.

Vasquez’s only announced opponent, Hernandez, campaigned heavily against Prop. 8. Had the measure been approved by voters, his campaign would never been born. Filing for the election for police chief is not until February.

“And the journey continues,” a jubilant Hernandez said after the results came in. “I love serving this community and I am humbled to continue the process of allowing the citizens of San Angelo to choose their chief.”

 Mayor Morrison echoed Vasquez’s analysis, but gave more historical insight into the voters’ decision. Morrison said that appointing a chief was sneaked into the 1915 city charter and it took the citizens until 1941 to get rid of it. Then-popular San Angelo Police Chief Otis Reed was fired by the then-Mayor after Reed arrested the mayor’s son, Morrison recalled from his research. The voters had to force making the police chief position an elected one through a petition. After voters approved changing the city charter to elect a chief, Otis Reed won the subsequent election handily.

“Electing a police chief has always what the people wanted,” Morrison said as the overwhelming vote against Prop. 8 filtered in last night. “I’m glad to see the police chief is going to be elected. It’s like the 14^th time we’ve voted on it, and the people have always said no to an appointed police chief.”

David Nowlin, who ran and lost against Morrison last year for mayor, agreed with his former opponent. “I believe the city leaders didn’t listen to the people,” he said, asking why the measure was on the ballot in the first place. “But our city leaders keep on trying to get it in there over the voters’ wishes.”

City Councilwoman Elizabeth Grindstaff didn’t see Prop. 8 as a conspiracy against the people. “We all knew Dwain was against it, but once the charter review committee suggested that we put it on the ballot, I think the rest of the council sat back and thought, ‘well okay, let’s see if it passes’,” Grindstaff said.

Grindstaff, who was an assistant city manager before her tenure as a council member, admitted that city staff might have been for it, but not because of a distrust of the voters. “They may see it as a professional enhancement to appoint a chief,” she said, referring to the fact that every other city in the Texas Municipal League has the city manager appoint and manage their police chief.

One of the sticking points with the elected chief position for council and city staff that both Morrison and Grindstaff acknowledged was the police department’s budget. Since the chief does not report under the city manager, the police department can and has exceeded its annual budget. “It’s unpredictable and harder to manage,” Grindstaff said.

Morrison agreed, but said that every year it happens, the council and the chief manage to work it out. Morrison credits Vasquez for the strong working relationship between council and the police department.

But what if a new police chief is elected and is difficult to work with?

“We have leverage,” Morrison said. He referred to the 1915 city charter that reads that the council shall pay the police chief a minimum of $1,500 per year. “We can go revisit the police chief’s annual salary,” Morrison said over the phone. I could hear his evil grin when he said it.

Vasquez said he already has the groundwork laid for his next campaign in May. He said he’s prepared for the drama the election brings to his department every four years. “We’re already starting to see some divisiveness and tensions with the officers,” Vasquez said about the expected effect the election will have on esprit de corps of the department. “Like in the past elections, we’ll see a slight decrease in performance and a slight increase in crime because we’re not going to be totally focused and all of the chitter-chattering,” Vasquez said. “We have to redouble our efforts and minimize it.”

The seven other city charter amendments passed. The only other close measure was Prop. 5, to increase the salary of city council members and the mayor. Mayor Morrison received a pay raise from $600 per year to $4,200 per year. “I knew what the job paid when I signed up for it,” Morrison said, indicating that the raise was not really that much of an incentive to him. Morrison said that when the pay raise for councilmembers failed in 2006, it hurt. Back then, according to Morrison, when voters turned down the pay raise, then-City Manager Harold Dominquez re-evaluated the city charter and took away council’s health insurance and a $150 per month travel stipend.

Grindstaff was pleased that the charter election realigned the city charter to be in accordance with state law with the other propositions that were approved. She didn’t think the appointed police chief or the pay raise would pass. She said she didn’t advocate for any of the charter amendments, and wouldn’t add any others.

Mayor Morrison would, though.

The new ordinance making it mandatory to spay and neuter your pets just took effect and has been very controversial. Mayor Morrison, a vocal opponent of the new ordinance, said that if the pet ordinance was put to a vote of the people, instead of council, it would fail 4-to-1.

In yesterday’s Nov. 3, 2015 election 8,815 of the 66,256 those registered voted, or a 14.63 percent turnout. All of the state constitutional amendments passed easily.

To view the election results, click here.