San Angelo Police Chief Vasquez Challenges Opponent Lt. Carter to Debate

 

San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez challenged his opponent Frank Carter to a debate at a press conference held inside City Hall this morning.

Vasquez, the incumbent police chief candidate, is in a contentious run-off election campaign with one of his lieutenants, Frank Carter. Early voting begins June 20, and Election Day is July 2. San Angelo is the only municipality in Texas that elects, rather than appoints, its police chief.

According to Vasquez, two debates were proposed on specific dates by local media and were canceled. “It has been brought to my attention this is because of my opponent’s refusal to appear. According to my information, it was made clear that alternate dates could be found, but his refusal to participate is not based on scheduling conflicts.”

We confirmed with KLST-TV and KSAN-TV that the television stations attempted to schedule a 30-minute televised candidate forum for the police chief election but Carter would not participate. Twice San Angelo LIVE! also asked Carter to participate in a debate partnered with Townsquare Media’s KGKL-960 AM. He turned us down twice.

“I believe that (his refusal) is at the very least a failure to understand the public trust,” Vasquez said. “And because of the huge impact this election has for the future of our community, and (police) organization, we the voters deserve the opportunity to hear from us on the issues at stake.”

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Vasquez argued that the forums and debates leading up to the general election did not adequately vet the programs and policies his opponent Frank Carter is proposing because of time constraints and the number of candidates.

“In the forums and debates held during the run up to the general election, time restraints inevitably meant that many ideas were introduced without having to stand up to any real scrutiny,” he said. “Also, with what essentially was three versus one, all of the time was spent questioning our (Vasquez administration’s) methods, and very little was allowed for delving into Lt. Carter’s proposed changes.”

“I understand that you are accustomed to communication and transparency from your police chief, and I encourage you to demand the same from any candidate for this important office,” Vasquez concluded.

Jeff Rottman of KKSA-AM asked for Vasquez’s response to the recently released Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT) survey. Vasquez promised an in-depth response next week. He also highlighted positive indicators uncovered by the survey.

“What was not reported about the survey was that it reports that 84 percent of officers are happy with their current assignment and 64 percent are happy to spend their entire career at SAPD,” Vasquez said. “So while a large percentage disagreed that morale was high, they did not say that morale was low either.”

Vasquez said the survey was accomplished in “typical union fashion,” encompassing boilerplate complaints about “pay and complaints about the City of San Angelo not treating all employees fairly, even though the officers are about to receive a significant pay raise while the rest of the City employees do not. The City is also entering a hiring freeze due to tax revenue shortages.”

SACOP President Sgt. Doug Thomas and CLEAT representative from Austin Tracy Chance. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)
Tracy Chance, representative from CLEAT in Austin, was in the audience. He  was asked if CLEAT has a standardized survey methodology implemented statewide for surveying other police departments, or was San Angelo singled out? (Left: SACOP President Sgt. Doug Thomas and CLEAT representative from Austin Tracy Chance. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde).

“No, we haven’t singled out San Angelo at all,” Chance said. “We did the survey on the request of the (local) association, as a matter of fact, both associations (Texas Municipal Police Association, or TMPA), all got together to do a survey and then approached us. We’re not in the business of just starting a survey on our own. So we did the survey based on their request,” Chance said.

“We used the same Survey Monkey survey, but it’s tailored by each association,” he said.

But a recent survey conducted in Abilene was different, Chance said. “I did Abilene’s as well, and the reason we did a paper survey is because they were afraid of retaliation from within. So they chose to do a handwritten survey,” he said.

Chance said he could not speak on why the former San Angelo Coalition of Police (SACOP) president Cade Solsbery recently resigned when asked if his resignation was in protest to the way the decision was made by the local chapter of CLEAT to conduct a survey during a contentious police chief election campaign.

Sgt. Doug Thomas, the newest president of SACOP was standing next to Chance. He said every member of SACOP voted in favor of conducting the survey.

Vasquez interrupted. “Was it every member, or just the board?”

“Every member,” Thomas said.

“So every member had a paper ballot, and every member voted on it?” Vasquez pressed.

“Yes, sir,” Thomas replied.

Frank Carter did not answer or return our phone call or text messages asking for his response.

The press conference started shortly after 10 a.m. Friday morning.

Update May 27 at 4 p.m.

The City of San Angelo Public Information Officer Anthony Wilson clarified the City Manager's current view on pay raises and a hiring freeze. 

"The City continues to actively recruit applicants to fill all job vacancies. Although a hiring freeze could happen in light of decreased sales tax collections, a freeze has not occurred and is not imminent," Wilson stated in an email.

Vasquez is correct that through negotiations in last year's Meet and Confer process, a substantial pay raise was negotiated for SAPD officers.

"Pay raises for (other) City employees will not be determined until this summer, when the City Council will discuss and approve a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1," Wilson stated. 

"The discussion will include funding the salary increases for police officers negotiated through the Meet & Confer agreement," Wilson added.

Update May 27 at 4:21 p.m.

SACOP walks back claim that "all voted" to conduct survey

In a statement released earlier this afternoon, SACOP interim president Sgt. Doug Thomas noted that SACOP "members of both unions voted to conduct the survey." Earlier today, Thomas said all members voted to approve the decision to conduct a survey. His statement: 

The SACOP (San Angelo Coalition of Police), which is the local chapter organization of CLEAT (the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas), in cooperation with SAPOA ( the San Angelo Police Officers Association), TMPA (the Texas Municipal Police Association) affiliated organization, recently conducted a Management Survey of the San Angelo Police Department.

Prior to conducting the survey, both local associations held special called meetings and members of both unions voted to conduct the survey.  

On April 20th 2016, the survey was conducted through a widely used survey software program. The survey was provided to all sworn officers who are members of either local association and not elected or appointed in their current position.   

Prior to the public release of the survey, the motion was presented to both memberships of the local associations and they overwhelmingly voted to release the results publicly.

It should be noted that NO member observed the results prior to the release to the public.

Objectively, the membership voted to release the information not knowing the results and to willingly accept the results, whatever they were.

The members of SACOP and SAPOA joined in this effort to conduct a fair and honest assessment of their department and its leadership.

All voting was conducted in accordance with organizational policies and by-laws.

The local associations represent the Police Officers who work at the San Angelo Police Department and provide a voice for those Officers.

Sgt. Doug Thomas
Interim, SACOP President

 

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I was there and I believe since Timmy gets the questions in advance, it would not be fair. Have a debate at let's say, the Tea Party, and party on. Now that's fair. And I wish Timmy would quit using our tax dollars for his campaign. He should be out working among the troops. But I guess he used corp. funds in 2008 to fund his campaign and those felonies were dropped by the Ethics Commission.Go figure. I have copies of the two complaints if anyone wants to see them and the Commission's response. There is much more than meets the eye. The saga continues!

Love the fact that I can concentrate on the business at hand. I'm not running for anything and I can now state my true opinion, along with a lot of facts, that I will be sharing with all you wonderful readers out there in the coming weeks. Have a God filled wonderful day. New leadership is upon us.

Sigman, Fri, 05/27/2016 - 16:04

Mr. Davis, I, and I'm sure others, will be looking forward to reading your "factual" comments soon. Clearly, there is a lot going on behind the scenes that "WE" are not aware of. I will state that I did not vote for either of these two candidates but at this point in time, one of these individuals will become our next Chief of Police. "Transparency" seems to be lacking in this election and there are many important questions that have yet to be asked or answered. I personally believe that a "PROPERLY" conducted debate is in order. The last debate was moderated by an individual from the "TEA PARTY." I was very disappointed that this moderator failed to stick to "DEBATE PROTOCOL." As such, neither this individual, nor the "TEA PARTY" should be a part of the moderation process should another debate occur. I do believe another debate will lead to more discussion about how one of these two can/will be the better Police Chief. I do hope that Mr. Carter agrees to a debate. Unless he has something to hide, there should be no reason for him not to agree to another debate forum. I'm anxiously awaiting for 'MORE TO COME!"

Sigman, Fri, 05/27/2016 - 16:45

Mr. Davis, there are several "Forms of Debating." Your earlier comment "I was there and I believe since Timmy gets the questions in advance, it would not be fair" suggests an "Impromptu" style of debate, which is a relatively informal style of debating, when compared to other highly structured debate formats. I would like to see an " Extemporaneous" speaking debate. Extemporaneous speaking is a style that involves no planning in advance, and generally centers around main contentions. This puts the debaters on a more "equal" debate whereby the debaters have no knowledge of questions to be asked or debated. This is why I would like to see a "disinterested party" be the moderator of the debate. Perhaps someone more educated in "Debate Protocol" such someone from Angelo State University?? Just an idea!

The history of our flamboyant Chief of Police starts in the late 1980's when I first starting paying attention to him and started documenting things that he did that were not only against the law, but were downright unethical and sometimes startling. This comes not as strange, but some of what real cops do when they see something wrong in the world. I guess you could say that on one hand I wish he would just go away, and on the other, I must have been one of the silent ones. That is to be no more. San Angelo is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people, but it has it's dark side of which I had spent my career fighting against. The men and women of the Police Department are great individuals that need true inspirational leadership which is non existant at this time. Now is the time for change and I will do my part to help this happen. As I enlighten some of you, you will be astonished by what you read. You, will only get the facts that can be backed up by documentation or by living witnesses. One incident at a time will be released so you can absorb all of the facts. Sometimes we just reap what we sow. I have nothing to gain from this other than I want people to know what I know. On the funny side, I also need to clear out some of the file cabinets that have been collecting dust, and have been taking up space. Mind you, I am not alone in this effort and now there are many that know almost as much as I.

com·plic·it
kəmˈplisit/Submit
adjective
involved with others in an illegal activity or wrongdoing.
"all of these people are complicit in some criminal conspiracy"

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