Civil Service to Investigate Police Job Bias Claims

Armed with subpoena power, the City of San Diego’s Civil Service Commission on Monday agreed to investigate allegations that Police Department supervisors use lies, intimidation, retaliation and discrimination against officers who file disability claims.

The commission’s decision means there are now two City Hall investigations into charges of impropriety by the Police Department.

The first began two weeks ago when City Manager John Lockwood started an administrative review after The Times revealed that Police Chief Bill Kolender and his assistants dismissed hundreds of parking tickets and 30 citations for moving violations, many of them for their friends, relatives and the media.

In addition, Lockwood said he would investigate an allegation that Kolender used a uniformed police officer to run personal errands in 1980 and 1981.

Other charges Lockwood said he will explore include Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen using city video equipment to tape his fishing trips, and Kolender using his position in 1985 to help a friend buy a handgun without waiting the mandatory 15-day “cooling off” period.

Theoretically, Lockwood, as city manager, has the power to investigate any employee of the Police Department.

But he said Monday that he was confining his probe to the department’s hierarchy--especially Kolender and Burgreen--and he vowed to cooperate with the commission’s investigation, which is restricted by law to only the lower-ranking police officers who are covered by Civil Service regulations.

“As you go about your business over the next several weeks, if I or members of our staff can be of any assistance to you, we’re pleased . . . to cooperate with you,” Lockwood told commissioners.

Lockwood also said he expected to conclude his investigation by next week, adding that he would submit his written conclusions to commissioners.

After taking testimony from Lockwood and Police Officers Assn. attorney Patrick J. Thistle on Monday, Civil Service commissioners met in closed session for 90 minutes before announcing their decision to open their own investigation.

Commissioners David Lewis and Hope Logan were appointed to head the probe, but the commissioners left many other details about the investigation unresolved.

Lewis and Logan said the commission has subpoena power and will probably interview witnesses publicly under oath. The commission will hire outside staffers to help with the probe, Lewis said, because the Personnel Department does not have enough resources. It also will add to the investigation’s independence, he said.

The commission’s investigation is based on a Civil Service complaint filed Nov. 6 by Thistle, who represents police officers seeking disability or early retirement.

The attorney has accused the Police Department of harassing the officers and their witnesses, and he asked the commission to intervene under Section 128 of the City Charter. The section gives the commission, an independent body, the power to investigate any claims of “misconduct or inefficiency” against employees protected by Civil Service regulations.

As one of the exhibits in his complaints, Thistle included a diary kept by Officer Jeanne Taylor, who was injured on the job and subsequently reassigned to “light duty” in Kolender’s office between 1980 and 1981.

Taylor, who has since been granted disability leave, wrote in the diary that Kolender asked her to run personal errands during working hours. Some of the tasks included taking his children to the doctor and dentist, picking up free football and baseball tickets, and escorting a friend and his dog to a pet motel.

While commissioners on Monday said they would train their investigation on the charges in Thistle’s complaint, they also said the probe could encompass other matters as well.

“If other things pop up along the way, we won’t shy away from looking at them,” said Lewis.

Asked if one of those items would be allegations that Kolender and his assistants dismissed tickets without telling the officers who wrote them, Lewis said: “I think it’s premature for me to focus on that, but that certainly is a possibility. That is a direction that the investigation could go.”

Commissioners will meet Wednesday to hash out more details about the probe, including a request by Thistle that the city attorney be barred from giving advice along the way. Thistle said that would create a conflict, since at least one of his allegations is that the city attorney acted improperly against police officers.