Chief’s Ouster Called Necessary for Community

San Clemente City Manager James B. Hendrickson testified Wednesday that he asked for the resignation of Police Chief Kelson McDaniel because he saw no way of healing the rift between the chief and the members of the force.

“The community had been through enough travail, the (Police Department) had been through enough travail, and it was time to put an end to that travail,” Hendrickson testified at the hearing being conducted at the request of McDaniel’s attorney.

Hendrickson said he based his decision on the report of James S. Mocalis, an independent consultant he hired to assess the situation shortly after the 50-member force gave the chief a no-confidence vote. That report, Hendrickson said, concluded that there was no chance of re-establishing the officers’ trust in their leader.

The hearing is scheduled to conclude today with McDaniel’s testimony. Retired state appellate Judge Robert E. Rickles is presiding as the hearing officer.

Hendrickson testified that the no-confidence vote came as a surprise to him and that he decided to bring in a neutral party to assess its impact before he made a decision.

On cross-examination, McDaniel’s attorney, Fred T. Ashley referred to favorable performance evaluations that Hendrickson had given McDaniel, one dated May 11, 1987, just 17 days before Hendrickson asked McDaniel to resign.

Ashley asked Hendrickson whether he had conducted an investigation into McDaniel’s performance before writing the report.

“I based it upon my knowledge of the situation at the time,” Hendrickson answered.

Ashley: “(Did you) see how well McDaniel interacted with employees?”

Hendrickson: “When I went down to his office . . . I did not conduct any independent investigations.”

When Ashley asked Hendrickson whether his evaluations were accurate, the city manager replied that he had tried to be but that his efforts were insufficient.

“I did not perform that aspect of my job the way I should have,” Hendrickson said.

In the May 11 evaluation, Hendrickson referred to McDaniel’s “team-player attitude.” Hendrickson said he based his evaluation on what he knew at the time but, in retrospect: “I should have spent more time in the department and community getting more points of view.”

Also testifying Wednesday was Mocalis, the consultant hired by Hendrickson to assess the police officers’ complaints.

Mocalis interviewed 74 sworn and non-sworn police department employees and determined that most of them had complaints about McDaniel’s performance as chief.

The city’s attorney, David C. Larsen, asked Mocalis what the employees said when he inquired as to why they hadn’t filed grievances with the chief.

“Most of the people I spoke with said initially they had a great deal of confidence in the chief. . . . But over a period of time, as their feelings started changing, some of the things they may have grieved about, there hadn’t been changes made,” said Mocalis, current manager of the Laguna Niguel Community Services District and former San Juan Capistrano city manager.

In his report, Mocalis concluded that McDaniel should try to work one on one with the officers to resolve the situation but that he did not believe McDaniel would be successful.

In cross-examination, Ashley asked Mocalis for specific individual grievances he heard in the officer interviews, such as their fear of retaliation if they filed grievances and their complaints about the issuing of too many negative “performance incident reports.”

Mocalis said that after he wrote his conclusions from the officer interviews, he destroyed his notes to protect the officers’ confidentiality.

Ashley maintained a line of questioning on each of the complaints Mocalis said the officers had.

For example, Mocalis testified that many officers complained about the sergeants’ vindictive attitudes toward the officers. Mocalis recalled one officer telling him that a sergeant once called him on the car radio to come out and issue a parking ticket, when the sergeant could have issued it himself.

“Who made those comments?” Ashley asked Mocalis.

“I don’t recall,” Mocalis replied.

Ashley: “Their names would have been reflected in your notes?”

Mocalis: “I believe so.”

During a break in the proceedings, McDaniel denied statements attributed to him by his former secretary, Pat Bouman, who testified on Tuesday that McDaniel had used a vulgar, racial epithet regarding a transient at the police station.

“I deny I ever used those words in any combination in my entire life,” McDaniel said.

Since the hearing was scheduled, McDaniel has filed a claim for more than $4.35 million against the city, accusing city administrators, City Council members and police officers of engaging in a “conspiracy” to cause him emotional distress and force him to resign after 18 months as chief.