City Council Seeks Jury Probe of Pomona Government

Pomona City Hall, no stranger to political brouhahas, became the scene for yet another one Thursday, with the City Council asking the county grand jury for a blanket investigation of city government and then asking the sheriff to take over the Police Department.

And all that in a meeting that was originally billed by the mayor as a closed-door session to discuss the firing of the city administrator.

Mayor Donna Smith had announced Wednesday that she expected Julio Fuentes, Pomona city administrator for three months, to be fired by council members who were upset because he was starting to uncover corruption. “Some possible corruption was brought to his attention,” Smith said, adding that she is a supporter of Fuentes. “He did his job and found out that some corruption exists.”

But after meeting in closed session for 90 minutes Thursday, the council decided not to fire Fuentes, but instead voted unanimously to ask the county grand jury to conduct a sweeping investigation of city government.

The motion did not list any specific allegations of corruption. By a 3-2 vote, the council also voted to ask the Sheriff’s Department to send over someone to head the Police Department--at least temporarily--and to finish a corruption investigation of alleged irregularities in the issuance of a business license.

Sheriff’s officials would not comment on the request. Neither would the grand jury foreman, who said she has not seen anything in writing from the council.

The latest in a long string of political controversies in Pomona began when Fuentes ordered the Police Department to find out why an auto paint and body shop received a business license last month without fully complying with city codes.

The police investigation found that the body shop’s landlord sought the intervention of Fire Chief Tom Fee, who was then acting city administrator, to clear the way for issuance of the license. Both Fee and the landlord deny doing anything improper.

When police interviewed city employees in the fire and building departments, it apparently touched off the current controversy.

Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer said there is longstanding animosity between the fire and police departments. It dates back to when Fee, then a negotiator for the firemen’s association, obtained better contracts for his people than police negotiators did for theirs.

The animosity was exacerbated last year, he said, when Fee, as acting city administrator, fired the police chief at the council’s direction.

Nymeyer said the Police Department is incapable of conducting an impartial investigation involving Fire Department employees.

In addition, he said, police officers have become too political to be trusted to act fairly. Among his complaints were a police officers association endorsement of his opponent in a June primary election for state Assembly. In addition, Nymeyer said, police officers have been heavy financial contributors to a campaign to recall Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant.

Bryant said that the “Police Department is beyond salvation. They have been allowed to run unchecked.”

Nymeyer, Bryant and Councilwoman Nell Soto said they hope eventually to turn the police force over to the Sheriff’s Department, contracting with the county for police services.

In its vote Thursday, the council asked the Sheriff’s Department to provide an interim chief for the Police Department, which has been without a permanent chief since Richard Tefank was fired last October because the council believed crime was out of control.

The vote to bring in the grand jury was unanimous, although it was not immediately clear what the panel would investigate. Soto, who proposed the investigation, said she would like the grand jury to look into all allegations of corruption that have been raised in the city.

She said she has heard numerous reports of “sweetheart deals” and favoritism that should be looked into so charges can be brought or rumors laid to rest.

Times staff writer Irene Chang contributed to this story.