Orange Police Chief’s Firing Notice Released

City Manager David L. Rudat on Tuesday released a 14-page termination letter sent to former Police Chief John R. Robertson, whose firing last week was supported by a narrow majority of the City Council.

The letter accuses Robertson of “extreme arrogance,” “poor judgment,” failing to be a team player and using a management style so poor that it resulted in a hostile workplace at the Police Department.

The former chief conducted a secret investigation of Rudat and of council members for personal reasons, the letter charged, and not because Robertson truly believed one of them had leaked a court-sealed search warrant affidavit to the media.

Rudat did not elaborate on those personal reasons, but City Atty. David A. De Berry and other city officials held a news conference Tuesday to rebut Robertson’s claims that he was fired to prevent him from speaking about the role City Hall played in an ongoing fraud investigation of the city’s trash-hauling and recycling companies.

The district attorney’s office is looking into allegations that the director of Orange Resource Recovery Systems Inc., the recycling company, may have stolen millions of dollars in city funds.

The sealed affidavit, which was obtained by The Times last summer, gave details of the Police Department’s investigation.

In his letter, Rudat went on to dispute a report submitted by independent hearing officer Edward Kreins, who had either exonerated Robertson or found insufficient evidence to sustain 11 of the 14 charges against him.

The remaining points--poor judgment for investigating his own bosses when he himself could have been a suspect in the leak, disobeying the city manager’s orders, and briefing a council member on the trash investigation--were enough to justify the firing, Rudat said.

But, he added, Kreins “missed the point” on most of the other charges and likely would have found in the city’s favor if Rudat or an attorney for the city had been allowed to attend Robertson’s hearing.

Either way, Robertson lost the confidence of Rudat and a majority of the council.

“My disappointment and lack of trust and confidence in you to run the Police Department, or function as a member of the city’s management team, cannot be overstated,” Rudat wrote in the letter.

If Robertson had only asked, Rudat and the council members likely would have cooperated in the investigation of the leak, De Berry said. Instead, the former chief lost their trust.