In the summer of 2009, former Police Chief Steve Cercone suspected a couple problems within his department and placed a few officers and command staff on administrative leave.  He asked the Monterey County Sheriff and the Monterey County District Attorney’s office to perform an investigation as the City of Seaside.

Apparently, asking for outside help angered or embarrassed the City Manager who almost immediately put the Chief on administrative leave.

Ultimately this led to cost overruns approaching $1 million in a large number of new obligations.  Taxpayers were compelled to pay a large severance to a wrongly maligned Police Chief (Cercone was cleared by the Council of any wrongdoing in the severance agreement).  At least three additional positions remained on administrative leave for about a year (the investigation ostensibly took longer as a result of micromanaging the police department).  Staffing these positions to ensure adequate management oversight and policing of our streets resulted in significant overtime payments to a thinly stretched force as no replacement officers were hired in the interim.  Finally, we paid two poorly chosen interim chiefs who were not qualified to serve in the capacity of chief very handsomely.

The sordid story and the aftermath is laid out in detail by Monterey County Herald and in particular by Monterey County Weekly.  [Each of these links will open a new tab or window as they are external to the Felix Bachofner for Seaside Mayor website.]

1. Herald editorial (2009-12-29)
2. Weekly’s initial article including details about improper vetting of interim Chief (2009-8-27)
3. Herald: Rant about Seaside’s perennial “no comment” policy (2009-9-16)
4. Weekly: interim deputy Chief is involved in possible disability scandal (2009-10-22)
5. Weekly: full investigative article (2009-11-19)
6. Weekly: Buildup to a showdown - timeline with some simplified details (2009-11-19)
7. Weekly: increased firearm violence (2009-12-10)
8. Weekly: Cercone’s settlement (2009-12-22)
9. Weekly: interim Chief(s) get fired (2010-1-7)
10. Weekly: what’s old is new — former Chief Sollecito gets hired as interim (2010-1-11)
11. Weekly: group forms to demand ouster of City Manager Ray Corpuz (2010-2-3)
12. Weekly: Citizens for Transparency in Government demand more accountability (2010-2-25)
13. Weekly: Squid Fry’s take (2010-8-12)

Incredible as it may seem, even more articles are available at either newspaper website using their search features.

The City of Seaside is now in the process of finding and hiring a new Police Chief.  The process has included a public input component backed by a consulting firm specializing in hiring public safety managers.  In spite of this potential “progress,” we need to stay vigilant to make sure the right individual is hired to manage and lead our police department.

The evidence from the past years is that our City leadership is not up to this important task and this is one fundamental reason I am running for Mayor.