President of Chandler Law Enforcement Association restates stinging rebuke of City Manager Pentz, Agrees to Precinct 134 interview

[Please note updates at bottom of this post. Officer Babeu kindly agrees to a Precinct 134 interview.]

In a comment on The Jake Files today, Paul Babeu, police officer and President of the Chandler Law Enforcement Association (CLEA) voiced again his stinging criticism of outgoing City Manager Mark Pentz.

This renewed rebuke of Pentz's competence - and an alarming allegation of a threat of political reprisal by Pentz - comes in the midst of a recall effort centering around whether there was adequate reason for some on the Council to be dissatisfied with Pentz' performance and interactions with some members of our community. If these allegations are true, it would support Pentz's less-than-stellar job review recently, that led to his "separation" from the City and major division in the community, including a recall effort against two Council members who voted for the separation.

Speaking on behalf of the CLEA Board, Babeu's comment, posted today on this older thread is repeated here in full:

Mayor and Council Members,

The Chandler Law Enforcement Association (CLEA)is
compelled to speak publicly about many Law Enforcement
issues and concerns. Our poor Police response times
compared to neighboring East Valley agencies, where
Chandler’s Priority 1 (highest emergency) is 6 minutes
and 10 seconds, while Tempe is under 5 minutes. We
spoke about the need to immediately hire more Police
Officers, since we do not have enough to realistically
improve our response time and to improve our presence
in Chandler. Additionally, we spoke about Officer
safety - the fact that we continue to be outfitted
with inadequate radio communication, where officers in
critical incidents may not be able to communicate for
help, provide a description of a suspect to other
responding Officers or request medical assistance for
a citizen.

These most important Public Safety concerns
should be the function of our Police Command and the
responsibility of the City Manager. Mr. Mark Pentz
has allowed these concerns to go unresolved and two
years ago directed Chief Kiyler to cut her budget by
2%, underscoring his lack of support for our Police
Department. CLEA felt compelled to speak publicly to
bring public attention and focus to these important
issues.

What was the city managers response to this plea
for help by Chandler Police Officers? He went after
our elected leader and threatened him….Shut up, or
you will not get your raise. CLEA President and
Chandler Police Officer Paul Babeu came before your
body to express his distrust in Mark Pentz and to
publicly report Mr. Pentz’s threat made on February
22, 2006 during a meeting in his office. Mr. Pentz
threatened Officer Babeu, while acting in his capacity
as President of CLEA, to deny a proposed salary
increase for Police Officers. Mr. Pentz said while
pointing to the $3.5 million figure in the budget, “we
do not have to give this to you, I can simply say No,
so be careful what you say publicly and how you refer
to me.”

Where is the City Council’s outcry for justice
here? Was it acceptable, for the highest city
employee of Chandler to threaten our leader, who by
City Charter represents all Chandler Police Officers?
Mr. Pentz’s response should have been focused on
solving the problem and addressing issues which
Officers raised, not a direct attempt to silence the
messenger with a threat. Mr. Pentz should have said,
‘I understand your concern over our slow emergency
response times….what can we do to improve Police
Service, what can we do to get better communication
equipment, how are we lacking compared to our
neighboring cities and how can we better serve
Chandler residents?’ Sadly, however, Mr. Pentz forgot
his purpose as our City Manager and did not provide
one word of appropriate concern for Police Services!
Furthermore, Officer Babeu reported Mr. Pentz’s threat
to Police Chief Sherry Kiyler within the hour of the
occurrence. Chief Kiyler confronted her boss (Mr.
Pentz) about this and Mr. Pentz said he ‘did in fact
mention the raise, but had a different perspective
than Paul.’

At your council meeting, Mr. Pentz admitted that
he made such statements and acknowledged that he was
aware that Officer Babeu perceived his statements as a
direct threat and perceived him to be hostile towards
Officer Babeu, but Mr. Pentz never made any attempt to
dissuade Officer Babeu or CLEA from this perception.
Allow us to share the responsibilities of a city
managers conduct, as written in our City Charter.
Chandler City Charter 2-8.2. “Conduct. In the
discharge of the duties of City Manager, the person
holding such position shall endeavor at all times to
exercise the highest degree of tact, patience and
courtesy in contacts with the public and with all City
Boards, Departments and Employees and shall endeavor
to establish and maintain a harmonious relationship
between all personnel employed in the government of
the City to the end that the highest possible
standards of public service shall be continuously
maintained.”

So, Mayor and Council Members, We ask you again.
Is this acceptable behavior from the City Manager?
Was it acceptable in your view, that Mr. Pentz
threatened Officer Babeu and 240 Police Officers, by
direct verbal threat to withhold our pay raise, if we
continued to speak publicly about Police service to
our citizens. Where is your sense of right and
fairness here? Why do some insist that this man be
considered for re-hire when there is so much baggage
and he has chosen a very public and hostile means to
leave employment?

When Police Officer John Carboun was wrongly
fired by Chief Harris - where was your outcry for his
mistreatment? Chandler has already paid over $200,000
fighting Officer Carboun’s wrongful termination and
civil rights violations suit, yet still not a word has
been spoken by Council Members about the waste of city
finances. Where was the City Council’s outcry for
fairness for Officer Carboun, when he was wrongly
fired for publicly speaking about Officer Safety
concerns? When a Police Officer or any city employee
is terminated - we are simply shown the door, with
little or no public outcry, and certainly without any
generous severance package.

Mark Pentz is fired and it’s like he hit the
Powerball. Truly, Mr. Pentz understands the meaning
of Golden Parachute, when you pay an employee over
$250,000 in salary and benefits, after he is
terminated. Where was the outcry when former Manager
Donna Dreska was separated in the same manner, with
$150,000 in separation package and $50,0000 [sic] for a new search.

Mr. Pentz even said his average rating of
performance by the City Council was acceptable to him.
Will you and our citizens accept average performance
by our Police Officers and Fire Fighters? Do you
believe that is what our citizens - the citizens we
are sworn to serve expect when they dial 911? If our
fellow Police Officers accept mediocrity - it may mean
our very life, or the life of our citizens. This
would compromise the high level of Public Safety we
provide the citizens of Chandler. Our City has
achieved a 98% high approval rating for the past 13
years, due to our great work because we meet every
challenge with enthusiasm and our sincere desire to
best serve our citizens, not some luke warm desire to
be average! We expect and demand leaders who lead!
We and the Police Officers we represent will not
tolerate a Supervisor, City Manager or elected
official who deliberately threatens or intimidates us
in our attempt to speak publicly about law enforcement Issues.

We respectfully ask that our leaders move forward
and select a new manager, a leader who is free of
political agenda and controversy. A new City Manager
who can unite our divided community and City Council.
Our City should be focused on the real issues of build out, economic development, education, Public Safety and the quality of life in Chandler.

The discontent and continued animosity on our City
Council needs to end. We ask that you work together
and move our City forward and address the needs of our
City.

Respectfully Submitted,

CLEA Board

Comment [Posted to The Jake Files] by Paul Babeu — April 28, 2006 @ 7:43 am

Babeu also attended Pentz's public review and voiced similar criticisms in person at that time.

As I say, this would appear to be direct corroboration of some of the criticisms that were expressed about Pentz during his recent televised job review. Thus, it would seem to undermine the arguments made for a recall effort against those folks who voted to separate Pentz based on that dissatisfaction.

Update: The CLEA, representing two-thirds of Chandler's police, endorsed Phill Westerbrooks in his Mayoral candidacy against Boyd Dunn.

Update 2: Responding to my email inquiry, Officer Babeu has kindly agreed to an email interview. Check back at Precinct 134 for our interview to be posted within the next few days.

Update 3: Officer Babeu's first six responses are here.