Mixed reviews of Flint's tenure

Santa Rosa Police Chief Ed Flint seemed in his element when he was on ride-alongs with his officers or outfitted in riot gear while helping to quell Cinco de Mayo violence.

He was, to his supporters, a cop's cop, a man who'd done hard work in the trenches of law enforcement and in the military and was unabashed about leading his troops into battle.

"The officers really like seeing the leadership out and about. They sense the guy who runs the show knows how to be a cop," Flint said in a 2005 interview in his office, where a poster of Marines hoisting the American flag at Iwo Jima dominated the wall behind his desk.

But in situations that called for more finesse and political acumen, Flint's go-get-'em attitude did not serve him as well.

The 57-year-old chief's abrupt retirement from the Police Department, announced this week, spotlights his struggles over 4½ years to lead the department and reach out to a new community.

While some say he succeeded under difficult circumstances, others say that Flint's management style created the strife enveloping the agency.

Flint is on vacation and did not return messages left for him Wednesday and Thursday.

His departure comes amid infighting among managers, an unfair-termination lawsuit filed by his former second-in-command, and four complaints of discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation.

Employee complaints

Several current and former Police Department employees described Flint as taking an inordinate amount of time making decisions, playing favorites, spreading gossip and private information, and saying inappropriate things.

In one notable example, a high-ranking Latino manager confronted Flint at a team-building workshop several years ago by asking the chief to stop calling him "Julio Iglesias," a reference to the employee's ethnic background and style of attire.

Flint apologized and never used the name again. He later promoted the manager, according to the employees, who asked not to be identified.

Dissension in the command staff aside, Flint enjoyed wide popularity among regular officers, many who saw the chief as a down-to-earth guy.

In newsletters Flint instituted after taking the job, he took pains to praise employees while exhorting them to do the best job they could.

In the June/July edition, his last as chief, Flint referenced the internal problems, saying he accepted "full responsibility for everything the organization does, or fails to do."

He wrote, "I intend to do all that is in my power to bring about constructive change for the good of the agency."

On Wednesday, however, City Manager Jeff Kolin said he and Flint had reached a "mutual agreement that he would leave his position as of August 2."

Flint will receive severance pay totaling a half year's salary, about $90,000, and up to $7,000 to reimburse him for unspecified legal expenses.

Business as usual

Several employees who work at the department said the uncertainty won't affect services.

"We'll continue to do investigations, take bad people to jail and write tickets. That's what we do," said Sgt. Steve Bair, who oversees day-shift patrol operations.

Outside the agency, there is a widespread perception that Flint never embraced the Santa Rosa community after arriving from Sacramento County, where he had a 26-year career with the Sheriff's Department.

Some said Flint's conservative views were a liability in liberal Sonoma County. He never bothered to register to vote here until after the fact was noted by the local news media.

Flint was sworn in to much fanfare in 2004 to replace Michael Dunbaugh. The hope, voiced from the mayor on down, was that Flint would connect with Santa Rosa in a way that Dunbaugh reportedly never did.

Flint fully embraced the concept, telling a reporter in 2003 that he was not the "introvert, stay-in-the-office kind of chief."

But the Rev. James Coffee, who was on the selection committee that recommended Flint over 37 other candidates, said he saw a lot more of Dunbaugh than he did of Flint.

"That didn't really materialize for whatever reason," Coffee said of Flint's stated goal to be out and about in the community. "As far as I could see, the public appearances actually became less and less, maybe because he was so busy working with the budgets and trying to keep the department in hand."

Not in public eye

Santa Rosa Mayor John Sawyer also was on the selection committee. He said Flint did a good job of reorganizing the department, and that doing so may have taken time away from the public appearances expected of chiefs.

When he was hired, Flint had to confront major budget and personnel issues, as well as a rising crime rate and a department in which the most experienced officers had retired or were in the process of doing so.

Sawyer praised Flint for reducing crime and tackling traffic problems in the city. "He was the man at the time, to do the job we needed him to do," Sawyer said.

But Flint sometimes was impolitic, such as not informing school officials or City Council members in 2004 before deciding to reassign school resource officers.

That led to a rare public rebuke from then-Mayor Sharon Wright, followed by an even rarer rapprochement between Flint and council members at a public meeting.

At odds with peers

As a major player in county law enforcement, Flint often was at odds with peers over how to address everything from Cinco de Mayo violence to officers having to stand in line at the county courthouse to be screened by security.

Following a third year of May 5 riots in Roseland, Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill pressed for a community event as an alternative to the annual chaos.

Flint, who worked that Cinco de Mayo event in riot gear and helped chase down rock-throwers, advocated clearing the streets earlier in the evening and arresting more people.

Several days later, at a meeting between law enforcement officials and Roseland residents, Flint responded to complaints that police were heavy-handed with a dismissive tone.

"I saw a lot of well-behaved officers," he said.

Cogbill said he respects Flint and that any differences they may have had were over tactics, and not the ultimate goal of protecting public safety.

As an example, Cogbill said he disagreed with Flint's suggestion to combine the county's SWAT and gang units, which likely would have brought a harder edge to combating gang activity.

Cogbill's preferred approach was to rely more heavily on people who are trained in investigating gang crimes and the use of intelligence gathering.

'More direct in his approach'

"Sometimes he was just more direct in his approach," Cogbill said. "There is more than one way to solve a problem."

Cogbill also took issue with an earlier Press Democrat story in which he appeared to say that Flint's resignation was the right thing to do.

In fact, Cogbill said he supported what he thought was Flint's decision to remain in office.

"The last thing I knew, he was going to stay, which I thought was professionally acceptable given the plan they had put into place with the city manager to get the department back on track," Cogbill said.

That plan includes the hiring of an Atlanta-based consultant to help resolve management conflicts and strengthen supervisory skills.

Kolin said the search for Flint's replacement could take six months.

Considering both Flint and Dunbaugh were brought in from the outside to run the Police Department, and both left under a cloud, there are those who are advocating a promotion from within.

Sawyer said that would be his preference.

"Personally, I hope that we can find our next police chief inside the ranks of our department," the mayor said. "But our first responsibility is to find a chief that is the most qualified."

You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.