Santa Rosa police captain's firing upheld

Former police Capt. Jamie Mitchel will not get his job back as second in command of the Santa Rosa Police Department ? a decision reached after the city spent nearly $400,000 and Mitchel almost as much.

A three-member arbitration panel, in a 2-1 ruling issued last month, upheld the city?s firing of Mitchel in May 2008 in the wake of four employee gender discrimination, harassment and retaliation complaints filed against him and then-Police Chief Ed Flint.

All four complaints named Flint and two named Mitchel.

City Attorney Caroline Fowler declined to discuss the panel?s decision or release its 19-page written ruling. ?Because of the confidential personnel nature, we never commented on why he (Mitchel) was terminated because we thought it was not appropriate,? she said.

Mayor Susan Gorin, alluding to the dysfunction in the Police Department highlighted by the complaints that led to Flint?s resignation under pressure and Mitchel?s firing, welcomed the panel?s decision despite the $383,000 it cost the city to defend its termination of Mitchel, both before the panel and in a U.S. federal court case.

?Sadly, this is what we had to do to move on and create a great working relationship between the council, the Police Department and the community,? she said.

The three-attorney panel included a representative selected by the city, one by Mitchel and an agreed-upon neutral third party who sided with the city in the ruling.

Mitchel, however, promised to fight on even though the loss in binding arbitration erased his chances of winning his job back.

?I disagree and am disappointed. I don?t think it was a legal or factual decision,? Mitchel said. ?I think the truth will eventually come out.

?If the city thinks I am going to go home and say it?s all done, I?m not. I am not finished,? said Mitchel, who said he spent $350,000 of his own money to challenge the city?s actions.

Mitchel wouldn?t say what additional action he plans to take pending further discussion with his attorney, Scott Lewis of Santa Rosa.

?We will be doing something within two weeks,? he said.

Mitchel indicated it could involve refining a federal lawsuit he brought against the city in May 2008 that claimed his privacy rights were violated when city officials, including Fowler, released a confidential investigative report into Mitchel?s law enforcement background to attorneys representing the four complainants.

U.S. Northern District Judge Susan Illston upheld the city?s right to distribute the report but said Mitchel could still argue that he was retaliated against for speaking out and that his due-process rights may have been violated.

Attorney Lewis said at that time that Illston indicated those legal issues should not be pursued until Mitchel had exhausted his other legal remedies, including the arbitration hearing.

Flint, a 26-year veteran of the Sacramento County Sheriff?s Department, was hired in 2004 to take over for former Santa Rosa Police Chief Michael Dunbaugh. He hired Mitchel, whom he knew from Sacramento County, to be his second in command in 2005.

Mitchel was fired from his Santa Rosa post in May 2008, following a $34,000, city-financed investigation of Mitchel by a former Beverly Hills police chief that was triggered by the complaints.

While the city has been mum about the reasons they fired Mitchel, the papers filed on behalf of the city in the federal court case said Mitchel ?engaged in conduct which led several Police Department employees to contend that he discriminated against them on the basis of gender and sexual orientation and harassed and retaliated against them because they supported the presentation of discrimination claims to the city.?

The complaints eventually led to Flint?s resignation, reportedly under pressure. Flint abruptly resigned in July 2008 and received a half-year?s salary of $90,000 and $7,000 to cover his attorney fees.

Mitchel said the only thing he got from the city ?was a kick in the butt.?

City Manager Jeff Kolin declined to discuss personnel issues involving the four police employees who filed complaints, two of whom sources say have either resigned or were part of budget cuts last July.

Assistant City Attorney Suzanne Rawlings said the city reimbursed the attorney representing the claimants in their claims against Flint and Mitchel $173,000 and paid a total of $120,000 to the four claimants.

?That?s what the city paid out. We are not at liberty to discuss individual employee personnel matters,? she said.

So far Mitchel?s dismissal, Flint?s forced resignation, the four employee complaints filed against Flint and Mitchel, and team-building efforts within the Police Department triggered by the controversy have cost the city more than $830,000.

After the high-level shake-up of a department that even Flint admitted had become dysfunctional, former Capt. Tom Schwedhelm was appointed police chief.

Last week Schwedhelm named Lts. Gary Negri and Hank Schreeder, both department veterans, to fill the captain positions formerly held by him and Mitchel.

Schwedhelm said the controversy has died down. ?Today there is only one camp,? he said.

?Everyone has learned from the experiences over the past couple of years,? said Schwedhelm, who noted the department has been involved in extensive team-building efforts since the controversy erupted.

?We are all committed to providing the most healthy environment internally and externally as we can. We all want to enjoy coming to work,? he said.

Police Officer Ken Johnson, president of the 144-member Santa Rosa Police Officers Association, said the description of a department split ?into two camps isn?t there anymore.?

?We are all working on the same page. A lot of the dysfunction has gone away,? he said.

Johnson said there remains widespread support for Mitchel.

?He was a good guy. A lot of people feel that way. But life moves on. People here are starting to come together, and the general feeling among officers is the department is heading in the right direction,? Johnson said.

Mitchel said his career in law enforcement is over in the wake of his firing and the city?s portrayal of him, in his words, ?as an angry, hostile, mean man.?

?Right now I?m untouchable in the public arena,? he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mike McCoy at 521-5276 or mike.mccoy@pressdemocrat.com.