Report reveals strains between Cloverdale city manager, police
Separate investigative reports into complaints of misconduct involving the Cloverdale Police Department and City Manager Paul Cayler have been completed, providing a glimpse of the strained relationship between the town’s top two department heads that led up to the police chief’s retirement.
Any notion of Mayberry-like, small-town collegiality between Police Chief Mark Tuma and the city manager is dispelled in one of the reports, which looked into allegations that Cayler threatened and bullied police personnel and used profanity.
The city has publicly released only one of the investigative reports - the one that focuses on Cayler - and it details allegations of misconduct, largely brought by the police chief, who at one point describes feeling physically threatened by the “red-faced, fist-clenched” city manager.
But the report concluded there was no evidence to substantiate the claims against Cayler, 49. The city attorney announced the finding last month in a statement that also said the City Council expressed confidence in the leadership of the city manager.
Nine days later, the city announced the retirement of Chief Tuma, 60, effective June 12.
Cayler “is our city manager and will continue to be,” Mayor Bob Cox said last week. “I’m very happy and pleased with his performance.”
“I support Paul Cayler and I feel he did nothing inappropriate based on the investigation,” City Councilman Joe Palla said Tuesday.
A separate report involving allegations of misconduct at the Police Department has been completed but will not be publicly released, according to City Attorney Jose Sanchez. He cited stricter confidentiality and personnel statutes involving police officers and the likelihood their identities in the small department would be discerned even if their names were omitted.
City officials have declined to comment on the nature of the allegations involving the Police Department or whether any of the complaints were sustained, or if officers were disciplined. Tuma said in a previous email that to his knowledge, “it doesn’t involve anything criminal, or anything outside of the inner workings and policies of the Police Department.”
Tuma was placed on paid administrative leave in March pending the investigation into the Police Department.
Currently the department, which is authorized for 13 sworn officers but has several vacancies, is being overseen by interim Chief Susan Jones, a retired Healdsburg police chief.
The report involving Cayler makes reference to tensions surrounding some of the biggest issues in Cloverdale over the past couple of years - two serious pedestrian crosswalk accidents including one fatality; noise complaints from aircraft operated by a skydiving operation at the municipal airport; and stress over the city’s potential bankruptcy if voters didn’t approve a utility users’ tax to boost the general fund.
Although most of the names are redacted in the 57-page investigative report on Cayler that was released to the news media, it is obvious from several references that the source of some serious allegations is Tuma.
Four complaints
There basically are four main complaints against Cayler that were investigated:
Around the fall of 2014, Cayler met with members of the Cloverdale Police Officers Association and Dispatchers Association to discuss Measure O - a proposed 3 percent utility users tax that was to appear on the November 2014 ballot. During the meeting, Cayler allegedly threatened to eliminate a police officer position and dispatch position if they didn’t work to pass the measure and it failed.
In late 2014, Cayler allegedly addressed Tuma in an angry and physically threatening manner during a visit to Cayler’s office.
Around January of this year, Cayler is alleged to have angrily addressed Tuma and used profanity during a meeting in Cayler’s office.
In late February, during a meeting with Sgt. Keith King to provide him with a written notice that he was under investigation in a separate matter, Cayler allegedly displayed insensitivity and/or engaged in bullying of King when he told the sergeant he was sorry to hear about the death of his mother.
No evidence found
Investigator Ivan Delventhal, of the Berkeley public law firm of Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, said he found no evidence to sustain any of the complaints against Cayler.
Although Tuma declined to be interviewed for this story, he said in an email this week that a “not sustained” conclusion in an internal investigation means you “cannot prove it did or did not happen,” which is distinct from the conclusion “unfounded - didn’t happen.”
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