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.”

In the report, Cayler is quoted as saying that last fall he had grave concerns over whether Measure O would pass, given that polling information showed it had an even chance. He worried the city would have to declare bankruptcy if the measure failed. (The ballot measure was narrowly approved by 55 votes, with a total of 2,610 ballots cast.)

Cayler said he was working very hard - 50 to 60 hours per week - during the run-up to the election, and was feeling very much overworked and tired because he had little time off since assuming the job of city manager in early 2013.

In an after-hours meeting with a half-dozen police officers and dispatchers, Cayler suggested ways they could drum up support for Measure O, making phone calls to registered voters and putting up lawn signs. Asked whether he threatened to “punish” the Police Department if employees did not support Measure O and the measure failed, Cayler told the investigator he was simply pointing to information in the public record about what would happen if the city didn’t bring more revenue into the general fund.

“I highlighted the fact that information had been given to the City Council and to the public that if we don’t see additional revenue … the budget reductions include … cuts to a police sergeant, police officer and police dispatcher positions. This was objective, impartial information. A threat wasn’t made,” he said.

The city manager said he told the employees they were under no obligation to assist and would suffer no retaliation if they decided not to support Measure O.

In the end, the investigator said the claim that Cayler threatened those present at the meeting was not supported by a single witness and convincingly contradicted by Cayler himself.

“Indeed the witnesses by and large corroborated Cayler’s recollection of having requested employees’ help on a voluntary off-duty basis, in getting Measure O passed, while not having directed them to do anything,” the report stated.

Tense meeting

One of the more serious allegations against the city manager involved a meeting that took place in his office with Tuma, in which the police chief said he felt the angry city manager was going to physically attack him.

The tense meeting in late 2014 was a result of a proposed speed limit change that had to be continued at a City Council meeting because Tuma admitted it was “catching (him) off guard.”

Tuma acknowledged he had not read a staff report on the proposed speed limit change on South Cloverdale Boulevard, where there had been two separate pedestrian crosswalk accidents, including one fatality.

The next morning, he was called into Cayler’s office.

“(Cayler) starts telling me that I embarrassed the whole city staff, I made us all look incompetent, I should have read” the staff report and missing the staff meeting prior to the council meeting was no excuse, Tuma told the investigator. He said Cayler told him he was going to have to do a lot of damage control, and “I was never to speak again in a meeting unless I went through him first.”

He described an agitated Cayler, red in the face, with his fists clenched and above his desk.

The police chief scooted his chair back because he thought Cayler “was going to come across the desk” at him.

Asked why he thought that, the chief explained that he has 38 years in law enforcement and that when he sees someone behave the way Cayler did, “my guard goes up.”

Cayler for his part called Tuma’s comment “disingenuous,” according to the investigative report.

“He’s carrying a gun. I don’t carry a gun. Why would I physically threaten anybody? Physically threaten a police officer who is armed and trained in self-defense? … That’s just ludicrous,” Cayler said.

The investigator found Cayler’s version of events credible and nothing to substantiate Tuma’s claim that he was placed in fear for his physical safety.

Tuma also complained of a subsequent occasion when he experienced a similar angry reaction from the city manager over some confusion that ensued over filling a vacancy for a police dispatcher - something that happened when Cayler went on vacation.

Cayler also believed the police chief - who also acts as the Cloverdale Municipal Airport manager - had poorly handled a complaint from one resident about noise from airplanes flown by a controversial skydiving operation there.

Cayler acknowledged that during his meeting with Tuma he said words to the effect: “You know what, I worked my tail off. I want two weeks off so I can spend some time with my family and relax and I can’t go away without you f------ things up.”

Cayler said he has worked around law enforcement officers his entire career and that foul language is part of the culture.

Finally, the investigation looked into a complaint previously aired at a City Council meeting by former police Sgt. King, who returned to work in late February after a bereavement leave for his mother and was immediately given a letter by Cayler telling him he was the subject of an internal investigation.

As Cayler pushed a letter across the desk notifying King he was the subject of an investigation, King said the city manager said, “Sorry to hear about your mom.”

King said it was a cold-blooded gesture that hit him hard emotionally.

He said he was being investigated for an accusation of falsifying documents that went into field training manuals - what he described as a “super minor” charge. But rather than incur more stress, King decided to retire immediately, as opposed to the potential September date he was considering.

The investigator concluded there was no evidence substantiating King’s claim that Cayler’s comment was intentionally insensitive, or constituted “bullying.”

$55,000 price tag

The investigation regarding allegations against the city manager cost Cloverdale just over $30,000.

The investigation related to the Police Department performed by retired Pinole Police Chief Paul Clancy cost almost $25,000.

City Councilman Palla said Tuesday that the city had a responsibility to look into allegations of inappropriate behavior.

“Am I happy that we had to spend that money? Absolutely not. That money in our small city, I’d like to see it go to provide enhanced services,” he said, adding that the city has an obligation to look into “allegations of inappropriate performance and possible misconduct … to do a fair and impartial investigation and to get facts.”

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@clarkmas.