Jim Smith, the owner of Nik-N-Willies Pizza, speaks at the South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting on Tuesday. Smith attended the meeting to request a look at the 44-page climate survey of South Lake Tahoe Police Department employees that was conducted in October. Jonah M. Kessel / Tahoe Daily Tribune
Adam Jensen,ajensen@tahoedailytribune.com May 8, 2008 PrintEmail A stinging, 10-page summary of a consultant’s “climate survey” last fall found the South Lake Tahoe Police Department facing considerable internal turmoil.
None of the police department’s sworn employees, management and supervisors who were surveyed reported that they had confidence in the organization’s senior leadership.
The summary, dated Oct. 8, 2007, was written by Riverside-based Taylor-Nelson LLC during the city’s contract negotiations with police officers. City officials have declined to release the consultant’s full 44-page report on the police department, saying that doing so would “serve no public interest.”
Taylor Nelson’s full report has been subpoenaed by the El Dorado County civil grand jury, Police Chief Terry Daniels wrote in an e-mail Monday.
Jim Smith, owner of Nik-N-Willies Pizza, also requested the full report during the public comment period at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
In denying the Tahoe Daily Tribune request for the full report, City Manager David Jinkens said the full report was exempt from disclosure because it still is in “draft form.” In addition, Daniels said the report was paid for through a “donation” and therefore is not a public document.
“No public funds were used for this training,” Daniels noted in the e-mail. “All costs were paid from a donation.”
Excerpts from the climate survey
Here are excerpts from the summary of a South Lake Tahoe Police Department climate survey prepared by Taylor Nelson LLC and dated Oct. 8, 2007. The excerpts are listed in the order they appear in the report.
-- “There is a feeling that the goals of the chief are to achieve personal recognition, and he is not willing to tell the council that there are fundamental weaknesses resulting from short staffing, inability to recruit and retain competent staff and overall low morale.”
-- “Relationships are over strained and people are disconnected because of the long work shifts, their confusion about the priorities of the department and the inexperience of supervision, administration and management. Members claim they hate to come into HQ, that that they keep their heads down and don’t talk to anyone. ‘Keep your head down and move to the middle of the herd’ was an oft-repeated mantra.”
-- “Only 36 percent of department members believe that opinions are exchanged openly without fear or reprisal.”
-- “Only 14 percent of all sworn department members believe that the department encourages and fosters good teamwork and shows appreciation for good performance. No sworn employee agrees with the survey statement that ‘our manager understands the importance of maintaining their employee’s self-esteem.’ ”
-- “27 percent of all survey respondents think that the organization rewards people fairly, but none of the sworn employees believe the rewards are worthy of the effort.”
-- “17 percent of supervisors and 13 percent of sworn employees believe that promotions are given to people who deserve them.”
-- “There seems to be sufficient personal development, coaching or relevant training.”
-- “67 percent of sworn employees agree with the statement that ‘we insure that all employees are taught the necessary skills to do their job.’ ”
-- “The chief is articulate, creative and intelligent and connected to the community and Council.”
-- “93 percent of sworn employees disagreed with the survey statement that ‘our managers always behave in a manner that is consistent with our values and beliefs.’ ”
-- “20 percent of sworn employees agreed that ‘our organization’s senior leaders are honest.’ ”
-- “None of the sworn employees, management and supervisors reported that they had confidence in the organization’s senior leadership.”
-- “The chief is aware of the need to attract and keep competent staff. He inherited the liabilities of former Chief Don Muren and is unfairly blamed for those decisions that caused loss of faith in the department’s leadership, viz., lower staffing levels.”
-- “The chief and captain, like so many of the police department’s leaders, are green. They need leadership, coaching, business management training and human skill development.”
Members of the public also would not benefit from knowledge of the document, Jinkens wrote in a letter to the Tribune.
“The data released to date requires validation and interpretation by the consultants,” Jinkens wrote. “To release such partial and preliminary data would be destructive to the police department. As such, the public interest in having a police department with strong positive internal leadership clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure of an incomplete document which may undermine this critically important position.”
Included in the summary are figures indicating most officers were afraid of internal investigation attacks. They also feared reprisal for openly exchanging opinions and have little faith in department management.
“The department is very goal driven, and yet priorities seem to be unclear and many believe that important work is not being done (no investigation of property crimes, not enough relationship building with youth, etc.) There is a clear acceptance that the department cannot do what it would like to do with diminished resources; many feel the goals have become too narrow, namely, pushing patrol units from one end of SLT to the other,” the summary states.
Taylor-Nelson was hired by Daniels to interview and compile survey responses from department employees, 37 of whom subsequently responded to an anonymous, online survey.
The consultant’s mission was “to work with the police department to rebuild the participative management team which, due to turnover within the department, had many new members,” the summary indicated.
Participative management encourages employee involvement in decision-making processes.
The consultants note that data in the summary was gathered during final phases of collective bargaining, but said they “tried to factor in any frustration, anger, impatience and mistrust that typically surround contentious talks.”
And in an “interpretations and implications” section, they say that Daniels is “unfairly blamed” for decisions that caused the loss of faith because “he inherited the liabilities of former Chief Don Muren.”
Muren was not available for comment Wednesday.
During a telephone conversation May 1, Daniels admitted problems in the police department but declined to discuss the summary in detail.
He elaborated in an e-mail on Monday: “The police department favors a high degree of employee participation and recognizes that organizations which self-examine are organizations that have higher customer service and quality results,” Daniels wrote.
“These are internal matters to be examined by the participative management team. The report you reference is the first phase used by the consultants to begin working on our internal issues — it’s the beginning.
“The information has not been validated, tested, interpreted by the consultants or updated. Now that contract negotiations are complete it is my intent to schedule the consultants to return to begin the training.”
The summary report came to light after a Tribune story in which Daniels identified obstacles to filling vacant officer positions and proposed possible solutions to the challenges.
But sources contacted the Tribune contending Daniels didn’t tell the whole story, at which time a copy of the summary report was provided to the newspaper.
At least one council member also has received the report. City Councilman Bill Crawford said he received a copy of the Taylor-Nelson summary in his City Hall mailbox, sent anonymously in a police department envelope.
South Lake Tahoe Mayor Mike Weber said he has not seen the summary report but would obtain a copy and discuss the findings with the Tribune.
— City Editor Elaine Goodman contributed to this report.
CLEAR 59°
