Police Shuffle C.O.P.S. Program Steele May Head New Agency; Skirt Civil Service Rules

Despite losing her job, Cheryl Steele may well continue to head up Spokane’s police substations.

A move by the police department is under way to shift control of the substations to Spokane C.O.P.S., a newly formed non-profit group designed to oversee the city’s community policing efforts.

If the City Council approves the plan, several police department and city officials want Steele to be named as the non-profit agency’s project director.

“I think the police department and the city would weigh heavily on Cheryl being made the director,” said Bill Pupo, assistant city manager.

“I firmly believe we couldn’t find a better person, based on her track record,” said Deputy Police Chief Larry Hersom. “She has blazed the trail.”

The Civil Service Commission last month told Police Chief Terry Mangan to fire Steele because she’d been on the city’s payroll for more than three years as a temporary-seasonal employee.

Steele did part-time clerical work for most of that three-year period, but in May 1994 was named coordinator of the city’s community-policing program. She earned $24,420 last year.

Her last day with the city is March 31.

Steele, often considered the champion of community-based policing, started with the department when there were three substations. Now, nine are running and three more are expected to open soon.

Mangan will ask the City Council on March 27 to give Spokane C.O.P.S. $60,000 this year, in effect shifting the department’s money earmarked for community-oriented policing to the non-profit organization.

This is similar to the arrangement the city has with Block Watch, which gets money each year from Spokane’s general fund.

Mangan was in Seattle on business, and could not be reached for comment, said spokesman Dick Cottam.

Councilman Chris Anderson has raised concerns the new non-profit agency is “simply a means to shelter (Steele) from an open and competitive interview process … an unfortunate attempt to usurp fair hiring practices.”

Officials for the unions and Civil Service Commission said they didn’t know enough about the plan to comment.

Steele said she wants to stay out of the fray. “I think my record speaks for itself,” she said. “This whole thing is not my issue.”

Pupo said shifting the community policing efforts to the non-profit agency “fits into the spirit of streamlining and downsizing city government. We’re contracting out.”

While the proposal doesn’t save taxpayers any money, city administrators are keeping fingers crossed the non-profit status will allow fundraising to decrease the $60,000 public subsidy.

Even if Steele is hired as director, there wouldn’t be a problem with Civil Service because it never was a job that fell under that board’s jurisdiction, Pupo said.

Naming the non-profit agency’s program director would be up to the new board, he said.

The non-profit agency was set up by police Capt. Roger Bragdon, Lt. Glenn Winkey and department administrator David Ingle. All are listed as directors of the corporation.

An interim board of those three department employees and four community leaders plans to elect a permanent board soon, said Deputy Chief Hersom.

The permanent board, which most likely would consist of three police department employees and six citizens, would choose a director.

Putting the non-profit agency in charge of the community policing programs has many advantages, Hersom said.

Most importantly, it would be easier for a non-profit agency to engage in fund-raising, he said. A non-profit agency would be able to apply for state and federal money the city can’t.

Also, by taking the program out from under the police department, “we hope to broaden the participation” in the community, Hersom said.

The police department would continue to provide training and background checks to volunteers at the neighborhood cop shops.

The $60,000 from the city would be used to pay for building leases, the program director’s unspecified salary and equipment and supplies. Each substation would retain its own board of directors and do its own fund raising.

The project director would oversee community-policing programs, providing educational resources, drafting annual reports and helping neighborhoods organize.

Mel Carter, who also sits on the non-profit agency’s interim board, said he can’t imagine anyone who could do that better than Steele.

“I don’t think there’s a more qualified person in the country who could do that,” he said.