Yakima police chief retaliated against officer, hearing examiner says

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima police Chief Sam Granato retaliated against an officer for representing the police union in contract talks, and the city is guilty of withholding public records from the union, a state hearings examiner has ruled.

The ruling issued Thursday by Public Employment Relations Commission hearings examiner Sally B. Carpenter was just the latest skirmish in a battle of wills between Granato and the police union, which is formally known as the Yakima Police Patrolman's Association.

Carpenter ruled that Granato retaliated against Officer Elaine Gonzalez, an outspoken member of the police union's bargaining team, by transferring her out of the detectives division and by placing negative, handwritten comments on her evaluation that the union characterized as unprecedented in nature.

The ruling also accused the city of deliberately withholding public records from the union, and it found that Granato broke collective bargaining rules with regard to time and duration of detective assignments.

The hearings examiner ordered the city to take specific action including: posting all openings in non-patrol division positions, supplying the union with requested documents and removing the negative evaluation from Gonzalez's file.

The city was also ordered to read the hearing examiner's findings into the record before the City Council and have it officially adopted into the minutes of that meeting.

Jim Cline, a Seattle attorney who represents the police union, praised the ruling as further validation of the union's claims that Granato has shown a behavioral pattern of retaliation and favoritism.

"Granato doesn't take people standing up to him very well, and he seems to take women standing up to him even worse," he said.

A spokesman for the city said City Manager Dick Zais and other city officials, including Granato and attorneys for the city, were reviewing the 34-page ruling and had not decided what to do yet. Options include appealing to the entire PERC board in Olympia.

Granato did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday.

"We just got it," city spokesman Randy Beehler explained. "I can tell you there are a number of findings that the city disagrees with ... It's a pretty extensive and complex ruling, and it's going to take a little time to digest it and determine how we're going to respond."

The ruling represents in large part the continuing fallout over a Yakima Police Athletic League incident and Granato's controversial goal of instituting random drug testing within the ranks of the police department, which the union has opposed tooth and nail.

It also comes just a week after a sergeant and a captain filed separate legal claims against Granato and the city stemming from their involvement in the YPAL scandal.

The two supervisors, Sgt. Brenda George and Capt. Rod Light, were ensnared in the YPAL dispute involving Crystal Dodge, a former civilian police employee who worked at the YPAL youth center.

Dodge alleged that Ben Hittle, now a retired police officer, repeatedly mocked her speech impediment when they worked at YPAL and that police officials didn't do enough to stop it.

Supervisors, including Granato, have said they rebuked Hittle. But two separate outside investigators commissioned by the city concluded that command staff did not adequately investigate her complaints.

Hittle and Granato were said to be friends, and officers have said the relationship was one example that has led to a perception in the department that Granato favors some officers while targeting others. Granato has denied retaliation against anybody.

The union contends that fired Officer Mike Rummel was another victim of Granato-inspired retaliation as a result of the union's resistance to the chief's drug testing proposal.

The PERC board as well as the courts, however, have backed up the chief.

Dodge recently settled a lawsuit against the city for $200,000.

* Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Mark Morey contributed to this story.

By CHRIS BRISTOL

YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC