Aug. 20--NEW BRITAIN -- Back in June, a frank version of the police chief's job description would have looked downright ugly.
"Help Wanted: Manage demoralized and severely short-handed police force in one of Connecticut's poorest cities. Rebuild demolished command staff, clean up leftover scandals. Salary: Good, but no overtime. Hours: Long. Job security: None."
Despite all that, James Wardwell sought it.
During the seven weeks since he landed the job of interim chief, Wardwell has directed more changes than the agency saw in the past two years.
He promoted energetic supervisors to take over the patrol and detective divisions, sped up a stalled recruiting drive, eliminated paperwork that was devouring patrol time and engineered a temporary patch for the malfunctioning radio system. To bolster the depleted patrol shifts, he reassigned detectives and several officers from administrative assignments.
By any measure, though, his biggest challenges are still ahead. If Mayor Tim O'Brien ultimately gives him the chief's job permanently, Wardwell will need to reshape a culture that fostered internal feuds and long-running resentments. And he'll have to do it in a highly politicized city where department heads can fall out of favor with each new election.
Professor Jon M. Shane, a retired Newark captain who teaches police administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, predicts a tough road for any executive in that position.
"Two words: Exceptionally difficult," Shane said.
Improving Morale
Inside the police department's decrepit Columbus Boulevard headquarters, the atmosphere in recent years has been sour. Interviews with more than two dozen current and former employees indicate that poor morale wasn't universal, but was more widespread than commanders admitted.
Competing factions had grown more polarized, mostly pitting frontline patrol officers against colleagues, mostly loyal to then-Chief William Gagliardi, who'd settled into comfortable Monday-to-Friday, day-shift assignments. Some senior commanders and supervisors simply stopped talking to each other, and several female officers were so convinced they'd been targeted for unfair discipline that they sued Gagliardi, contending discrimination and gender bias.
Plenty of officers simply went in, did their jobs and went home. But others said the unhappiest part of policing was no longer the squalid apartments, drug addiction and crime they encountered on the street, but the resignation and simmering hostility back at the station.
One veteran officer, unconnected to any lawsuits, internal disputes or discipline cases, suggested that the blame is widespread. He asked to remain unnamed because a few ranking officers from the former administration still hold some power.
"What happened here was a complete breakdown, starting at city hall, common council, politically appointed police commissioners, the union and New Britain citizens," he said. "Also a PD management philosophy that included divide-and-conquer tactics, rampant favoritism, and an old-school philosophy."
Wardwell, a soft-spoken man who ran a toy store before becoming a police officer in 1994, has labored to change that since Gagliardi retired July 1.
Starting his first day as interim chief, officers picked up on something new: Wardwell showed up for work in the same style of blue uniform as theirs, forgoing the white shirt that is a hallmark of command. Within weeks, the buzz at headquarters was that the new team was serious about work. Wardwell is at his desk by 6:30 a.m. and presses his new captains for fresh initiatives every day.
"I'm trying to build morale starting with the basics -- just letting the men and women here know they're valued, because they are. They're good people doing good work, hard work," Wardwell said. "We're going to hold people to standards, and I'm going to meet them myself."
At least so far, the morale change could be called transformative:
Officer Armando Elias had grown so disgusted last year that he did what's unthinkable to most police: He went public with complaints of cronyism, bias and retaliation. But just a few weeks ago, Elias was cheerfully talking up the department at the Puerto Rican Festival. Elias sought out potential recruits and encouraged Hispanic residents to apply, perhaps bolstering the department's tiny reserve of Spanish-speaking officers.
"It's a complete turnaround. Night and day," Elias said.
Sgt. Chet Giersz, a 19-year veteran, said that commanders asked for his opinion a couple of weeks ago, something that simply wasn't done before.
"It was the first staff meeting since I was promoted to sergeant. It was very open -- people were being asked for suggestions about how to make things better. For me, that was a first," Giersz said.
Officer John Blackmore predicts better times ahead under Wardwell.
"He's a fair leader in important aspects that people outside our job don't realize," Blackmore said. "I have a new outlook. This place is going to get better and better and better."
Sgt. Carlos Burgos spoke out several years ago in support of three female officers who were suing Gagliardi and filed his own suit. The case never made it to trial, but he maintained that Gagliardi's senior staff had retaliated against him. For years, some bosses only rarely -- or grudgingly -- acknowledged him at headquarters.
"I hoped that by exposing what was happening, someone would step in and conduct an investigation," Burgos said. "Our officers are some of the best in the state. My question became, who protects us? How could they provide the level of service our citizens and taxpayers demand if they were working in an environment that, in my opinion, was hostile and devoid of leadership?"
Now, with the encouragement of Wardwell and Acting Capt. William Steck, Burgos has volunteered to help create a modern system of staff evaluations, the sort of extra effort Wardwell is hoping to draw from everyone.
A Hard History
The city police were in crisis. Fresh scandals clobbered the department every few weeks, eventually presenting a culture where ethical officers grew dismayed, misconduct flourished and top commanders failed to stop it.
The year was 1979. A grand jury investigation into a promotion-buying scheme led to criminal charges against city hall administrators and three police officials. City leaders promised a cleanup campaign and allegations of officers buying the answers to civil service promotion exams never arose again.
But in the 32 years since, the city has gone through a series of complaints by police alleging they were passed over for promotion on political grounds. As a lieutenant, Clifford Willis -- who later went on to become chief -- sued in federal court claiming racial bias, and Lt. Mahlon Sabo -- who later became deputy chief -- publicly condemned a promotion decision as "backroom politics."
Much of the controversy comes from the absence of clear, solid rules for hiring or promotion. New Britain politicians decades ago adopted rules that let them reach down the list of top-ranked applicants to hire local residents and give upper-tier promotions to senior local candidates.
The city's mayor-council form of government includes no professional city manager, the police commission -- appointed by the mayor -- does little serious oversight and there is little tradition of transparency. In situations like that, keeping politics out of hiring and promotions can be hard, experts say.
"Political meddling is part of the job in U.S. policing," Shane said. "Everyone who takes a police chief's job has to know that."
In New Britain, officers have complained about another pattern: Union leaders often land the sought-after positions that a chief can dispense largely at will. The system was in place long before Gagliardi became chief.
When Elias' accusations about poor morale came out in mid-2011, Gagliardi was being sued by Burgos and four other current or former union members. But Local 1165's executive board decided against polling members for a no-confidence vote against the chief. Instead, the union president said all was well.
"It's no secret there's been some negative press -- it's not an accurate portrayal of our department," Officer John Gonzalez told the council last year. "Our union has a good working relationship with the chief, the police commission and city hall."
Then-Mayor Timothy Stewart and police commission Chairman Michael Wanik also accused the media of sensationalism. The day after Elias' story hit the news, Stewart dismissed warnings about discontent and mismanagement.
"These problems are created by a few disgruntled employees," Stewart told FOX CT. "And while we can't stop them from going to the public airing their dirty laundry, people need to be careful because their closets may be dirty themselves."
Barely a month later, Gagliardi had to take a senior commander off the job because an internal investigation revealed that for years, the man had been having sex with women while on duty. Capt. Anthony Paventi, head of the professional standards division, was a Gagliardi ally and in mid-2010 received a five-star evaluation from the chief, who called him "a true professional" and "exemplary." Paventi retired in December 2011, just before a disciplinary hearing that could have led to his firing.
Female plaintiffs in the lawsuits were infuriated because they'd raised allegations of misconduct and mismanagement against Paventi, Gagliardi and other commanders as far back as 2008. Most of their claims went ignored, and Gagliardi assigned Paventi to look into others.
Two years later, a fourth officer, Paula Keller, sued, saying Paventi retaliated against her after making unwanted advances and that Gagliardi did nothing. The city recently paid Keller $60,000 to settle.
Gagliardi, who put in 41 years with the police force, retired July 1, the day a 5 percent pension enhancement took effect.
Will the city keep Wardwell in office? O'Brien plans a national search, but isn't putting out any timetable. Meanwhile, the city is about to rewrite an ordinance that blocks Wardwell from even being considered because he has less than five years' experience as a captain. That same rule would have left Paventi eligible.
Emergency dispatcher Marie Lausch recently implored the council to appoint Wardwell, saying he is "exquisitely qualified." Not everyone is convinced he should be a slam-dunk choice, though.
"He's making several positive steps to refocus the department's mission," former Mayor Donald DeFronzo said, "but in the context of all the documented problems, there's a need for a broad-based search, not to exclude Wardwell, but to look at other qualified candidates."
Wardwell, 49, has made clear that he's up for the job if the city will have him.
After being appointed, he started rolling out complex overhaul plans that began with promoting brothers William and Thomas Steck to head the patrol and detective divisions. Both have been putting in long days to chart a course through the staffing crisis, re-energize detectives and officers, and craft long-term anti-crime strategies.
"Change starts from the top down, and I'll lead by example," said Wardwell, who expressed confidence that the department is on the upswing. "I have a very strong faith."
Copyright 2012 - The Hartford Courant
