March 17, 2005
City Auditor Fighting To Keep Head Of Independent Police Review
Reportedly Would Require Salary Increase
In the aftermath of this week's Denver Post report that Richard Rosenthal would be offered a job as the chief independent police monitor in that City, today's Oregonian reported that Gary Blackmer, our own City Auditor and Rosenthal's current boss, is fighting to keep him here.
Colorado outlets covered the story as well, of course, and all told we found the various quotes obtained in covering this story somewhat interesting.
A story in today's Rocky Mountain News (which mentions Rosenthal's tenure as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles during an investigation into a division of that city's police department, something not normally reported here in Portland), includes an appearance from someone who should be familiar to readers here.
Though some of his work in Portland has angered certain officers, union chief Robert King gives Rosenthal high marks for fairness.
On the other hand, King also shows up in today's Denver Post story, from something of a different angle.
Rosenthal told Denver City Council members during an interview Friday that he favors PARC's systemic approach. But Portland Detective Robert King, president of that city's Police Association, said the rush by Portland's elected officials to embrace the PARC recommendations causes the union concern.
"So, essentially, PARC is managing the police bureau in a way that we don't feel is best for the city, the citizens or officers," King said.
So we suppose that the "high marks for fairness" King gives Rosenthal must have dropped off the radar when the City actually acted upon the results of the PARC report which Rosenthal commissioned. Or something.
Of course, the killer quote shows up in today's Oregonian article, which gives the final two paragraphs entirely over to the head of a local police-monitoring organization.
But Dan Handelman, co-founder of Portland Copwatch, said Rosenthal has been disappointing, largely because the independent review process has been conducted behind closed doors. "Hasn't been as much citizen involvement as we were hoping for," he said.
Told that the city had offered Rosenthal a raise if he stayed, Handelman was incredulous. "They did? That's surprising."
In none of the articles linked is there any reaction from members of our own City Council as to Blackmer's desire to keep Rosenthal here -- especially surprising, perhaps, because to keep him here, the City would need to bump up Rosenthal's salary.
Given the sometimes controversial nature of Rosenthal's tenure, we wonder if the Council really feels like bumping his salary in the midst of their arduous budget deliberations. How much political capital would it take to defend raising the salary of the head of a much-criticized operation?