BURLINGTON — Mayor Miro Weinberger should have been more transparent with city leaders and the public, according to city councilors who say the mayor mishandled a police department scandal.
Some of the critics who say Weinberger blundered include members of his own party, as well as political opponents.
The political fallout continues after a week of resignations, revelations and returns.
On Monday, Police Chief Brandon del Pozo resigned after admitting this summer he created a Twitter account to troll critic Charles Winkleman. Then Deputy Chief Jan Wright, tapped to take del Pozo’s spot, was replaced after revealing that she, too, had used an anonymous social media account to defend the department.
On Friday, Weinberger announced that he would put forward former Colchester police chief Jennifer Morrison to serve as the department’s interim chief. Morrison worked at BPD for 23 years before going to Colchester. Her appointment will be confirmed by the City Council in early January. Wright has been put on administrative leave, and a consultant has been hired to conduct a full investigation into the department’s social media use.
The criticism facing Weinberger, first elected in 2012 and now serving his third term, was what he knew and failed to reveal about del Pozo’s actions earlier this year.
Weinberger had been aware of del Pozo’s account since July, shortly before he put del Pozo on administrative leave and then, days later, a six-week medical leave of absence. Del Pozo lied to a Seven Days reporter when asked in July if he was behind the account; Weinberger knew del Pozo had not been honest with the reporter.
Weinberger said that del Pozo’s improper actions were caused by a mental health condition. The mayor has argued that he was faced with a tough choice between protecting del Pozo’s medical privacy and alerting the public about del Pozo’s actions.
Some council members said Weinberger didn’t strike the right balance.
“I would have tried to find a way to share the information sooner,” City Council President Kurt Wright, R-Ward 4, said. “Because, obviously, it came out at some point anyway. So eventually it was shared publicly.”
Councilor Chip Mason, D-Ward 5, said he’d have preferred more transparency from Weinberger earlier and that the criticism the mayor is facing is of his own doing.
“I understand the mayor’s articulated basis for why he withheld, as it related to personnel information and it’s not the city’s policy,” Mason said. “But I think a scandal has been created where one did not need to exist.”
Councilor Max Tracy, P-Ward 2, has been one of the most vocal critics of Weinberger’s decision not to alert the council and public about del Pozo’s actions.
“I just don’t see how you look at that situation and don’t think that you could have handled that better,” he said. Referring to critic Winkleman, Tracy said: “The lack of an apology, the lack of accountability, and his failure to take responsibility make it much harder to restore the trust that has been violated.”
If told, the council could have provided advice to Weinberger and helped guide his thinking in handling the issue, Councilor Sharon Bushor, I-Ward 1, said.
“That would have been a stronger position, because you would have had all the elected officials in the city, listening, understanding and then hopefully coming together with a recommendation of how to proceed,” Bushor said.
Weinberger has stressed — in an initial statement, at a Monday press conference and subsequent media appearances — that the principle of protecting medical privacy and giving del Pozo a second chance led to his decision to stay quiet.
He has said it would have been impossible to discuss the issue with the City Council or apologize to Winkleman or Courtney Lamdin, the Seven Days reporter, without disclosing del Pozo’s health condition he was trying to protect.
Councilor Joan Shannon, D-South District, said she thought Weinberger followed the correct protocol by consulting with City Attorney Eileen Blackwood and Human Resources Director Deanna Paluba after del Pozo admitted he was behind the account.
“I think in hindsight, we can all review these things and come up with what we would do differently,” she said. “I think that he was right to consult with the city attorney and his H.R. director and base his decisions on the advice he was getting at the time.”
Shannon said she was curious if Weinberger would receive the same advice today.
“I do think that when you’re faced with the diagnosis, that these actions are related to a mental health issue, that that make things a lot more complicated in how you handle it,” she said. “But, I also think … it’s better to disclose as much as you can as soon as you can.”
Weinberger’s medical privacy explanation rings hollow for Councilor Jack Hanson, P-East District, considering the mayor was able to reveal the situation when Seven Days approached him last week.
“It’s a strange line to take that we couldn’t share this because of privacy and health concerns, but if someone was to ask, we’d share everything,” Hanson said. “I don’t understand how both of those things are true.”
What particularly puzzled some council members was Weinberger’s failure to disclose he had placed del Pozo on “administrative leave” before putting him on medical leave. Failing to tell the council he had taken the chief’s gun and badge was a misstep, they said. Weinberger has said he wanted to collect the facts before making any public statements.
Hanson said the council should have been told.
“That is a very consequential step to take, and one that needs to be communicated,” Hanson said. “If it has to be an executive session because of privacy concerns and privacy surrounding health, so be it. But the idea that it’s not even worthy of sharing, I completely disagree with that.”
Weinberger’s Chief of Staff Jordan Redell announced Aug. 2 that del Pozo was on family and medical leave, and Weinberger and police officials repeatedly declined to provide more information about the reasons why. Del Pozo returned to work Sept. 16. Many suspected the chief’s bicycle crash and the concussions he suffered may have been the reason for the leave.
Wright said he understood why the administration had not disclosed the situation as it was investigating what happened before del Pozo’s medical leave. But after the chief’s return, sharing more with the council and public would have been a better path forward instead of waiting for questions from the media, Wright said.
Councilor Adam Roof, I-Ward 8, said 20/20 hindsight was easy. He thought the more important focus should be what happens next.
“Everyone’s going to have an opinion on this, everyone loves being a Monday morning quarterback,” Roof said. “How arrogant would it be for me or anyone else to say, you know what I would have done? I would have done it this way. Well, no shit, knowing what you know, now you always do things differently.”
Councilor Karen Paul, D-Ward 6, also said she’d prefer to focus on the future rather than analyzing Weinberger’s handling of the situation.
“I’m looking forward,” Paul said.
Roof said the focus should turn to continuing work on the city’s social media policy, community engagement and the search for a new chief.
The City Council’s human resources committee has been working on a social media policy for city employees. Weinberger said Friday he had instructed all city employees to follow the draft of that policy until a final policy is approved.
Councilors across political lines said the policy was a good first step in addressing the social media issues that have arisen.
The scandal comes amid a year in which the department has faced scrutiny for a series of use of force incidents. The department is facing a lawsuit from four African American men after body camera footage showed officers pushing and tackling the men.
Hanson said he believed the situation should spark a conversation about transparency, oversight and accountability in the department and city government. He said he believes the powers of the police commission should be expanded.
Before 2001, city commissions hired and fired department heads, including the police chief. A charter change moved that power to the mayor.
With del Pozo’s resignation, the city now will turn to hiring a new chief.
“I want to see candidates … that really reflect our values, and that are committed to community oversight of policing, committed to the de-escalation and committed to real discipline related to the use of force policy, and taking a hard line and making sure that there’s true accountability when folks violate the use of force policy,” Hanson said.
Bushor said finding a new police chief would be “no easy task” as candidates interested in the position start to dig deeper into the current situation in Burlington.
“We’ve had a lot of issues for our small community,” Bushor said. “I think that’s going to be challenging for someone who is looking at Burlington saying, you know, what’s happened here? Am I interested in getting involved in this? Has the community healed, or is there really a distrust of police?”
The city should hire a new chief who would continue some of the department’s progressive policies who also has or can earn the respect of the rank-and-file, Mason said.
“We certainly think it may be a more challenging hire given the current climate, and what’s gone on,” Mason said. “I’m optimistic that given it is the city of Burlington, this is still an attractive place to be, that we will attract the quality of candidates that we seek.”
Tracy said he was looking for a police chief who wasn’t afraid of challenging the status quo, will prioritize racial justice and support harm reduction methods like overdose prevention sites in fighting the opioid crisis.
“I want someone who’s going to push to make the department better when it comes to use of force,” he said.
The council should be able to continue to advance its priorities while dealing with this situation, Roof said.
“There’s two sides of being a good public servant, it’s trying to deliver on the promises that [you’ve] made to constituents … but you also are put in office to deal with changing environments and things that come up,” he said.
Questions have also arisen if Weinberger had violated state statute by not reporting “unprofessional conduct” committed by an executive officer of a law enforcement agency to the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council.
City Attorney Eileen Blackwood said the city did not believe del Pozo’s behavior rose to the standard laid out in the statute. Richard Gauthier, executive director of the council, said the council had not received a complaint and said that the council’s attorney also did not believe the behavior reached that standard.
Winkleman has called on Weinberger to resign. Tracy said he wanted more information before weighing in on whether or not Weinberger should step aside.
“I want to continue to learn about how the mayor handled this, and I still have open questions on that,” he said. “But I think it is incredibly troubling.”
Wright said while the situation was not handled perfectly, Weinberger had done nothing that should force his resignation.
Weinberger said at a Friday press conference that he stands by his choices.
“I worked very hard throughout this process, faced with a challenging set of circumstances to do right by the department, by the city, by the public,” he said. “It was a challenging set of decisions I had to make and I stand by them. I obviously intend to continue my service to the people of Burlington.”
Weinberger said that he knows hiring a new chief would take some attention away from other priorities, but that hiring a police chief is one of the most important decisions a mayor can make.
“I know it is going to be a major commitment of time and effort on my team’s part, and the department’s part, to get this right,” he said. “Will it take priority over some other activity? Sure, of course it will. But it’s a really important thing to do well.”
Mason said the scandal was a “setback” for the administration and council, and the scandal itself and the process of hiring a new chief of police would take attention from other priorities.
“I do think it will divert attention, whether it’s from rolling out the policy objectives on affordable housing that came out of the housing summit or otherwise, it will take attention from the administration’s and council’s other objectives,” he said.
Shannon said she believed del Pozo’s resignation would likely slow the city’s police reform efforts.
“Brandon was a reformer, and now we are not in a position to make a lot of changes right now,” she said. “We really need to steady the ship.”
Tracy said the mayor’s handling of this situation reflects a failure of leadership, which is compounded by other issues including the department’s issues with use of force and the lack of construction progress on the CityPlace project.
“It just adds to an ongoing sense that the administration is not being incredibly effective right now, and that’s having a real impact on Burlingtonians,” he said. “I think that this incident in particular, but that context in general, calls into question Miro’s leadership.”
Brookfield Asset Management told the city this fall that construction on a scaled-down CityPlace project will start next August.
Wright, who ran and lost against Weinberger in 2012, said he hoped that councilors wouldn’t use this situation to criticize Weinberger.
“Let’s not get caught up in Washington-type politics,” he said. “We need to move forward with a positive agenda for Burlington, there’s a lot of things that need to get done, and we shouldn’t get mired down in nasty partisan politics.”
