Quincy offers police chief retirement deal

QUINCY — The Quincy City Council approved a retirement package for Police Chief Bill Gonzales during a special council meeting Monday.

The agreement allows the Gonzales to step down at the end of July. The packages gives him a 4 percent raise at the beginning of July, bringing his salary up to about $5,845 a month. He also will receive a six month severance package at the higher rate, Quincy Mayor Jim Hemberry said in an interview after the meeting.

The decision to pursue Gonzales’ retirement started after the city began looking for a police lieutenant, Hemberry said. The city intended the lieutenant’s position as a replacement for Gonzales after he retired in March, but found it would not attract people with the qualifications the city were looking for.

“The word lieutenant means something different in law enforcement,” he said.

Once the city found its plan wasn’t going to work, negotiations started with Gonzales.

“I realize it’s quite a bit of money,” Hemberry said. “We would have paid him for the time anyway.”

The city’s decision doesn’t have anything to do with Gonzales’ quality, he said. The city wanted to move forward quickly and this seemed like the best option.

The council was divided about the package with some councilmembers raising concerns about the amount of money.

Councilmember Keith Anstine said the amount was too much money.

“It costs a lot. More than what I thought it was going to,” he said. “So how is that in our best interest?”

Hemberry said the amount rose from previous discussions because Gonzales last day changed. When the council originally discussed the proposal, the chief would leave at the end of September or October.

“Now he’s going to leave seven-and-a-half months early and so that’s where we came from. The reason why I think it’s in the best interest of the city is that I think it’s a good time for us to make some changes and we’ve already talked about wanting to make some changes in the administrative section as far as the police department is concerned.”

He added trying to make changes now doesn’t make sense when the chief is retiring in six or seven months.

“It makes more sense to start moving forward as quickly as possible,” he said.

Hemberry compared Gonzales’ incentive package to a similar contract the city has with City Administrator Tim Snead, where the city would be required to pay Snead for six months if he was fired without cause.

“Bill’s is a little bit of a different situation. I realize that,” he said.

City Attorney Allan Galbraith said the chief would have received a raise normally on Jan. 1.

Councilmember Scott Lybbert said Gonzales would have received the raise anyway if he retired in March.

“You have to remember with a severance package you’re giving him an offer, you’re offering him something. So he can retire at that level of income, we will bring it up now,” he said.

Councilmember Jose Saldana said he felt the city wanted the chief to leave because of problems in the police department, so he felt the city paying him to leave was rewarding bad behavior.

“Things are obviously not working in the department,” he said. “When he’s the head of the department, he’s responsible for it … My point is if somebody’s not doing his job why give him a benefit of six months when he’s not doing his job.”

Saldana added he wouldn’t be opposed to giving him the money if Gonzales was doing a good job in his position.

Councilmember Paul Worley said he agreed with Saldana, but he wanted to finish the process so the city can move on.

“I don’t have a problem with paying him off and getting him out of here,” he said.

Lybbert echoed Worley’s thoughts, referencing a report Galbraith did concerning the police department.

“We have to go back and remember the issues (Galbraith) brought up and whether we need to bring some closure to some problems and move forward,” Lybbert said. “I thought we were in agreement that we wanted to move forward to start closing this.”

Anstine said the city could do worse than leaving Gonzales in place, saying the city previously had an interim chief who did nothing except collect a paycheck.

“I think there’s a lot worse chiefs out there, I just want to say that for the record. Some people are blaming him for things that are out of his control and that’s all I’m going to say on that,” he said.

Councilmember Tony Gonzalez supported the agreement, saying it’s time for a change in the police department.

Hemberry said if Gonzales stayed until the end of October and the city paid him for another six months past his retirement date, the chief would still be receiving about the same amount of money.

The council vote was four to two, with Worley, Gonzalez, Lybbert and Councilmember Manuel Guerrero voting in favor of the agreement and Anstine and Saldana voting against it.

Galbraith said the chief has 21 days to decide on the offer once it’s presented and seven days after he signs it to change his mind.

Gonzales was unavailable to comment.