Aurora police chief finalists come to town — with issues

AURORA — One finalist for Aurora police chief was suspended for 30 days after being pulled over for suspicion of drunken driving, another was told to take a demotion or quit, and a third scored poorly on a survey of cops in a department with low morale.

The four finalists, who will have a meet-and-greet with the public Friday at the city’s municipal building, are:

• Jose Bañales, San Antonio Police Department assistant police chief.

• Fran Gomez, Commerce City deputy police chief.

• Nick Metz, Seattle Police Department assistant police chief.

• Roy Minter Jr., police chief in Peoria, Ariz.

Of the contenders, Bañales, Metz and Minter have situations in their past that could cloud their candidacies. However, not all of those issues were turned over to city officials involved in the hiring process.

Bañales, according to reports in the San Antonio Express-News, was pulled over by police in 2003 after he was spotted by an undercover detective swerving on Interstate 10.

“The guy’s on the fast lane driving real slow,” the detective told police dispatchers. “He’s a bad one.”

The newspaper reported Bañales refused to take roadside sobriety tests and wasn’t administered a breath test until 1½ hours after he was stopped. By that time, Bañales registered a 0.078 — just a hair under the legal limit for DUI of 0.08 in Texas.

There were questions raised about whether Bañales received preferential treatment. No charges were filed, but Bañales was suspended for 30 days.

Bañales was not in his office this week and did not return a request for comment.

Aurora City Manager Skip Noe, who will make the final decision on the hire, declined to speak to The Denver Post but issued an e-mailed statement.

“We are committed to due diligence throughout the entire selection process and will address any issues that may arise,” Noe said through a spokeswoman. “We will not comment on any individual candidates at this time.”

When asked this week about the candidates, Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan was unaware of the issues with Bañales and Metz, who was told to take a demotion to captain or leave the Seattle Police Department in 2013 in a political power play involving sweeping reforms. Metz was apparently resistant to the changes.

According to Regan Williams of Bob Murray and Associates — the consultant paid at least $25,000 to conduct a national search — Metz and Bañales revealed what had happened during interviews. The firm confirmed both incidents and passed along the information to Noe.

There was no information on these issues included in packets on the finalists given to the mayor and City Council. While the police chief hire is up to Noe, the council and mayor will have input.

“I’m not aware of any (of the incidents) and certainly would want to understand more of those situations,” Hogan said. “I do think this is all relevant information and confirmable information. It’s important information the city manager should know and check out.”

It is not clear why Noe did not pass along that information to the Aurora City Council for further review. Some of the finalists are expected to be interviewed Saturday behind closed doors.

“We need to do a thorough background check on anyone we hire,” Aurora City Councilwoman Barb Cleland, chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee, said Wednesday. “I had no idea. These, for me, are issues that need to be thoroughly vetted.”

Metz was a key figure, according to The Seattle Times, when the department came under heavy criticism in 2011. The U.S. Department of Justice became involved over several excessive-use-of-force cases that were caught on video.

Metz was later promoted back to assistant police chief when a new police chief took over.

Metz, who did not return a phone call for comment, also came under scrutiny in a lawsuit filed last month by a former police sergeant who said she was the target of retaliation for questioning lucrative overtime Metz gave to four “close friends,” according to The Seattle Times.

The female sergeant claimed the overtime was not open to all officers. She is seeking between $2 million to $3 million in damages.

Williams said he checked with the police chiefs who supervise Metz and Bañales and both received positive reviews. Williams said he had no regrets putting the two candidates on the list of finalists.

“Anybody can have misjudgments in their lifetimes,” he said, “but if they learn and correct it, I don’t think you hold that against them for the rest of their careers.”

The other two finalists have ties to the Aurora Police Department. Before Gomez left for Commerce City last year, she had climbed the ranks to become the first female commander of APD.

Minter served 15 years in the Aurora department before leaving in 2007 to become police chief in Denton, Texas. He moved to Peoria in 2011, but his leadership was called into question soon after. Police employee union surveys two years ago found that there was a morale problem, and 83 percent of those surveyed blamed Minter, according to The Arizona Republic.

Former Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates left in May to take the same position in Miami Beach, Fla.

Aurora city officials did not say when the new chief would be named, only that they need to make the right hire.

“This position is one of the most important in the city,” Mayor Hogan said. “It requires someone who is very active and very involved and is not comfortable just sitting behind a desk.”

Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or twitter.com/cillescasdp

Aurora police chief finalists

Jose Bañales: Assistant police chief for the San Antonio Police Department

Fran Gomez: Deputy police chief in Commerce City

Nick Metz:Assistant police chief with the Seattle Police Department

Roy Minter Jr.: Chief of police in Peoria, Ariz.

Meet the candidates

Time: 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday

Site: Aurora Municipal Building, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway