After an independent investigation by the Hollister Police
Officers Association generated support for Jeff Miller, City
Manager Dale Shaddox offered the former Rohnert Park public safety
director an opportunity to re-submit his name on Wednesday.
Miller, 45, is expected to be confirmed by the City Council this
week as the next leader of the Hollister Police Department.
After an independent investigation by the Hollister Police Officers Association generated support for Jeff Miller, City Manager Dale Shaddox offered the former Rohnert Park public safety director an opportunity to re-submit his name on Wednesday.
Miller, 45, is expected to be confirmed by the City Council this week as the next leader of the Hollister Police Department.
Once Miller accepted the city’s offer, Shaddox called Mayor Brian Conroy and attempted to schedule a special Council meeting – for either tonight or Friday afternoon – to potentially confirm the hiring. Shaddox, however, could not reach Conroy by Wednesday evening.
“He (Miller) has a strong level of support, and he’s ready to step forward,” Shaddox said.
Support from the police officers union – coupled with Shaddox’s continued confidence in Miller – compelled him to reconsider the proposal. Shaddox was “very pleased” with the news.
Miller was off-duty from his position as a sergeant with the City of Sonoma on Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. If confirmed, Miller will succeed former Police Chief Bill Pierpoint and current Interim chief Larry Todd.
“I feel very confident that Jeff Miller is an excellent candidate for police chief for us,” Shaddox said. “We’ll provide Jeff with every opportunity to come to Hollister and make solid contributions to our town.”
Miller originally withdrew his name for the job on July 22 – the same day the Council was initially scheduled to approve him. Miller had expressed concern at the time because publicity had surfaced about his past as a chief in Rohnert Park.
After only 18 months in Rohnert Park, Miller resigned in October 2001 because the union there publicly expressed discontent with his leadership.
After it was reported on July 16 that Miller was the police chief finalist, many Rohnert Park union members – again – publicly questioned his leadership to local Council members and the media.
After Miller’s initial decision to step away from the Hollister job, the local Police Officers Association performed a background investigation into Miller’s past that included interviews with the three most previous departments where Miller has been employed – Sonoma, Rohnert Park and Los Gatos.
“We talked to supervisors and patrolmen,” Hollister POA President Ray Wood said, “and nobody had a bad thing to say about him.”
Hollister union officials met with Miller on Aug. 1 – a discussion that took place somewhere in the Bay Area, according to Wood, a sergeant with the HPD.
The local union said Miller is “well educated,” “experienced” and a previously successful leader, according to a letter sent from the union to Shaddox.
Contrary to allegations from a few Rohnert Park union members, findings of the Hollister union revealed that many officers and officials in the Sonoma County city felt Miller had been treated unfairly.
The Hollister POA concluded that Rohnert Park officers with “self-interests” and political authority within the Rohnert Park union caused Miller’s departure, according to the letter sent to Shaddox.
Sending that document to the city manager was part of the Hollister union’s ambition to persuade the Shaddox to re-offer the position. The Hollister union held a meeting to discuss the situation on Tuesday night, and Wood said union support of Miller was unanimous.
“Everybody was in support of approaching the city manager and the Council about re-offering the job,” Wood said.
When he heard from the Free Lance on Wednesday evening that Shaddox indeed offered Miller the job, Wood responded: “Fantastic! Fantastic!”
“I’m pretty excited to hear that,” Wood said.
Shaddox said he is “really pleased at the additional efforts” of the Hollister POA. And Miller, Shaddox said, felt the same way.
“He (Miller) was very pleased that the POA, on its own initiative, decided to further look into his candidacy,” Shaddox said.
Shaddox was pleased with Miller’s acceptance because his efforts to find a new chief had become increasingly burdensome in recent weeks.
Initially, Miller had been one of eight finalists for the position. After his decision to withdraw, Shaddox pursued a second candidate. Aside from that person being a police chief somewhere in California, no other information about him was made public.
That candidate, however, recently accepted a job as a combined police chief and public administrator with the city in which he currently works, according to Shaddox.
“I was generally not feeling really good about that,” Shaddox said. “Today’s revelation was very pleasing to me.”
By late Wednesday night, none of the five Council members had heard the revelations about Miller.
Councilman Tony LoBue said he was “flabbergasted” when he heard earlier this week about the Hollister union’s efforts.
Regarding Miller’s renewed candidacy, LoBue expressed confidence in Shaddox’s decision-making.
“I think he (Dale) is going to bring a good candidate to us,” LoBue said. If he thinks this is the one, I’m supportive.”
Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia also said she supports the choice. “Oh great!” was her initial reaction.
“I think we need to give this man an opportunity to see if he can do the work,” she said.
Council members Robert Scattini and Tony Bruscia both declined comment, and Conroy did not return a phone call.
Wood said the union was particularly impressed by the way that Miller, after his resignation, humbly accepted a patrol officer position with the Sonoma Police Department.
“That, in itself, leads us to believe that there’s no ego here,” Wood said.
But he said the union also realizes that no candidate is a sure bet.
“Nobody is perfect,” he said. “Hopefully it all works out. But we’re never going to find out if we don’t give him that opportunity.”
