Citing “political discrimination and hostile work environment exhibited at the hands of City of Boulder Mayor Russell Giulio,” former Boulder Chief of Police Juan Trujillo has filed a lost wages claim in the amount of $1,043,544.32.
At the same meeting where the city council denied the claim, moving it into the hands of their insurance carrier, the council voted to consent to the mayor’s appointment of a new chief, an officer who had been previously fired by Trujillo.
Giulio denies the claim by Trujillo, saying, “I actually thought it was a pretty good relationship.”
Trujillo, hired in March 2015 by then-Mayor Gary Craft, says Giulio campaigned last year on a platform of firing him and other officers. Between the time Giulio was elected in November and took office in January of this year, one of the three members of the Boulder Police Department, Travis Rasmussen, resigned. Another officer, Scott Stratton, resigned about two months after Giulio took office. Trujillo says both resignations were due to fear of being fired.
Giulio says he never said he was going to do away with the police force. “I said I was going to reorganize,” he told the Monitor. “I thought we needed something different.”
His campaign slogan was “Time for a change.” During a campaign forum, Giulio said law enforcement needed to be more adaptable to the community needs. He also called for changes in the city office and with the city attorney.
As of last week, in addition to the departure of all three police officers, city clerk Diana Van Haecke has submitted her resignation after 18 years on the job and city attorney Steven Shapiro has been passed over for an interview to retain his position.
Giulio says he is working hard to be transparent in his dealings and is not sure why Trujillo left. An investigation of a complaint by a jail inmate who had been arrested by Trujillo was underway when the chief submitted his resignation, but that investigation revealed no reason to proceed, said Giulio. He and Shapiro both reviewed the body camera Trujillo was wearing at the time of the arrest and found nothing out of line, he said.
He denied ever threatening to fire Trujillo, but after a pause said, “Maybe I did, kind of.” He said before being elected he was experiencing problems moving some of his business equipment across town. There was “a bunch” of police officers standing around and he says he joked that he would run for mayor and “fire all you guys.”
“But that isn’t really the way it works,” he added in a Monitor interview.
Both Trujillo and Giulio say there was a meeting in January with the two of them and Officer Stratton in which the plans for the department were discussed. Giulio says the meeting was a good one, with him providing reassurances and trying to be transparent about his expectations. Trujillo paints the meeting as one during which he asked directly if he was going to be fired and was told by Giulio that he needed to address multiple complaints before he could answer.
Giulio told the Monitor, “Juan always tries to make me seem like I’m a bad guy, but I’m really not.”
He speculated that some of the animosity by Trujillo was because the chief expected to be believed and “he did not like me getting both sides of the story. I’m just trying to get to the truth.”
Regarding the complaint by the jail inmate, Trujillo says he tried to talk with Giulio about his side of the situation but Giulio said he was not finished with the investigation. Giulio agrees Trujillo did ask to talk with him before he finished the investigation, but he needed to go out of town. When he returned, Trujillo’s resignation letter was waiting, said Giulio, explaining that he completed the investigation anyway and found no problems.
The former chief says he resigned because he feared termination was coming.
Trujillo’s letter seeking the $1.043 million in lost wages says, in part, “I have also attached to this letter bullet points highlighting the discriminatory and hostile practices of Mayor Giulio.” Although the letter was provided to the council members and read aloud at the June 18 meeting, the bullet points were not. No one in the meeting asked to see the bullet points.
Giulio said during his later interview that he still had never seen the bullet points. The letter originally went to the city’s insurance carrier, he said, and was then sent to the city attorney.
The city clerk confirmed that she had never seen the bullet points and did not believe the council members had seen it, something confirmed by council members.
On Monday morning, the Monitor submitted a written request for the release of that list of bullet points. The document was released too close to deadline for the Monitor to have time to do a thorough review and give Mayor Giulio a chance to respond to the claims in this week’s issue.
At the meeting, Giulio told the council he had been advised by Shapiro that the council needed to reject Trujillo’s request for lost wages before the insurance carrier could respond to it. The four council members voted unanimously to deny the claim.
Earlier in the council meeting, Giulio advised the council he had chosen Joe Canzona to be the new chief of police. He said Canzona’s qualifications had been reviewed and approved by the police commission subject to completing “some items” within 90 days. He also said, “We previously put him through the law enforcement academy.”
Two members of the three-member police commission, Rick Haasakker and Rhonda Craft, said they had conditionally approved Canzona subject to some additional training within 90 days.
Canzona previously worked for the Boulder Police Department as a reserve officer from December 2013 to September 30, 2014. He was then hired as a regular officer until August 13, 2015, when he was fired by Trujillo.
No mention of Canzona’s experience with the Boulder police other than the reference to the academy or the fact he was fired was made during the public council meeting. The council voted unanimously to consent to the appointment.
Asked later about the situation, Giulio said he knew Canzona was terminated but found nothing in his personnel file about the reason. He also said the review by the police commission and his review revealed nothing to be concerned about.
The Monitor asked City Attorney Steven Shapiro for the reason for the termination. He said that since Canzona was still within his 12-month probationary period, no reason was required but said Canzona was provided with a reason. Shapiro declined to release that reason but acknowledged in response to questioning that the chief of police position is “certainly a position of public trust.”
Past court rulings have found there is a lower standard of privacy in personnel matters involving positions of public trust such as a police officer. If that reason alleged criminal activity, those court rulings clearly say the public is entitled to any documents stating the reason.
In response to a written request from the Monitor seeking a review of any documents regarding the reason for Canzona’s termination and a release of those documents if they alleged criminal activity, Shapiro responded, “The City does not have any documents indicating alleged criminal activity in connection with his previous employment with the City.”
Since his termination from the Boulder Police Department by Trujillo, Canzona has been working as a reserve officer with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
In an interview June 23 Canzona said he has ten years of law enforcement experience, starting with work as a sheriff’s reserve prior to his work with the city.
He acknowledged there were some issues during his time as a city officer but said he was not really sure about the source of the tension. He said he was not exactly sure of the reason for his firing because Trujillo gave him a reason but accepted his explanation in response. He speculated it was a personal issue. He also said the police commission and council had looked into his situation and agreed to his appointment.
He said he and Trujillo worked together sometimes after the firing because of his reserve deputy assignments. “We kept it professional, but we didn’t hang out,” he said.
Canzona complimented Trujillo for doing “a wonderful job of bringing this [city] department up to modern day standards” in terms of equipment. Those improvements make the job much safer for the officers, he said.
He said he has plans for realigning the department to deliver more “community based policing.” That involves getting to know the members of the community better and opening up lines of communication, he said. When people are more willing to talk with the officers, it is better for everyone, he said.
The new chief of police said he is pleased to be working in the community.
“I live here, I love this community,” he said.
He also said the department has seen a lot of turnover and needs someone dedicated to Boulder.
“I don’t view it as a stepping stone,” he said.
He said he knows a lot of people here and is comfortable with them.
“I’m sure there are probably some who don’t like me, but I’ll do my job and hopefully in the long run they’ll see that I’m not a bad guy,” said Canzona.
