RCPD Asst. Chief Transferring Thursday; New Chief to be Selected by Early March
Assistant Chief Rosanne Richeal will be transferring out of the Rancho Cordova Police Department Thursday after a 3-year run, and the Sacramento County Sheriff and City of Rancho Cordova are anticipating the selection of a new police chief in the next few weeks.
Since former Chief of Police Reuben Meeks retired from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department in November, Lieutenant Rosanne Richeal has been in charge of overseeing the Rancho Cordova Police Department’s day-to-day operations. Richeal, who has been in law enforcement for 19 years, will start her new position as Executive Lieutenant Assistant Commander at Sacramento International Airport on Monday.
“I felt it was time for a change,” Richeal said of her decision to apply for the position at the airport. “I’ve worked there twice before and I intended to apply for it once it became available.”
Though Richeal said she is looking forward to her new position, she said she was glad to have the opportunity to work in Rancho Cordova’s close-knit community. “I enjoyed working for Rancho Cordova,” she said. “It’s a warm community, it’s a caring community and there are many great things to come.”
Just as Richeal is leaving, however, City Manager Ted Gaebler and Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness are expecting to select a new Chief of Police for the police department by early March.
“Last Thursday I authorized the Sheriff to recruit a Captain,” Gaebler said at a meeting Wednesday. “I presume by very late this Friday I will know if anyone is interested in being Chief of Police.” Once a Captain is selected, he said, their new responsibilities will be determined by April or May.
Gaebler’s announcement came weeks after a letter sent by Police Director Reuben Meeks to police department personnel sparked speculation over the former Chief of Police’s scope of authority in the department. In the letter, Meeks told police department employees that he would be considering layoffs, department restructuring and terminating the city’s contract with the Sacramento County Sheriff in the coming months.
However, because Meeks has retired from the Sacramento County Sheriff and is no longer a sworn peace officer, Meeks is now a representative for the city of Rancho Cordova and does not have authority over Sheriff’s Department personnel, Sheriff John McGinness said.
“He retired from the Sheriff’s Department,” McGinness said. “In law enforcement, you have to be employed as a peace officer. He is now Mr. Reuben Meeks.”
Gaebler said he has waited on installing a new Police Chief since Meeks’ retirement as “part of a great experiment” to have a police department operating without a captain installed as chief. “My experiment has not been able to bear fruit,” Gaebler said.
“I was counting on internal support,” Gaebler said of his experiment. ”I was under the impression… that Reuben had done a fabulous job of running this police department. We assumed he was leading a merry band of people.”
Gaebler also addressed speculation over whether the city will be seeking to renew its contract with the Sacramento County Sheriff for its police operations. “Right now we are happy with the services we are giving our citizens,” he said. “I have authorized the staff to move forward in renewing our contract for a three-year term.” The contract is up for renewal on July 1.
Meanwhile, police department personnel remain unsure of who their leader will be after Richeal transfers out and before a new Chief is selected. “As far as I know, we don’t know,” Investigations Sergeant Pete James said.
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Short URL: http://www.ranchocordovapost.com/?p=8666
Posted by Anne Lowe
on Feb 25 2010. Filed under Public Safety.
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Dear City of Rancho Cordova City Council Members,
I read an article in the Rancho Cordova Post this morning titled: ”
RCPD Asst. Chief Transferring Thursday; New Chief to be Selected by Early March
by Anne Lowe on February 25, 2010″
This is a very interesting yet alarming article and leaves more questions than answers. My take on this is that Ted hung the Chief out to dry and he has no interest in reviewing the RCPD’s contract or in making any changes. Is this assumption correct?
Was this all just “part of a great experiment” as Ted said? Was this a experiment with our safety and the safety of our family? Were the citizens of Rancho just test tube babies in Ted’s excellent experiment? Personally, I would rather be involved in an medical experiment than one that involves my safety and the safety of my family and friends.
Ted said “My experiment has not been able to bear fruit,” I believe Ted should be called upon to step down immediately from his role as City Manager. ANYONE who would declare that they have experimented with our safety has no right serving me or my community.
I can see the sheep jumping off the cliff and their all following Ted. There is also more to come, from what I hear, in the Grapevine today. I am encouraging EVERYONE including my friends and neighbors to call the City and voice their concern with what is happening in our City, or lack of what is happening in our City.
If we are all just an experiment, well then perhaps we should take safety into our own hands and the hell with relying on the City to extend protection to the citizens. Do we need to arm ourselves as an experiment to ensure our own safety?
I look forward to your reply,
Experimental Wishes,
Thomas Martin,
Concerned R.C. Citizen, just part of a great experiment.
Thanks for your input! We are planning on going into further detail over the city’s plans with the police department in a future article. We will also be exploring the city’s efforts to build its own police station on Kilgore Road.
Council will be meeting on Monday, March 1 at 5:30; that might be a great place for you to air your concerns!
This story is deeply disturbing on many levels. Lots of questions, not many answers.
Certainly Meeks must have known that as a retired officer, he would not have direct command authority anymore. Didn’t he?
If he didn’t know that, then why would RC hire him to be police director?
Or was Meeks expecting backing from Gaebler on changes to the PD, but instead Gaebler hung him out to dry, as Mr. Martin suggested in the previous comment?
This whole section from the article puzzles me:
> Gaebler said he has waited on installing a new Police Chief since Meeks’
> retirement as “part of a great experiment” to have a police department
> operating without a captain installed as chief. “My experiment has not
> been able to bear fruit,” Gaebler said.
> “I was counting on internal support,” Gaebler said of his experiment. “I was
> under the impression… that Reuben had done a fabulous job of running this
> police department. We assumed he was leading a merry band of people.”
Does that mean Gaebler (and perhaps Meeks) thought that the sworn officers would continue to take orders from Meeks, even though he no longer had statutory authority over them?
Don’t we have “staff” who can provide legal opinions and statutory reviews on things like this?
And where was city council in all of this?!?
And the most important question: is RCPD “Humpty-Dumpty broken” now? Can the king’s horses and men put it together again? Based on recent history, it doesn’t look promising.
This is a disaster. If Gaebler comes out of this unscathed, then it’s time for a new council.
-Rob
I’ve observed in life that the greatest police chiefs are also the greatest public servants.
But it also takes other core traits, such as wisdom, sensitivity, earned trustworthiness, awareness, concern, dedication, tact, and other inherent values for any real law enforcement leader to really shine.
With chief Meeks, like his other Sacramento County Sheriff Department/Rancho Cordova Police Department predecessors, the Rancho Cordova community was repeatedly sold by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department a bill of goods that couldn’t get delivered. And after only so long, no amount of empty promises and R.C. city council gimmicks can keep up the charade. That’s why even Rancho Cordova Police Department assistant chief Rosanne Richeal is literally heading for the airport now.
Rancho Cordova needs and deserves to have its own independent law enforcement agency–a department dedicated to protecting the public welfare and the rights of every individual–not second-hand personal-interest public employees who cut and run and skeddadle off at every beck and call, never staying for more than another whimsical fleeting personal opportunity somewhere else–and employees really managed by a off-site director sitting in an office chair on G Street in Sacramento.
Years ago when I first started riding in a patrol cruiser, someone employed in law enforcement was treated as a hero for sacrificing their life and opportunity to the safety and benefit of others; today, unfortunately, law enforcement public servitude is not so much about honor or reputation or being a hero than it is about an officer seeking personal opportunity, gain and advancement, and sometimes getting ahead at the expense of even co-workers. Years ago I saw there was no shame–in fact, it was an honor–for a peace officer to spend thirty years on patrol duty and then retire. I can recall how it was a privilege to have been with officers who reportedly never once in their career pulled one’s sidearm in a quest to keep the peace; today, its all different–all about proving one’s power and domination upon the people, and proving one’s worth and mettle by moving up in the ranks of law enforcement by showing the amount of polished metal pinned to one’s uniform collar.
Meeks showed his true self by just accepting the position he was given by the Rancho Cordova city council.
Any moral and upstanding law enforcement officer with his level of training and experience easily recognizes that the suggestion for him to serve as some sort of local law enforcement director separated in command and authority from the officers he was to lead would be both untenable to personal consciousness and unremittent to the values to how an officer’s duty and loyalty must never be divided.
Hired as a public servant for the people of Rancho Cordova, Meeks foolishly expected the public–and even the Sac Sheriff officers he once worked for–to now serve him.
It is a disgrace to the badge and the total realm to how and why a law enforcement officer can never ever be behoden to two masters–and hopefully a sorry lesson to other current and future law enforcement officers–and current and future Rancho Cordova city leaders too.
Corruption in law enforcement is a deplorable act.
And the Rancho Cordova city council changing an officer’s title from police chief to police director does not minimize the egregious insult to the honor of officers who daily put their lives on the line to protect others–or dampen the need for the public to have a local law enforcement leader they can always be trusted to protect the laws of the land from being overun.
Just as the public needs a law enforcment leader, our city council and people like Sheriff McGinninss should have been publicly lambasted and removed from rank for leaving troops without a rightful officer to lead them. (Shows where our city council members and McGinness’ heart are in this political game of corruption too.) Its akin to officers being left on the street without any backup.
And the public left to fend on its own too.
Bravery can only go so far before stupidity takes over.
That his corruption happened so early in Rancho Cordova city history says so much to why our city and society should never fear the public servant, but demand that the public servant fear the people.
Just as the Declaration of Independence argues for the right of mankind to be free, it is time for tyranny by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and our own city council upon the people of Rancho Cordova to similalry be disbanded.
Tyranny in any form is still tyranny.
And just like the founding fathers of our nation worried that a freed people would not fully comprehend the responsibility that comes with being freed of one tyrant, only to live with an inherent danger of another tyrant stepping in in a moment of citizenry slothfullness, our city needs a police chief and a police department beholden to its people. Now we must not hope but the people demand that the city council of Rancho Cordova has enough sense to admit the error that they fomented from the recent law enforcement charades they played upon the public.
We were never fooled when our city had no police chief.
Nor will we expect nothing less than an always-at-the-ready professionally run responsible and always-accountable police department protecting our Rancho Cordova community.
Great emails with very valid points. I am not hiding behind an elected desk, so if anyone would like to discuss this issue please feel free to contact me. Maybe you can join those of us that feel the same.
Best to all!
Thomas Martin
752-2327
How nice. She’s going from one 10% incentive pay job to another. Yes, she does get a 10% incentive (of base salary) just for working a “contract” assignment.
This latest “experiment” from Mr. Gaebler is one of many he has pulled on the citizen’s of RC and the police department. And just like all of the others, when it failed miserably, he pushed the blame onto everyone except those responsible, including himself. Using the 2006 4th of July as an example, Ted and his band of merry crooks refused to meet with the police for planning in spite of numerous requests. They demanded woefully inadequate staffing to improve their profit margin (or lessen the losses as it turns out) blamed the police department for a change in the alcohol licensing requirements set by the state because they (Conrad Mayer, Shelly Blanchard and Lee Frechette) did not feel they had to comply. (Sounds like the same issue as the fireworks location with the county property next door) David Sanders went on live TV news and denied RC had a gang problem. They blamed the river rafters. They say there was a lack of confidence by the people of the city. I disagree. After many hours of review, there was less than 5% unhappy and they were the committee members who knew they failed. The police department received hundreds of positive calls, emails and letters thanking them for their professional response and the restraint used in managing the group that arrived with the sole intent of disrupting the event. Ted and company have the after action report and know this to be true.
Mr. Gaebler’s lack of true and honest leadership has cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars and resulted in lower staffing for the Police in order to foster nepotism within city hall by providing jobs to those who are responsible for the failure of his policies. An example that can be easily verified is removing $250,000 from the Police budget in 2007 to pay for Shelly Blanchard to manage the Cordova Community Council. This was with the full support of David Sanders, CC Council President and City Council member. A cursory “search” for a qualified manager was conducted. But to any of us who were regularly in city hall doing business, the decision was made before the selection ever occurred.
The problem with the management of the police department under Chief (Mr.) Meeks should have been well known to all. He overspent his budget each year, bought more useless toys under the guise of equipment than all of the rest of the Sheriff’s Department managers combined, and had zero morale and a sinking ship from the very beginning. Employees of the department were constantly under the threat of being “Meeked” ( a term for good employees being transferred out of RCPD without cause, due process or mechanism for any appeal at Ted’s whim) for opposing the grandeose ideas he conceived. It was apparent from the very beginning that Meeks was there for one reason, appease Ted for his future personal gain. And now Mr. Meeks has been “Meeked” by his own puppet master. I hope he finds the experience as rewarding as those good employees he tossed out for doing their jobs and standing up against the corruption at city hall. There is much more corruption than most can begin to imagine. Other stories for another day… Or perhaps it is time for the County Grand Jury to begin taking a long hard serious look at the books and behind the scenes dealings within city hall. It worked in Elk Grove.
As for me, I will continue to serve the citizens of Rancho Cordova as I have done for more years than Ted, Ruben and David combined. Much like Elk Grove realized with their City Council, it is time for a change. Time to elect Council members with new ideas, no nepotism and honesty in managing the future of Rancho Cordova.