Carnation Officer Fired; Council To Be Briefed -- Special Report Tonight Will Focus Only On The Back-Pay Issues

CARNATION

Officer Frank Sloan is being fired from the Carnation Police Department.

That news came to Sloan, embroiled in controversy the past several months, from City Attorney Scott Snyder in a letter Friday. Snyder says he will brief the City Council tonight on Sloan's termination.

Generally, Snyder is accusing Sloan of dishonesty, dereliction of duty and consistent abuse of his power as a police officer.

In part, the city is saying Sloan's claim for $60,000 in back pay for overtime is false. City officials say they found some of the overtime was spent on personal activities ranging from coaching a baseball team to getting a haircut.

In a terse news release over the weekend, Mayor pro tem Dave Hunter said the 7 p.m. meeting will cover a special report to the council by Snyder "regarding Mr. Frank Sloan's discipline and an opportunity for questions from the City Council, public and media."

Information to be divulged at the meeting is expected to focus only on payroll problems, Hunter said. Results of an investigation conducted by the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) in recent months will not be discussed, he added.

Sloan was placed on paid administrative leave in February after it was announced he was the target of investigations by the AWC, the King County Sheriff's Office and the FBI. Last month, the sheriff's office cleared Sloan of any wrongdoing, but results of probes by the two other agencies have not been revealed.

When Sloan asked for compensation for hundreds of hours of overtime, supervisor's pay and holiday pay allegedly due him since March 1996, City Administrator Randy Suko said the claim was questionable, adding that there would be an audit of Sloan's work hours.

Sloan and his lawyer, Jerald Pearson, said today Sloan would not comment on the allegations until after tonight's council meeting. A business agent for Teamsters union Local 763, which represents Carnation police officers, today said, "We are involved and will continue to be involved" in the Sloan case.

The violations Sloan is said to have committed include:

-- Destroying or hiding public records to avoid their use in the AWC investigation.

-- Falsifying or providing misleading reports about investigations he conducted, back-dating reports and filing incomplete reports.

-- Systematically and repeatedly billing the city for overtime while he went for haircuts, tried to rent or purchase a home, and on eight occasions between March 17 and March, 25, 1997, collected overtime while coaching the Cedarcrest High School Junior varsity baseball team.

-- Discrediting the department by promoting himself as an officer of distinction in a program of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) when in reality he had only one arrest of a drunken driver during the qualifying period.

-- Falsely identifying himself as Carnation police chief to a member of the Mukilteo Police Department who was conducting a background investigation.

-- Falsely representing to the state Department of Licensing that four former Carnation police officers were under criminal investigation and falsely stating that Public Safety Director Gunnar Otness was aware of the investigation.

-- Violating provisions of a no-contact order when put on leave in March by contacting a Carnation officer behind the police station and Otness at his home.

-- Misusing his authority as a nominal supervisor by assigning himself $29,000 in overtime last year, falsifying records to do so.

-- Discriminating against a woman police officer in her pay rate and assignment, misrepresenting her status with the department, falsifying her pay records and time sheets, and failing to obtain approval for hiring provisional officers from the city Civil Service Commission.

Snyder emphasized that Sloan has the right to appeal.

Meanwhile, Otness, who also was placed on administrative leave in February, and his attorney met with Snyder last week. City officials said Otness was relieved of his duties to ensure the appearance of fairness until the investigations into Sloan's alleged wrongdoings were completed.

But Otness' contract expired late last month and has not been renewed, and the city has not yet decided whether to renew it. During the interim, Cmdr. George Potts of the Redmond Police Department was brought in to run the troubled department. Suko said Potts reviewed the department's operation and found a number of shortcomings, including a problem with payroll time sheets.

Louis T. Corsaletti's phone message number is 206-515-5626. His e-mail address is: lcor-new@seatimes.com