Chief apologizes to councilman

Photo

Warren police chief John Mandopolous

The apology was short and didn’t go into specifics.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — It was reportedly a brief apology, but it was sufficient to avoid a monthlong suspension for Police Chief John Mandopoulos.

Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin said Mandopoulos wrote a letter of apology to Dan Crouse, a Warren councilman at large, for statements the chief made to Crouse on Aug. 19 after questions arose regarding the elimination of most police department overtime.

Franklin said the short apology “simply said he apologized.” He added that the apology was acceptable to Crouse, “so [Crouse] has moved on from there.”

The city doesn’t have a copy of the letter, Franklin added.

Crouse said Wednesday that he received the apology and accepted it but says he “got rid of it” afterward so that he can put the matter behind him and move onto other, more pressing matters. He said he has refused all requests for a copy of the letter or comments on its contents.

On a Sunday morning in August, the department was manned by just two police officers. That was because of officers’ calling off sick and officers’ not being called in to replace them because of a new overtime policy.

Crouse suggested that Mandopoulos could have filled the gap by patrolling the city streets himself, which led to a confrontation between the men a couple days later.

According to a letter Crouse wrote to Franklin, Mandopoulos burst into the council committee room adjacent to council chambers on South Street and said he would take Crouse “to parts of town where I had never sold a home” and other things. Crouse, a real estate salesman, said the chief’s actions were “unprofessional, defamatory, threatening, inaccurate and out of control.”

Mandopoulos said he was laughing when he said those things and didn’t understand Crouse’s reaction.

The apology eliminated one punishment Franklin had proposed: a 30-day suspension without pay. Instead, Franklin has added a written reprimand to Mandopoulos’ personnel file.

It is the second time Mandopoulos has been reprimanded for his behavior toward a council member.

On Feb. 24, 2006, Franklin made a written request to Mandopoulos asking him to be courteous to council members after a run-in between Mandopoulos and Councilman Al Novak on Feb. 21, 2006.

Then, Mandopoulos was accused of being out of order and disruptive at a finance committee meeting. Novak said he repeatedly asked the chief to be quiet but the chief would not.

Mandopoulos said he was not loud or disruptive but had been denied the opportunity to talk about issues relating to the chief’s rental properties, so he talked with Novak in the hallway after the meeting.