Chief given option to quit

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Warren police chief John Mandopolous

By Ed Runyan

The city’s safety-service director said no decision on punishment has been made.

WARREN — Police Chief John Mandopoulos was given the option of resigning to avoid some other type of punishment for his most recent run-in with a fellow city official.

Mandopoulos didn’t respond when the city’s Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin posed the option to Mandopoulos recently, Franklin said.

Franklin, in answering questions about a television report quoting Mandopoulos saying he had been asked to resign or face possible termination, said the chief is referring to a private conversation between him and the chief, not something Franklin put in writing.

“We discussed resignation or his stepping down on his own,” Franklin said Thursday. “He didn’t respond, and I haven’t talked to him since.”

Franklin said there was no intent on his part for the conversation to be made public. It was Mandopoulos who “made it a public conversation” by talking with the news media about it.

Franklin said he is in the final stages of studying the allegations against Mandopoulos and is still considering various types of punishment.

“I want to respect his years of service,” Franklin said and let Mandopoulos consider walking away rather than Mandopoulos incurring the expense of fighting whatever discipline he might receive.

When asked about the conversation and Franklin’s mention of resigning and whether he would, Mandopoulos said, “Specifically what have I done wrong?” He declined further comment Thursday.

Mandopoulos was called to a predisciplinary hearing before Franklin last month regarding allegations made by Gary Cicero, the city’s human resources director, that Mandopoulos maliciously ordered Cicero to be searched as Cicero was entering the police department for a meeting with Capt. Tim Bowers and another police department employee in November.

Cicero also said Mandopoulos prevented him from getting into the area of the police department where Bowers has his office, thereby preventing Cicero from attending the meeting.

Mandopoulos has said the real question about that day was whether Cicero should be allowed to “circumvent” the security system at the entrance to the building, which also contains Warren Municipal Court.

Mandopoulos said Cicero’s keys set off the metal detector, which means the person must stop at the security desk to be searched.

Cicero, conversely, said Mandopoulos started screaming at the office working the desk to search Cicero even before he had reached the metal detector.

Cicero was denied entrance to the police department offices, so he left.

Last year, Mandopoulos chose to write an apology letter to Councilman Dan Crouse rather than face a 30-day unpaid suspension for remarks Mandopoulos made to Crouse regarding police department overtime policies that were instituted.