Citizens, business owners rally in support of Chief Cook

Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt said this week it’s “incumbent” that the city follow up with the Department of Justice about conducting an outside investigation of the city’s police department.

On the day the Vancouver Police Officers’ Guild announced it had overwhelmingly voted to say its members have no confidence in the leadership of Police Chief Cliff Cook, citizens called upon the council to revisit such an investigation.

Former Mayor Royce Pollard sent a letter more than a year ago asking the Department of Justice to take a look at the police department.

On Monday, City Manager Pat McDonnell said the department had replied some time ago to say it had received the city’s request but had not communicated further.

“Not hearing a response from them is probably akin to them not expressing an interest in pursuing an investigation,” Leavitt said. “But I think it’s important for us to find out more definitively if the Department of Justice has made a decision, and why.”

Leavitt has said the council has not discussed the matter explicitly, but it “sound like no one is interested in seeing Chief Cook leave the department.”

Instead, he said, he hopes that both sides will be able to sit down and come to a resolution.

“We need to get beyond this because it’s clearly distracting,” the mayor said.

–Andrea Damewood

Standing in the same spot where the Vancouver Police -Officers’ Guild announced earlier this week that it has lost confidence in the leadership of Police Chief Cliff Cook, more than 20 citizens gathered to rally on behalf- of the embattled leader.

Finishing their City Hall rally with cheers for Cook, several people stepped before television cameras Thursday to voice their support for a chief they say has led with honesty and integrity.

“They want to get rid of the chief and start over again, and that doesn’t work,” retired Commander Mary J. White said. “There are personal or hidden agendas by some members of the guild.”

Guild president Ryan Martin announced Monday that 130 of 150 ballots returned in an electronic vote were for no confidence in Cook. It was the largest turnout in 181-member guild history, at a time when morale has reached an all-time low, he said.

Martin has said the vote is not personal, and that the guild believes that the rank-and-file’s concerns about lack of communication, favoritism, disparate treatment and opaque internal affairs investigations and harsh discipline have been ignored by Cook.

“I couldn’t have shaped this vote, I did not shape this vote — the members speak for themselves,” Martin told the Vancouver City Council Monday night.

City Manager Pat McDonnell and members of the city council have previously said they stand behind Cook. City officials say they believe Cook has made important inroads into implementing change in the department through recommendations made by the Matrix Consulting Group of Palo Alto, Calif., a year ago.

Cook said Thursday that the support “means quite a bit to me,” and that he has no intention of stepping down.

“My intention is to keep doing the job I was given and try and move the department forward,” Cook said. “Hopefully that includes solving this issue with the guild and … start looking at the bigger issues like the budget deficit, cuts in service and most important, the safety of the citizens.”

The rally came as a counter to Monday, when dozens of guild members, their supporters and families flocked to City Hall to express their desire to see Cook fired.

Citizens brought over two hours of charged testimony before the council, asking for an independent review of the police department by an outside federal agency with subpoena powers.

“When the majority of your employees say something is wrong with their employer, I would hope you would pay attention to this,” Quan Tran told the council. “To my knowledge, the Matrix study is totally flawed.”

At Thursday’s pro-Cook gathering, White said that in her 31 years in law enforcement, she’s never seen a department “with this kind of cultural issue, where they won’t let it go.”

Most of the problems were there before Cook arrived in April 2007, she said. Cook is the department’s ninth chief in 20 years. “They are focused on the past, and what he’s trying to do is move to the future,” White said.

Vancouver NAACP president Margo Bryant said she has been amazed with Cook’s efforts to reach out to minority groups in town and build trust.

“I would never have been supportive of any police chief or any police organization,” Bryant said, noting the often rancorous relationship between the African-American community and local police offices. “Thanks to Chief Cook, that relationship has begun to change.”

Concerned citizen Carl Cooper waited to the end of the 15-minute press conference to speak his piece. He said in his interactions with officers, they’ve brushed off his concerns and ignored blatant traffic violations. The Vancouver Police Officers’ Guild represents the city’s officers, corporals and sergeants.

“I’m sick and tired of what I see,” Cooper said. “Who do I have confidence in? I have confidence in Chief Cook, not in my local officers.”

Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.