New Haven Independent

Posted by: cedarhillresident | November 19, 2007 3:28 PM

***mouth wide open in shock***

Not who I thought was going! Unless that has just not happened yet.

Posted by: Big Mike | November 19, 2007 7:45 PM

I have known Cisco, for quite a few years, and I for one will miss him. He is a good man and very well liked by the rank and file. I salute you sir and wish you and your family the best. Mike Ortiz

Posted by: John Padilla | November 19, 2007 8:20 PM

While I am saddened to see Cisco retire, I am delighted that he is remaining in New Haven. Cisco is someone we should all be proud of. He was raised in this city, is a product of its schools and rose through the ranks to become chief. Not many people will ever be able to say that. While it has been a difficult tenure, Cisco inherited much of the mess the department finds itself in. To his credit, he was always above board on what was going on, what needed to happen and did not duck the tough questions when asked by the media and New Haven residents. Cisco: the best of luck to you and the many friends you have in this city are still with you!

Posted by: New Haven Tea Party | November 19, 2007 9:52 PM

I'm glad Mr. Ortiz has another job and wish him well. It's a very good thing for New Haven residents and taxpayers too as Mr. Ortiz was in over his head. How else can a department burn through a year's worth of overtime in three months? Or start out as a patrolman believing in community policing, and then abandoning it once you become chief? Mr. DeStefano should make sure he gets somebody from outside the department and he should keep his mits out of running the department so that people like Billy White and others are held accountable. It would be a good time to look at all these department heads - and the review his senior staff in charge of them to make sure we have the best possible leaders - we are paying well for them.

Posted by: mary | November 19, 2007 11:29 PM

A great man from the community.The best of luck in your new job.Thank You for serving the community and doing such a great job!!!!!!!!

Posted by: virginia Blaisdell | November 19, 2007 11:40 PM

I don't get it. Cisco resigns. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? He's been thinking about it for a while, but you didn't report that at the time but you're now trying to sound all insider and omniscient? If you knew it all along, why not report it at the time?

All the responses seem to be on the order of "we love him; we're glad he's going." Kind of hard to make sense of. You call it a positive community reaction when the pistol-packing Edgewood vigilantes applaud his leaving. I'm sorry, but I don't think they represent the community.

Then you say the criticism has focused on his management. And what would that be? We don't know, because the next sentence is about how he has toured the city all year and goes to N. Carolina to check out other crime-fighting strategies. Is this an example of bad management?

I expected a better report from you--putting all the pieces together, telling us stuff the Reg doesn't supply, going beyond the press releases. I think it's your job to try to figure out if Ortiz screwed up, and if so, how? If not, then who did? What would a new chief have to do to make up for his supposed lapses? Is the mayor looking to hire someone like that? Or might he just be wanting to make the headlines go away?

Sorry to say, but this looks like very timid reporting. I'll gladly send a contribution to bolster your "independence," if that's the problem. If the sources of financial support are not the problem, then there's not much I can do but remain
dissapointedly yours,
vb

Posted by: Dear Virginia | November 20, 2007 10:52 AM

Dear Virginia,
$130,000 of your tax payer money went to produce a detailed report of the department's or I should say, the city's failures on overseeing the police department.

The report is on this web site. Do a search using the keyword PERF, as in PERF report.

Posted by: anaon | November 20, 2007 1:10 PM

How much will Ortiz receive in pension benefits, per year, starting the day after he "retires"? My calculations say that we will be paying him over $75k a year on top of his Yale salary. And we will have to pay the new cheif that $105k salary.

Posted by: charlie | November 20, 2007 2:20 PM

Yes, he will be receiving at least $75K in pension benefits.

But if you had been a cop dealing with thugs for 30 years, wouldn't you want that kind of compensation, too?

I don't hear a bit of jealousy in your posting, do I?

Personally, I think taxes should be raised on the richest 0.1% of Americans (the ones who are getting very rich because we have a stable society, not because they are really working that much harder) and used to double the salaries of cops and firefighters.

Teachers should also see higher salaries, but only if they are REALLY good at getting students to do better on exams (which I admit, would be very hard to measure, but it needs to be done).

Meanwhile, administrators sitting in desks, like the Mayor and Econ Development people, should have salaries starting at about $35-40K per year and rising to a max of $60K per year after 15+ years of good performance.

Posted by: Esbe | November 20, 2007 3:13 PM

Ortiz strikes me as a sincere guy who didn't do a very good job. He let community policing entirely slip away, and had to be beaten with a (bad publicity) stick before he would even try to bring it back. He missed the terrible corruption in the naroctics unit.

At Yale's isolated new "West Campus," most of the crime will consist of researchers parking in the wrong lot; now there is a job he can probably handle.

Posted by: East Rocker | November 20, 2007 4:55 PM

"Teachers should also see higher salaries, but only if they are REALLY good at getting students to do better on exams (which I admit, would be very hard to measure, but it needs to be done)."

- I would hope that the goal is to help kids become good learners, not do better on exams. If we can get kids excited about learning and effectively teach them their core subjects, they'll do fine on the exams. (See the science scores at the Sound School, for example.) The whole testing regime is really destructive to kids' education.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | November 20, 2007 6:31 PM

Esbe
I have a different take on it. I think he tried to do his job but kept running into stone walls. Maybe I am wrong. It was not him making the final decisions on things. Ex:I thought he did fire Billy white years ago.

Now don't get me wrong, he rubs me the wrong way and I have had a few un-pleasant moments with him. But I do have to say I have always felt he was a bit of a whipping boy. He really had alot of great ideas and plans but with out the rest of the city (city hall that is) backing them up he was unable to do them. Not unlike alot of people in New Haven, he to had to play ball with a smile on his face. Again I could be wrong. Ya just don't know who is the good guy any more. But a small part of me thought he was one of the good guys.

Posted by: Common Sense | November 20, 2007 10:23 PM

Cedar Hill Resident...You got it right! Nuff Said..

Posted by: FairHavenRes | November 21, 2007 12:43 AM

Our statistic quoting, community policing destroying Chief Ortiz is headed out of Dodge. In some sick sort of way, I had hoped he could have turned it around.

Personally, I like the guy. I truly believed that he was a New Havener, cared about this city. He just did not have what it takes.

No more fall guy for DeStefano. All eyes will be on the mayor, where they should have been for a long time. The comfortable relationship he has enjoyed with that miserable police union president undermined Ortiz. The police union president has been the cause of more problems than we know.

As a side note, I hope like hell that the new sgt's and lt's are reflective of the community. If not, it does not bode well for community policing.

See ya Cisco, good luck and enjoy your family.

Posted by: jms | November 21, 2007 2:41 AM

I think I agree with CedarHill...

Ortiz was a good guy caught up in whirlwind of bullshit... local politics... corruption... etc. Not that he shouldn't be equipped to deal with all of that as police chief... but I don't hold a lot of what happened while he was in office against him personally. I wouldn't wish that job on anyone for twice the salary and pension.

JMS

Posted by: goodriddance | November 21, 2007 10:48 AM

I believe the chief needed to go a long time ago. The city is tired of having to deal with incompetence. Residents who go to work pay their taxes and want to come home and have a peaceful night deserve to do so. It seems as if unruly kids are running the city. A lot of what happens in the city doesn't get publicized, and you would be surprised to see exaclty how many crimes are committed each day. Instead of getting comfortable, the chief should have been taking initiative beforehand. He may be a "nice guy" but being a nice guy to everybody does not get the job done. There was too much corruption within the department(probably still is) for him not to have known. The chief's resignaton is a cop out-plain and simple. Many can show their support but let's keep it real people- if it were you waiting for a cop to take a simple report and were told there was no one available, meanwhile there are 4 cop cars in a lot and the officers are having social hour how would you feel? Let's even make the situation a domestic, would your views change then? At some point you should see the chief is accountable for the work ethic of officers and has the authority to enforce that they are conducting themselves in a professional manner. City officials need to be very particular of the who they put into the chief's spot. John DeStefano is another story.

Posted by: Wjay | November 23, 2007 5:00 PM

Good Guy, no doubt....

Came in at a time which was troublesome...
On the heels of Mel Wearing, who was wholesaled out by the administration.
Tried in vain to put his stamp on the police Dept.
Failed because of the union no confidence vote and the fact that the Mayor wants to be the Police Chief.

Good faithful soldier. Took the sword for DeStefano over the White transfer out, back in debacle. Should have held his ground on his original decision.
Borne of community policing, but made to swallow the political decision to reduce community policing to satisfy budget decisions by the Mayor.
For your faithfulness you are re-assigned to Rest Haven.

Good luck Cisco-kid, I think you did your very best against incredible odds.

Posted by: citysavior | November 24, 2007 4:44 PM

wait a minute people your telling me that the police department went through that much in overtime.Ok where's the money that all the vacant postions such as supervisors, officers and detectives?? Did city hall take that money out and send it to general funds where's are our lovely alderman who should be asking the same questions ??? pleese show me that the money from vacant positions were used by the police department and not the city.also how come new haven allows groups to hold parades and events in the city but never bills them for police coverage?? start by running the city like a business if it was we would not be rewarding the CEO with a raise would we?? As a department head your boss sets you up for failure by pulling funds.god bless and good luck Chief the city's lost in Yale university's Gain .

Posted by: citysavior | November 24, 2007 4:55 PM

and lets not forget that we do have very good police officer's in new haven. As you have already figured out the new chief and asst. chief of investigations will be outsiders. as the cavilie union guy has said that's a slap to any currant police officer who even thought of becoming chief here. Lets bring in outsiders who don't know our community. look at hartford two outsiders with failed results and then back to internal candidate chief roberts. Hope you get a clue residents and citizens before more money is spent with foolish results.

Posted by:  Juan Montalvo | November 26, 2007 2:55 PM

I had a very good working relationship with the Chief, although we did not always see eye to eye. I wish him the best of luck!