Mayor Elicker (right) with "Acting" Chief Dominguez on Monday.
Five weeks after the mayor promised to launch a national search for a police chief after his nominee was voted down, that national search has still not begun — leading to a lawsuit charging that having the rejected “acting” nominee remain indefinitely in the job is illegal.
Those are the latest developments in the uncertain future of the leadership of the New Haven Police Department.
In separate interviews Monday morning, Mayor Justin Elicker and Acting Chief Renee Dominguez reaffirmed their respective stances that Dominguez will remain in place as acting chief as the city seeks to find a new top cop even though her term as “acting” chief may have expired. Depending on how you read the law. (See more below.)
That’s the same path forward that Elicker and Dominguez first laid out over a month ago when — in the wake of the Board of Alders vote to reject Dominguez’s appointment to be the next full-time permanent police chief — Dominguez announced her plans to retire whenever new leadership is found.
Elicker promised then that the city would undertake a national search for a new chief, and he said Dominguez would stay in place as acting chief until her replacement takes over.
Asked on Monday about what specific steps the city has taken over the past month in furtherance of this national search, Elicker said that he has “spoken with some outside agencies” as well as with his chief of staff and other top City Hall officials about how a formal police chief search process might take place, and about how to ensure there will be community input in that process.
No request for proposals has been issued. No search firm has been hired. No job has been posted. No community committee has been formed. No public process has been announced or documented.
Elicker said that a topic that comes up frequently in conversations he’s had so far is just how challenging it is to bring in an outside chief. He pointed in particular to the city charter’s mandate that the police chief have five years of experience supervising a police department with at least 200 employees and serving a population of at least 100,000 residents.
What is the immediate next step in this search process?
The city will “shortly be putting out a RFQ,” or request for qualifications, “for an outside agency that specializes in this area to help us start the process,” Elicker said.
Meanwhile, First Calvary Baptist Church Rev. Boise Kimber filed a lawsuit in state court Monday challenging the legal grounds on which Elicker seeks to keep Dominguez in place. (See below for more details on that lawsuit.)
Asked about that, Elicker declined to speak too specifically about the lawsuit, as city officials often do not comment on pending legal matters.
“However, I would say that we are confident we have strong legal standing,” he said. “I’m really questioning what the intentions are here. I have made clear that we will be beginning a national search for a police chief, and that there will be a community process. I question why Mr. Kimber would be pushing this issue.”
Elicker stressed the importance of “staying the course … rather than disrupting the good work that is being done in the community.”
Asked for her take on the new lawsuit, Dominguez said she’s confident that, relying on the legal guidance of the city’s corporation counsel, “what we are doing is within the charter.”
“I’m continuing here to do my job, regardless of what is going on,” she continued. “I will stay until my time here is done and a new chief is put into place.”
Asked if she still plans on staying put until her replacement is found, or if she plans to retire before then, Dominguez repeated, “At this time, I will stay until a new chief is put in place.”
“I’ve been in this role for almost a year since Chief [Otoniel] Reyes left,” she continued. “We all want what is best for the city, what is best for the community. I’m hopeful that whoever comes after me is able to deliver the same type of policing I have done, and be able to work together with the community.”
Lawsuit: Dominguez "Illegally" Occupies Acting Role
Thomas Breen file photo
Rev. Boise Kimber outside police headquarters.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in state court on Monday and which is dated Jan. 7, Rev. Kimber and fellow plaintiff Donarell Elder have sued Dominguez to pressure her to provide some kind of specific, legal justification for why she should be able to remain as acting chief.
They point out that Dominguez has legally served as acting chief since the end of June of last year, when then-Chief Reyes officially retired. (Reyes actually left the building in March to begin using accumulated paid time off, meaning that Dominguez has really been leading the department since early last year.)
This is a legal problem, plaintiffs’ attorney Jerald Barber argues, because the city charter and the New Haven Code of Ordinances appear to prohibit acting police chiefs from remaining in an “acting” role for more than six months.
They quote Article IV. Section 1(A)(3) of the Charter which states:“Other than to membership on a Board or Commission, the Mayor may designate an individual to hold a position in an acting capacity pending the selection of a nominee, but no person may hold such a position for more than six (6) months without being submitted for confirmation by the board.”
The lawsuit also quotes Section 2 – 304 of the city Code of Ordinances, which states: “No person may serve in a temporary employment position with the city beyond one hundred eighty (180) days.”
“Ever since January 1, 2022, the defendant Dominguez, having no right to the office nor to exercise the rights, powers and privileges thereof, holds the position illegally,” the lawsuit contends.
It then calls on the court to order four different remedies:
1. To order Dominguez to answer to the court “by what warrant she claims to holds [sp.] the office of Acting Police Chief for the City of New Haven and to exercises [sp.] the rights, powers and privileges thereof”;
2. If Dominguez is not able to prove “her proper claim to said office,” that she has to vacate her position as acting chief;
3. To award the plaintiffs the costs associated with bringing this lawsuit;
4. To “make whatever other Orders that it deems to be fair and equitable.”
In previous interviews and public statements on this matter, Elicker has argued that he is legally clear to keep Dominguez in the role as acting chief even after that six-month time period has run out because all the charter requires him to do is submit her name for confirmation by the Board of Alders within that period.
He submitted Dominguez’s name, he has argued, and therefore he has complied with the terms of the law, and may keep Dominguez on in an acting capacity as long as he’d like.
One issue is what happens when a mayor submits a name — and that name is rejected by the alders. As written, the charter doesn’t specifically address what happens when a mayor defies an alder vote and keeps a rejected nominee in place indefinitely. The city’s position is that the absence of specific language means there is no limit on how long a rejected nominee can remain in an otherwise six-month “acting” role.
During a press conference held Wednesday morning, Kimber said that the lawsuit is not a “contest against” Dominguez. Rather, it seeks “judicial review of the action of the executive with regard to this appointment.”
“This temporary appointment of unlimited duration was not made in compliance with the City Charter,” he said. “Rather, it was made in disregard and violation of the Charter, and solely as the result of the mayor’s extra-legal personal choice: de whim, not de jure.”
Has Kimber gone after other “Acting” Department Heads in the past?
In any case, it’s been the holidays, with COVID going through the roof, and I think we need to reasonably give the administration a little more time to launch their search, particularly given the fact that the BofA’s flat rejection of New Haven’s first female chief was pretty much unexpected.
God bless Boise Kimber. What would we do without his ethical voice of conscience?