Retention of the community's Security officers has fallen dramatically under the tenure of Chief Greg Remson, the Community Services District's Security Committee was told Tuesday.
The committee heard an analysis by neighbor Lisa Taylor, who is married to Security Sgt. Jim Bieg, the department's second in command. Taylor's study looked at the last 20 Security staffers, going back to the era of longtime Chief Jim Noller, who retired in 2004 and was succeeded by Remson.
"I mean, there's just a lot of confusion in their job description," Lisa Taylor said of the Security officers.
"Almost every single one of these could be justified," Taylor said of the departures, "and there's a story around each one of them. But the point is if you look at the retention rates, you know, dropping from 64 percent to 33 percent is pretty dramatic."
Remson, who was present for the discussion. challenged Taylor on some points but didn't defend his job performance. Two board members questioned Taylor's assumptions.
In an interview after the meeting, Remson said, "It's very difficult to get people who are a good fit in this job. ... Until you get them out there on their own you really don't know how they're going to be. Some people just don't work out and we have to let them go. ... And we absolutely will not keep anybody that we think will be a long-term issue. ... It's not like we've got 50 or 100 (staffers), we've got five, and that makes it very difficult. ... There's a lot of mediation involved ... You have to be able to work within the parameters the board has given us."
Taylor said she talked to three of the officers who left.
"A lot of that was just sort of confusion about what's going on in terms of what they're required to do versus what they're told they can," she said. "I mean, there's just a lot of confusion in their job description."
Citing research she had done, which was covered in another letter she wrote to the CSD board, Taylor argued that Security officers here function as law enforcement and not as security guards.
"I looked at sort of the way they respond to calls sort of as security sort of as law enforcement, and if they were security guards what they would do," she said of the chart she created in her letter.
She argued that a state law in 2005 drew clear distinctions between the work of police and security officers, adding, "So it has to be a lot clearer what we're doing. ... From a wife's perspective, I see calls being entered in a law enforcement manner, yet we're hearing that they're security. That's my issue."
After the meeting, Remson said Taylor was referring to the law about enforcing local ordinances. "That's the section the attorneys are researching right now because there's some thought that that gives us peace officer authority," Remson said. "She's one of the ones that think that and other people do not."
"Hopefully what we'll do is better define our role. And if that role is more enforcement, then so be it. If that role is less enforcement, then so be it," said Security Chief Greg Remson.
At the committee meeting, Director Bobbi Belton suggested that a single-subject meeting on Security coming up at the end of May might be a better forum for the conversation. She claimed some of Taylor's information was misleading and said the names of the officers involved shouldn't be included in Taylor's report out of concern for the former staffers' privacy.
Board President Wayne Kuntz also disagreed with Taylor, saying her percentages were skewed and some staffers had used the job as a career stepping stone.
Asked after the meeting where he thought the department ought to head in the future, Remson said:
"Hopefully what we'll do is better define our role. And if that role is more enforcement, then so be it. If that role is less enforcement, then so be it. But we'll hopefully eliminate any gray areas with input from the board and the community and what we legally can and can't do. Hopefully we can get a good group of officers that will be comfortable following those rules and regulations as they're handed down to us."