Ted Benevides letter to Bolton's Dallas attorney

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September 2, 2003Robert Hinton, Jr.Robert Hinton & Associates, PC5015 Tracy, Suite 100Dallas, Texas 75205-3400

Dear Mr. Hinton:In response to your letter received in my office Friday, August 29,2003, I am providing the following information regarding rationale forthe discharge of former Chief Terrell Bolton. This information waspresented in my meeting with the community leaders at which youwere in attendance on Thursday, August, 28.

As City Manager, I appointed Terrell Bolton in 1999 as Dallas' Chief of Police. I selected him without conducting a national search. Almostimmediately after his appointment, there were a series of issues, listedbelow, through which I maintained support of Chief Bolton.

Chief Bolton began contrasting his style and Chief Click's style. I didnot think this was an appropriate way to start an administration.

Budget cuts, made in the department and described publicly as costsavings, were questions. Management was required to explain truecost savings vs. cost avoidances.

Chief Bolton reassigned some officers to the streets. The reassignmentresulted in much criticism from some constituent groups. Managementstood behind the Chief. Eventually, most of the officers ended up backin their original desk jobs.

Management defended Chief Bolton during his dispute with the FBIover the allocation of resources. There was controversy regarding lackof cooperation between the FBI and the City of Dallas. Charles Daniels,Assistant City Manager and the City Manager met privately with the FBIto mend fences. Former Mayor Ron Kirk also assisted. Chief Bolton wasnot requested to assist or apologize. The City Manager, Assistant CityManager, and Mayor ate the "humble pie."

Chief Bolton made some key executive personnel assignments torefocus the direction of the department. The department came undermuch attack externally and internally.

Fake drugs scandal brought tremendous negative attention to thedepartment and the City. Management supported the Chief's request to

handle the investigation internally. The investigation was eventuallyturned over to the FBI.

The allegation of Chief Bolton's involvement in the SOBs [SexuallyOriented Businesses] surrounding the Bachman Lake area raised manyconcerns as to whether the Chief should be investigated. Managementsupported him in light of the allegations and held a press conference topublicly defend him.

The Chief was criticized for his delayed deployment of the newCamaros (high speed vehicles). Many believed he was "sitting on" thecars and would not let them be deployed. He simply wanted to rollthem out according to his own time frame.

Chief Bolton was criticized for a trip to Huntsville (similar to a trip hetook recently for his re-certification) where he expended additional citymonies to have special transportation and hotel accommodation in lieuof staying in the dorms at Sam Houston State University with the otherconference attendees. At the time, management supported hisdecisions.

Certain civilian executives were assigned unmarked police vehicles.Due to budgetary constraints, the Chief was instructed to take thosevehicles away. He resisted this instruction but did eventually comply.

The Chief was also asked to give up his personal driver. The Chief didnot comply with the management's instructions and continued to makeuse of a personal driver until the day of his termination.

Executive positions had been cut citywide, and Chief Bolton was askedto cut two civilian executive positions from his 2002-2003 budget. TheChief was informed of the rationale to eliminate executives in the samepercentage lower rank and file had been eliminated. Chief Boltondisagreed and in a Council Budget meeting, told the Council he couldabsorb that cost. This was absolutely the wrong thing to do.Management made no public comment during the Council briefing.

The Chief resisted the implementation of the citywide HumanResources Information System. Management postponed theconsolidation of the system for public safety (police and fire) for oneyear. However, the Chief still resisted.

Management recently received comments from some policedepartment personnel regarding their concerns over the Chief'smanagement style and how things were not working within thedepartment.

During the month of July, Charles Daniels, Assistant City Manager andthe City Manager met with the Chief at his office to discuss things thatneeded his attention and changes that needed to be made in thedepartment. Basically, the Chief argued for two hours.

Dallas was named the city with the highest crime per capita in thecountry; the Mayor announced she wanted to have weekly meetingswith the Chief. Management met with the Chief to discuss this matter,and the Chief refused to go to the meetings because he had concernsthat the meetings would undermine his authority. He stated theprocess was disrespectful and that he would be given instruction to dothings that directly conflicted with the City Charter. The Chief wasinformed that both the City Manager and Charles Daniels would be inthe meetings to guide the discussions. The Chief still refused to attendthe meetings. The City Manager told the Chief that if he did not want todo what he was instructed to do he would then be asked to resign. TheCity Manager's secretary typed a resignation letter for the Chief'ssignature. Chief Bolton then called his wife and told her that he was nolonger going to be police chief. After hanging up the phone he thenasked for more time to check on his pension. Management denied hisrequest for more time, and the Chief changed his mind and did not signthe letter. He was then told to proceed with the Council Public Safetybriefing, which was at that time about to begin.

The Chief's handling of Dallas' crime ranking was defensive. Hisattempts to explain the ranking and justify crime levels by explainingthat in years past the numbers had been higher offered little in theway of solution to the problem.

With the recent termination of Derrick Evans, the department usedovertime dollars to expedite the dismissal prior to the Chief's out-of-town trip to Huntsville (re-certification trip). Some believed it wasunnecessary to spend overtime dollars. Assistant City Manager,Charles Daniels, and other staff worked on this issue during the Chief'sabsence.

Management decided that the Fire Department's Internal AffairsDivision (IAD) should handled [sic] the investigation regarding thefiring of Derrick Evans to ensure credibility in the investigation. Thisdecision was a result of the Chief's recent reorganization of thedepartment in which IAD reported directly to him. The chain of command was violated when Chief Bolton went around Charles Danielsand came directly to the city manager to request that he change hisdecision. The Chief was informed that this process was best for thedepartment and the city.

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