Investigation into ethics complaint against Oklahoma City police chief completed

Allegations that Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty retaliated against the top four officers under his command "were unsubstantiated," the city auditor said Wednesday after completing an investigation.

The police chief said he was happy with the outcome but does not feel vindicated.

"Nobody wins on this," Citty told The Oklahoman. "The department suffers from all of it. The department gets wounded by it.

"At the end of the day ... all five of us are professionals," he said. "I hope we can just move forward and do our jobs to the betterment of this department and the service that we provide the citizens."

The city auditor began an investigation last month after the four deputy police chiefs accused Citty of retaliating against them for seeking overtime pay. Citty denied the accusations.

The city auditor notified Citty and his deputy chiefs in writing Wednesday that the investigation into the ethics complaint had been completed and a report had been sent to the city manager.

"The allegations contained in the complaint were unsubstantiated," City Auditor Jim Williamson wrote in the letter sent to Citty. "Please be advised that no further action will be taken by The Office of the City Auditor regarding Ethics Complaint No. 19024; the matter is concluded."

The chief said Wednesday he was confident that would be the outcome.

"I knew what I had said. And I knew what was in my heart," he said. "Retaliation is not who I am. ... From childhood, it was bred in me that it doesn't hurt anybody but yourself to retaliate and get angry and hold on to things. It's just not in me."

In a written statement Wednesday, the deputy chiefs — Jeff Becker, Wade Gourley, Tom Jester and Brian Jennings — stood by their accusations. They said their ethics complaint was mishandled and the investigation was superficial.

"Based on the completely inadequate line of questioning in our interviews, this outcome was essentially rigged from the beginning," they said.

"The message sent from this outcome is that the statements and conduct we reported, all of which occurred, apparently meet city leadership's standard of professionalism and they condone such behavior," they also said. "This cannot be an acceptable standard for municipal government. The citizens of Oklahoma City deserve better city administration than this."

The four deputy police chiefs are pursuing a grievance against the city over the unpaid time.

"We were threatened and an attempt made to intimidate us just for the exercise of those rights," they complained Oct. 22 to the city ethics hotline.

They made the complaint days after an arbitration hearing over their grievance.

Their ethics complaint specifically alleged the chief on March 5 confronted Becker, Gourley, Jester and then-Deputy Chief Johnny Kuhlman about the possibility of a grievance being filed.

Their complaint alleged the chief became upset, pointed at Becker and Gourley and said the city manager would retaliate against them. The complaint quoted Citty as saying, "He will say he won't but he will."

Jester and Kuhlman at the time had already announced retirement plans. Kuhlman is now the U.S. marshal for the Western District of Oklahoma.

The ethics complaint also specifically alleged Citty confronted his deputy chiefs Oct. 16 after the arbitration hearing. The deputy chiefs complained he said "he would not pay for all hours worked even if the arbitrator ruled in our favor."

Citty suggested his comments in March must have been misinterpreted.

"I hope that's the case," he said. "My motivation in any discussion was to help the deputy chiefs be seen in the best possible light ... because these are individuals that we have identified to move up one day to run the department.

"The motivations were completely honorable. They were not to intimidate, threaten, retaliate."

He denied telling the deputy chiefs in October they would not get overtime if they won their grievance.

"Never said it. Absolutely, never said that. That I remember because after that meeting I wrote down and kept detailed notes what was said," he said.

Citty has been police chief 15 years and will be 66 in February. He would not discuss any retirement plans but said he still loves his job.