Detective’s Transfers Unfair, Report Finds : Police: Diaz’s union activities led superiors to improperly move him to other jobs in 1992, an arbitrator says.

Detective Dennis Diaz was back in the Pasadena Police Department’s Commercial Theft Unit last week after an arbitrator found that his transfer from the unit 20 months ago was an act of “discrimination, interference and intimidation” by police brass.

Diaz, president of the Pasadena Police Officers Assn. for the past 10 years, had been summarily assigned to the department’s Research and Development unit in February, 1992; eight months later, he was sent to the uniformed Patrol Division.

But arbitrator Edna E. J. Francis found that it was Diaz’s activities as a union leader that prompted the transfers, despite positive evaluations from his superiors and a key role in one of the department’s most visible cases.

Police Chief Jerry Oliver could not be reached for comment, but City Manager Philip Hawkey denied last week that Diaz’s transfers were in any way retaliatory.

Hawkey said Oliver had been “acting in a way that he (Oliver) thought could be beneficial by having Dennis more involved in policy and planning for the department.”

Richard Shinee, Diaz’s attorney, has asked the Pasadena City Council to investigate the union head’s case, saying in a letter to council members that Oliver had demonstrated “a disturbing pattern of conduct.”

At the time of his first transfer, Diaz was active in the so-called Sconce investigation, in which three members of a Pasadena family of morticians were accused of illegally conducting multiple cremations and commingling the ashes of dead bodies. The Sconce matter remains in the courts.

Diaz had by then become such a thorn in the side of Oliver and other police officials, publicly questioning departmental policies, that they sought to retaliate against him administratively, Francis said in her finding.

The reassignments were “intended to dissuade (Diaz) in his role as president . . . from further ardent advocacy of positions which were inconsistent with the department’s position or critical of management officials,” the arbitrator said.

Retaliatory measures for union activity are prohibited under state laws governing employer-employee relations.

Diaz said his problems began when he criticized Oliver in early 1992 for proposing to appoint a civilian to head the department’s Support Services Division, making his views known in letters to city officials and in newspaper interviews. The union took the view that only sworn police personnel should be appointed to management jobs.

Shortly after non-sworn police manager Mary Schander took over the division, Diaz was notified of his transfer to Research and Development, part of Schander’s command.

Diaz complained to police officials, saying he had no desire to change jobs and had no affinity for the kind of work required in his new unit. A 24-year police veteran, Diaz was placed in charge of maintaining records on police vehicles.

Schander allegedly told him that the transfer order had come down from above, according to the arbitrator’s report:

“ ‘It wasn’t me,’ ” Schander reportedly told Diaz. “ ‘Let’s just say it was a staff decision.’ ”

Schander could not be reached for comment.

Eight months later, Diaz was transferred again, this time to the Patrol Division, requiring that he wear a uniform and work on weekends. This action followed a call by Diaz for an investigation of Oliver for alleged spousal abuse.

The allegations of abuse were made by divorce attorney Marvin Mitchelson, representing Oliver’s wife, Jackie, who never filed a formal complaint against her husband.

But during a departmentwide meeting shortly afterward, Oliver mentioned that “some people are demanding an investigation” of his conduct, according to the arbitrator’s summation. Then he reportedly added sarcastically: “Dennis, are you here? I want to thank you.”

When Diaz filed a grievance about the involuntary transfers, the case was assigned to Francis, a member of the American Arbitration Assn., a national organization that assigns former judges and attorneys to settle disputes outside the court system.

Last month, Francis submitted her findings, including a recommendation that Diaz be returned to his detective unit, to Hawkey. Under the terms of the union’s contract with the city, the city manager’s failure to respond in three weeks constituted an acceptance of the findings.

Two weeks ago, Hawkey informed Richard Shinee, Diaz’s attorney, that he would let the arbitrator’s finding stand. Diaz said he was finally notified by Police Cmdr. Donn Burwell last week that he could change jobs.

“He basically said to me, ‘Where do you want to go?’ ” Diaz said.

There was no hesitation, said Diaz, who returned to his old job Thursday.

“I’m going exactly where I was before: back to detectives.”