Recent appointees to the city’s Police Advisory Commission say they want it to be a vigorous oversight agency, but that the executive director is impeding that goal.
The PAC personnel committee met Aug. 4 to discuss the performance of executive director William M. Johnson, who has led the PAC for seven years.
Johnson’s in a dispute with the 19-member panel over whether he’s supervised by them or by the city’s public-safety director, Everett A. Gillison.
The commissioners are community-based and serve without pay. They investigate citizen complaints of police misconduct and issue recommendations for remedial action when appropriate.
Johnson’s annual salary is $74,984. He supervises a staff of four and oversees a budget of about $290,000 annually.
PAC Commissioner James C. Crumlish 3d said Johnson’s job performance hasn’t met the commissioners’ expectations.
“A majority of commissioners have no confidence in Mr. Johnson’s ability to meet the needs of the commission,” he said.
Specific allegations against Johnson include allowing a PAC investigator to play an Angry Birds video game during a recent fact-finding hearing, not translating Miranda warnings into Spanish for a PAC meeting in North Philadelphia and being late with an acceptable draft of the PAC’s 2010 annual report.
Commissioners also faulted Johnson for conducting an investigation outside the PAC’s jurisdiction, reportedly at Gillison’s request.
At a recent PAC meeting, they asked him to promise not to conduct a similar investigation in the future. Johnson declined to do so, replying that he answers to Gillison, not the commissioners.
His reply visibly perturbed commissioners. But it remains to be seen whether they exercise supervisory authority over him.
A 1993 mayoral executive order creating the PAC states that commissioners are empowered to hire the executive director.
But the position is funded by the Managing Director’s Office, where Gillison works.
If a majority of commissioners recommend Johnson be dismissed or reassigned, it unclear if Nutter will do so.
Mayoral spokesperson Mark McDonald said Nutter had no comment and referred all questions to Gillison, who didn’t respond to a request for comments.
Johnson, 54, has been with the PAC since 1999. He was promoted from deputy director to executive director in June 2004 by then-Mayor John Street.
At the time, the PAC had six commissioners and didn’t meet regularly, partly because it didn’t have a quorum to act.
After Johnson’s promotion, he helped rebuild the agency through his trademark conciliatory style.
But now that style is coming under scrutiny by those who want the PAC to be more assertive in its police-oversight duties.
Complicating matters is the fact that Johnson’s brother, Stephen Johnson, heads the police Internal Affairs Division — an agency the PAC routinely evaluates.
According to published reports, the Johnson brothers meet occasionally to discuss PAC-related business.
Chuck Volz, an openly gay commissioner, said commissioners aren’t given advance notice of those meetings.
“We’re lending our good name and purpose to the PAC,” Volz said. “And we can’t be doing that if events are transpiring that we don’t know about, let alone approve.”
In February, an advisory letter from the city’s Board of Ethics stated that no “pecuniary” conflict of interest exists due to the sibling arrangement. But the opinion was premised on the understanding that Johnson accepts supervision from the commissioners — a premise most of them dispute.
Commissioner Edward Kung, who asked for the ethics opinion, stated plaintively at a PAC meeting: “The commissioners and the executive director are not in sync.”
Volz’s assessment was more pointed.
“Everything is a big fight [with Johnson],” he said. “We’re committed to Mayor Nutter’s vision of what civilian oversight should be: independent and transparent. With Mr. Johnson at the helm, those goals become problematic.”
Volz said the PAC is committed to vigorously overseeing police-misconduct complaints, including complaints from the LGBT community.
“We’re a diverse, multicultural board that’s committed to protecting the rights of disenfranchised communities,” Volz added. “But what’s the point of all this diversity if, at the end of the day, the executive director is running his own show?”
Crumlish said the PAC provides an important public service, given the opportunity.
“The executive order has a whole series of very powerful and useful devices to improve relations between police and the community,” he said.
But Crumlish said a new executive director may be needed to reach that goal.
“If our mission is being undercut or sabotaged by anyone, then it’s serious and needs to be confronted,” he said.
He also cautioned that a majority of commissioners appear willing to resign if disputes with Johnson persist.
His strong preference would be to continue serving, Crumlish added.
“If the mayor wants to revoke the executive order and abolish the independence of the Police Advisory Commission, then that’s certainly within his power,” Crumlish said.
Tim Cwiek can be reached at [email protected].