The Woodland City Council approved the contract for a new police lieutenant Monday night in a vote that divided the council and was opposed by the Woodland police union over how the hiring was handled.
Mayor Will Finn cast the deciding vote in favor of hiring Jennifer Ortiz as the lieutenant after the council members deadlocked in a 3-3 tie. Council member Dave Plaza did not attend the meeting.
Police officers and some council members had questions about the limited awareness of the job, which left current Woodland officers largely unaware of the plan.
Other concerns were raised about the optics of the hire, because Ortiz and Finn both work for District 5 of the Washington State Patrol.
Woodland Police Detective Terry Casey said during public comment at Monday’s meeting that the existence of the position and the plan to hire Ortiz took the Woodland Police Officers Association by surprise when it appeared on the agenda.
“This was a complete lack of transparency on the city’s part, in my opinion,” Casey told the city council.
Finn and the council members who supported the hire said there is no question about Ortiz’s qualifications for the position, which should be the only criteria used by the council when voting to approve the contract.
Ortiz has worked for the Washington State Patrol since 2006, with nearly all of her time being spent in Southwest Washington. A public LinkedIn profile for Ortiz notes she received WSP Detective of the Year awards in 2014 and 2016.
Finn said Ortiz initially applied for a lower-ranking position with the Woodland police but was encouraged to apply for the lieutenant job when it posted.
“She had already been vetted and determined good enough for an officer. Why wouldn’t I grab this person and put them in the position that would better fit their skill set?” Finn told The Daily News on Wednesday.
The lieutenant is a nonunion leadership position that assists Police Chief Jim Kelly on programs within the department and communication with law enforcement agencies in Clark and Cowlitz counties. Funding for the position was not included when the levy lid was lifted in 2019 and only became available in November when the city council approved it as part of the budgeting process.
City council split on the hire
Monte Smith, Carol Rounds and Jennifer Rowland voted in favor of hiring Ortiz. Smith and Rowland interviewed Ortiz as part of the hiring process and both came away impressed with her resumé.
“Talking to her really assured me that she comes from a place of compassion, of empathy. She explained processes to me that I had always been curious about,” Rowland said.
The three council members and Finn shared concerns that, if the city tabled the hire beyond Monday’s meeting, Ortiz would back out and the city would see the same level of opposition from the police union for the next proposed lieutenant.
John Burke, Karl Chapman and DeeAnna Holland voted against the hire. Burke had the most skepticism of the council members about the fairness of the hiring search. Chapman and Holland said they were sure Ortiz was a qualified fit, but worried about the optics and the volume of public skepticism that emerged over the weekend.
“If council chooses to move forward with this contract, what I fear would happen is we are setting the candidate up for a disadvantage, of walking into kind of a hostile situation,” Holland said.
As the regional spokesman for the State Patrol, Finn has worked occasionally with Ortiz and nearly every other State Patrol trooper in the region. Finn told The Daily News he never socialized with Ortiz outside of work.
Similar complaints about favoritism were made in 2017 when Kelly, a former state patrolman, was selected as the Woodland police chief.
The hiring contract approved by the council contained inconsistencies when it came to the specifics of Ortiz’s pay and compensation. City Administrator Peter Boyce had to specify during the council meeting that in places where multiple different dollar figures were listed, the numeric values were correct.
