Apr 26, 2007 7:19 pm US/Mountain
Aurora Suspends Fire Chief Following CBS4 Reports
Suggestive Emails Sent Between Jones, Asst. City Attorney
Contact reporter Brian Maass at bmaass@cbs.com
by Brian Maass
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) ―
The city of Aurora announced Thursday afternoon that they will place Fire Chief Casey Jones on administrative leave on Friday. No specific reason was given, but CBS4 investigator Brian Maass recently aired two investigations detailing how Jones was golfing during scheduled workdays.
The city manager's office included the following prepared statement by city manager Ron Miller.
"This action will better enable all parties to thoroughly assess options to best serve the needs of the organization and of the Aurora community."
Deputy Chief Dan Martinelli has been designated acting fire chief.
Jones will continue to receive his salary while on suspension. Jones makes $138,419 a year and gets 23 vacation and personal days.
Maass' report on Wednesday night indicated that Jones may have been golfing even more during scheduled workdays than a CBS4 investigation first revealed earlier this month.
City of Aurora records showed between March and November of 2006, the chief made tee times for 15 workdays on Aurora's public courses. Personnel records showed the chief, who oversees about 300 firefighters, did not use vacation, leave or personal time for any of those weekday tee times.
But now it appears the chief may have actually been on the course even more workdays last spring, summer and fall than originally thought, without using leave time. The new information came from a golf Web site -- the Golf Handicap and Information Network -- GHIN, which is used by members of the Colorado Golf Association. It allows golfers to compare their scores and golf handicaps with other golfers.
A Casey W. Jones set up a page to record when he played, where, and what he shot. Several of the rounds listed coincide with tee times set up at Aurora City courses by Jones, and previously reported by CBS4. But the Web site showed an additional eight rounds of 18-hole golf played by Jones on scheduled workdays. The Colorado Golf Association said it takes an average of four and a half to five and a half hours to play 18 holes, not counting drive time.
According to the new information, apparently posted by Jones, the chief played on Thursday, August 17 at the Saddle Rock golf course, shooting a 102. On August 31, another Thursday, the site showed Jones played 18 holes at the Broadlands golf course in Broomfield shooting a 107. On Tuesday, September 12, the site indicated Jones shot 105 at the Buffalo Run golf course in Commerce City.
In all, Jones' postings on the GHIN Web site list an additional eight days of weekday golf, making 23 workdays in an eight month period last year when he apparently was out of the office playing golf on scheduled workdays.
Deputy City Manager Frank Ragan, Jones' boss, said he was not aware of the online golf postings until this week. He said the information would be factored into a broader investigation of Jones. Addressing the chief's weekday tee times, Ragan previously told CBS4 "the perception is not a particularly good one."
CBS4 attempted to confirm three of the new golf dates, but the golf courses were unable to verify that Jones played on the days he said he had.
The broader investigation began last month after former Aurora Assistant City Attorney Rob Werking accused Jones, who is married, of carrying on an affair with Werking's estranged wife, Julie, who was the fire department's legal advisor. In an online blog, Rob Werking also accused the chief of playing golf on city time and abusing city resources. That prompted the City of Aurora to hire an outside investigation firm to look into the accusations. Rob Werking was fired.
CBS4 has copies of suggestive emails between Jones and Julie Werking on city computers and obtained copies of phone records that show calls from Werking to Jones' home phone.
The emails were from Feb. 15. The fire chief and Werking, his legal advisor, were discussing a new city employee who they were told would "satisfy your needs."
Werking emailed Jones: "If he is such a sure bet for satisfying needs, perhaps I should meet him."
Jones responded on the city computer system: "I'll take care of your needs, thank you!"
Werking wrote back: "Are you sure you want to take that on? It has been said that - not time to finish my witty comment because I have to make a very important phone call."
"There are a lot of emails and clearly that does give rise to some suspicion of maybe some behavior that was not appropriate," said Ragan.
CBS4 asked a Denver area employment lawyer to review the materials. Greg McReynolds said they appear to justify an investigation into whether any lines were crossed. He said a sexual relationship between a city attorney and a department head would be unethical and could cloud the lawyer's decision making process, ultimately affecting the public.
"What if you got in a situation as city attorney reviewing the actions of the fire chief?" said McReynolds. "Would your personal relationship mean you would try to protect that person? Those kind of things would be concerned with I think."
Werking's cell phone records show she called Jones often to talk at unconventional times.
On Nov. 30, 2006, records show her phone called the chief's phone at 11:34 p.m. for a 27 minute conversation. Dec. 14 showed another call for 136 minutes at 10:05 p.m. Christmas Eve, there was a one minute call at 9:04 p.m. There were also a half dozen calls on New Year's Day from Werking's cell phone to Jones in the late afternoon.
McReynolds said the circumstantial evidence demands an investigation.
"We owe it to the fire chief to take it seriously and try to get all the answers," said Ragan.
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