The letter below is self explanatory but if one ever wanted a break out of how & what the turmoil in WDF&W Enforcement has been this should take care of that problem in short order. To: WDFW Commissioners, WA State Legislators, and Governor Jay Inslee
From: WDFW Detective Todd Vandivert (retired)
Re: WDFW “Issues”
We want to take this opportunity to tell you about several significant issues with WDFW (WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife) in hopes that you can help to resolve these problems, get WDFW back on track, and allow the dedicated employees of WDFW to do their jobs without fear of abuse, corruption or retaliation.
I need to first introduce myself to all of you. I worked for WDFW for about 34 years, before retiring in December 2012. I spent ~22 years as a uniformed fish and wildlife officer before promoting to fish and wildlife detective, where I worked undercover on commercial fish and wildlife criminal cases until my retirement. I have been stationed on both sides of the state, have worked both land and marine duties, and have twice received the statewide officer of the year award.
Over my 34-years with WDFW (I started with the Game Dept.) I have seen some tough times, but nothing as severe as in the last several years. Under Director Phil Anderson’s lead, I have seen cronyism become the norm, employees being threatened berated and retaliated against, and corruption in promotions and discipline. I have watched as top-notch senior officers have fled to other jobs or retired early, while the administration grew more top-heavy with “yes men”. I have watched the WDFW enforcement program virtually unmerge, back into two separate entities (marine officers and land officers) as it was before the merger of Dept. of Fisheries and Dept. of Wildlife.
Shortly after my retirement, I wrote a book (OPERATION CODY) which detailed both the most successful investigation of wildlife trafficking in Washington’s history, and the absolute disfunctionality of WDFW enforcement. As most of my experience is with the enforcement program, that is the perspective from which I will address you, but in the 2013 DOP “State Employee Survey” only one state agency had lower “(employee) General Satisfaction” survey results than WDFW, and WDFW tied for 2nd worst in “(employees) Treated with respect”, so it’s safe to assume these issues at least somewhat cross all programs in WDFW.
I also want to make it clear that I do not speak for all WDFW enforcement employees. That being said, I would guess that if you ask WDFW land officers you will find most agree with my position (but are afraid of coming forward) while most marine officers would not. The distinction between the satisfactions of marine officers vs. land officers is largely attributed to Deputy Chief Mike Cenci (a former Dept. of Fisheries officer). Cenci is, without a doubt, the most abusive supervisor I have ever heard of in state government. Many officers have pleaded with Director Anderson and former Chief Bruce Bjork to remove or at least demote Cenci, but to no avail. In-fact Director Anderson ignored those pleas for help until finally in early 2013 when WDFW hired an “investigator” to look into many serious allegations against the deputy chief. The “investigation” was (in our opinion) a sham and read as if it was written by the deputy chief himself, but did verify several disturbing allegations (other allegations were either not investigated at all, or were only partially investigated, while some allegations were determined to be unfounded). Why the director has allowed enforcement to run out of control, and even protect those whose behavior is well below professional standards is an unanswered question. Perhaps it is because those same offenders (the administration of WDFW enforcement) gave the director’s son a fish and wildlife officer job, or perhaps he just doesn’t care.
The following pages will provide you with some examples of what motivated us to write this letter, in hopes of protecting our resources, as well as the fine officers of WDFW left behind when I retired. If any of you so desire, I can provide you with written materials documenting and supporting the allegations we list below. These same allegations, and supporting documentations have also been provided to several investigative reporters with both the print and television media.
The below allegations listed have been investigated to best of our abilities but interviews and further investigation, by a truly independent law enforcement investigator (NOT A WDFW EMPLOYEE), should be conducted to substantiate these allegations independently.
Supporting documentation, for the allegations listed below, is available upon request.
1) Within months of Steve Crown being appointed to the Chief of enforcement, he fired the vice-president of the F&W (Fish and Officers) Guild and demoted the president of the F&W Sergeants’ union.
2) Cronyism. Enforcement always promotes from within, and eliminates anyone with opposing views/opinions. Experience seems to no longer be a factor.
A) When Chief Bjork retired (summer of 2013), a “nation-wide search” for a new chief was conducted, by posting the job announcement on the WASPC (WA Association of Sheriffs and Police Chief’s Association) website. The posting lasted 23 total days, including 6 weekend days and a holiday (only 16 work days in total).
B) Newly appointed Chief Crown worked in the same office with ex-chief Bjork, yet had only supervised one uniformed officer in his entire career. He now supervises the entire force.
C) When Chief Crown was the training/hiring Lt., he earned a reputation for being lazy, non-responsive and disconnected. He rarely responded to emails or phone calls from officers who were to train the newly hired officers, and often sent new officers into the field without the necessary equipment or training materials.
D) On 07/09/13 the F&W Officer’s Guild asked Director Anderson to be included in the selection process for the new chief.
On 07/15/13, Director Anderson agreed to allow WDFW officers and sergeants to assist in selecting a new chief. In an email Anderson said; “It is important to me to gain the insights from the Guild and the other sectors of the Enforcement Program prior to making the final selection. I would like to ask the Guild to designate four officers to participate in a group made up of representatives of the Program that will be afforded an hour to interact with our finalist(s) prior to my making the final selection.”
On 07/22/13 Director Anderson sent out the following email; “We have selected Lt. Steve Crown as the finalist for the Chief's position. Joe and I have offered an opportunity for representatives of the Officer, Sergeants, Captains, and headquarters Staff to interact with Steve on Wednesday afternoon here in Olympia at the NRB in room 172 beginning at 3:00 p.m. Our meeting will consist of two 45 minute segments, one to hear from and interact with Lt. Crown and the second 45 minute segment will be for Joe and I to hear from you regarding your perspectives on what you heard and the abilities of our finalist to be a strong and effective leader of the Enforcement Program.”
Before the panel, including officers and sergeants, were to convene Director Anderson had already narrowed the application pool to only one candidate; Steve Crown, even though he had agreed to include F&W officers in the selection process.
F&W Officer’s Guild President Mark James then asked Director Anderson why he had already selected one candidate without including the guild, to which Anderson answered; “So to be clear, a job offer has not been extended to anyone yet. After conducting a thorough review of applications and interviews of those meeting the minimum qualifications, we have a single candidate that rose to the top.”
At the 07/24/13 meeting (a meet and greet with the new chief), Director Anderson stated he recognized there were significant issues with enforcement (and listed many of them out), then assured the participants (including sergeants and officers) these issues would be resolved within 6 months. 15 months later things have only gotten worse.
E) When region 4 (Seattle region) Captain Bill Hebner retired, both Sgt. Rich Phillips and Sgt. Hobbs applied for the promotion. Sgt. Phillips had over 30 years of experience, had been a Sgt. many years more than Hobbs, was very well respected, had experience in negotiating tribal issues as well as labor contracts, and had served as assistant commander of the WA CJTC (Criminal Justice Training Commission) police academy, but also served as the F&W Sergeants Union President. Hobbs had very little experience, yet somehow beat out Phillips for the promotion.
F) Chief Crown recently promoted Alan Myers to region 4 Captain. When the position was first announced, only Lt. Eric Anderson (not related to Director Anderson) applied. Crown closed the position and retested, stating he would not award the promotion to Anderson because Anderson had been the only applicant, and Crown wanted the process to be competitive. The irony was that Eric Anderson had been the only applicant for the Lieutenant, when he had applied for and was awarded that position. Upon re-announcement of the captain position, four candidates applied, and Crown awarded it to Alan Myers (a friend of Crown’s who worked in the same office). Myers has a reputation of using poor judgment, and he had absolutely no supervisory experience (other than training new hires). When Alan Meyers was an officer in Clarkston, he created so many problems with the community, the citizens had a public meeting to discuss how to get rid of him.
G) Deputy Chief Hobbs, went from a 34-year old F&W officer to Sergeant, to heading up SIU (the statewide investigative unit), to Captain of region 4 to Deputy Chief in approximately 3 years. Once Hobbs was promoted to the head of SIU he was stationed in Olympia, where he remained (never moving his family, even when he was then promoted to the Captain of the Mill Creek office), until he ultimately ended up as one of the two deputy chiefs in Olympia.
3) Top-heavy. Under Director Anderson, enforcement has removed positions from the field, and moved them to headquarters in Olympia. Enforcement now has a chief, has two deputy chiefs (historically only had one), a captain (removed from the field office in region 6), two lieutenants and one sergeant in the office, for 7 total commissioned officers in the headquarters office. They also employ five communications staff members, a radio technician, and nine “administrative support” employees, for a total of 15 non-commissioned enforcement employees in headquarters. In 2000, administrative positions (Lt. and above) made up 5.5% of the commissioned staff. Now, that has risen to 8.7%. Under this administration officers spend ~35% of their work time on “Administrative duties” (including training).
4) Unequal treatment- A well respected sergeant was recently demoted because he had knowledge of one of his subordinates having handled “evidence” (it was actually not evidence, but firearms from a WDFW employee, held for safe-keeping) improperly, yet Chief Crown’s (while he was acting as a WDFW designated Property/Evidence Custodian) own drug evidence from one of his own cases, was lost, and Crown apparently never notified the defense or defendant of such, and there was an effort to classify the missing evidence as “destroyed” by preparing to incinerate the evidence envelope (but the evidence destruction witness refused to sign the destruction form since the envelope did not contain the listed evidence items). Chief Bjork’s “investigation” of Crown’s missing drug evidence amounted to having Crown write a memo (in which Crown said he didn’t even remember the case, nor could he find anything in his officer’s notebook), then Chief Bjork signed off on the evidence as “closed- undetermined”.
Recently, the vice-president of the officer’s guild (Dave Jones) was fired, in part, for the same “evidence” situation (improperly handling property for safe-keeping) as the Sgt. was demoted for.
The investigation of Officer Jones and Sgt. Phillips was handled by Deputy Chief Hobbs who, when he was in-charge of the detectives, ignored warnings that evidence was being mishandled, by a detective, during the single largest wildlife trafficking case in WDFW’s history (Operation Cody). Once it was determined that the evidence was so badly handled that prosecutors needed to be warned of the evidence issues (Brady exculpatory evidence disclosures were attached to all reports), Hobbs apologized to the involved detectives for not properly supervising the detective in charge of evidence. The very same issue (but to a much lesser degree) is why Sgt. Phillips was demoted, yet no disciplinary actions were taken against Hobbs for failing to supervise the detective who mishandled the Operation Cody evidence, and within months Hobbs was promoted to captain and then (a few months later) to deputy chief.
On 02/14/14 I submitted a Public Disclosure Request to WDFW demanding any and all written documents relating to “Evidence Irregularities and/or Evidence Discrepancies”. On 02/19/14 I received confirmation of receipt of my PDR. On 02/21/14 (two days after WDFW enforcement received my PDR) WDFW Sgt. Dan Chadwick (Deputy Chief Cenci’s neighbor and best friend) entered a pistol into evidence for Deputy Chief Mike Cenci. The report states the pistol was seized in 1992. The narrative of the evidence report reads; “On 02/21/14 at about 1230 hrs., Deputy Chief Mike Cenci was cleaning out his old files in the Long Beach Office. He came across an old handgun with an evidence tag on it dated 10/13/1992. The tag indicated the gun was seized on that date from xxxxxxxxx (unk dob). Violation indicated poss. of a firearm when under 21 yoa. I ran the name in CODY and observed that an xxxxx was cited on the same date by then Wildlife Agent Corky Roberts. Current address lists the defendant in Aberdeen now and the evidence tag had a Hoquim address. I placed the firearm in Evidence locker no. 1 Long Beach.”
When this pistol was seized by Dept. of Wildlife Agent Roberts in 1992, the pistol would have been held in the Dept. of Wildlife Montesano office evidence locker, but somehow the gun made it from the WDFW Montesano (where Cenci later was stationed as a sergeant) evidence storage to Cenci’s “old files in the Long Beach Office”. It certainly appears that for some reason Cenci retained a seized pistol, (which he had no role in, as he worked for a totally separate agency (Fisheries) at the time) for an extended period of time, then just “found it” while cleaning his office, two days after receiving my PDR regarding “evidence irregularities and/or discrepancies”, yet they demoted a Sgt. and terminated an officer for not properly logging in firearms held for safe-keeping.
Cenci has received at least four written reprimands, including one suspension without pay (for 2-days). The only reprimands, to Cenci, I received through PDRs are for: 2007- losing night vision equipment and a digital camera ($2,000+ of equipment), 2006- vehicle accident/speeding ($11,000+ damage), 2005- profanity directed at a citizen, 2005- vehicle accident/speeding (total loss of patrol vehicle). Out of Cenci’s 8 known vehicle and vessel accidents (just since 1998), he has only been reprimanded for 2 of the accidents. Despite Cenci’s less than stellar record, he has been promoted to Captain, and twice promoted to Deputy Chief.
While Chief Crown was the training/recruiting Lieutenant, he put into place a policy which disallowed officers from being FTOs (Field Training Officers- officers who train the new hires) if those officers had a founded disciplinary actions against them, yet despite Cenci’s personnel record, Crown immediately re-promoted Cenci into a deputy chief position.
In 2010, WDFW Officer Brian Alexander charged a suspect and the suspect’s wife for hunting without a license, exceeding the limit, wastage involving several elk in Ocosta. Alexander placed the bull elk antlers into evidence (in the Montesano impound yard). In preparing for the WDFW antler sale (
http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/may2412a), Lt. O'hagen gathered up antlers, including the antlers seized in the above criminal case and brought them to Olympia where they were later sold. Lt. O’Hagen photographed all the antlers he took, and claimed there were no evidence tags on the antlers he sold. When O’Hagen gave Officer Alexander a picture of the rounded up antlers, Alexander could clearly see evidence tags on some of the racks. During an evidence audit by Lt. Dennis Nicks, it was found that the Ocosta case antlers were missing. In searching for the missing evidence, Alexander found the missing evidence antlers in the photo that O'hagen took of the sold antlers. The loss of evidence was reported to the prosecutor, since the case was still open. Captain Dan Brinson was assigned to do an investigation into the missing antlers. Lt. Nicks also reported the incident to Chief Bjork in the evidence audit, but Lt. O'hagen was never disciplined for misconduct.
5) WDFW enforcement program values fish and shellfish above wildlife.
A) Deputy Chief Cenci has, several times, stated “Nobody gives a [Bleeeeep!] about deer and elk. If they are so important, then why do we give out kill permits for them?” When confronted with this statement, he will likely respond with “I have made more deer and elk cases than most officers” or “those statements were taken out of context”, but it’s difficult to understand in what context a deputy chief of fish and wildlife enforcement would feel that statement is appropriate.
B) The statewide investigative unit (Detectives) has spent a disproportionate amount of time, effort and money on shellfish (primarily geoduck), yet makes very few actual geoduck cases.
C) Director Anderson came from a fisheries background (Pacific Fisheries Management Council, charter captain), as did Cenci (who came from Dept. of Fisheries).
6) I have three different sworn and signed statements, from officers who spoke directly with Officer Apple and/or read Apple’s original report to support the following (even though the documentation I presently have does not include the original report referred to in this section): WDFW Officer Mike Apple recently made a strong criminal case of illegal trapping of otter on Vashon Island, including surveillance video of the suspect with the illegal traps, but Captain Alan Meyers apparently instructed Apple to not file charges (likely because of fear of potential political fallout). On 04/30/14 I submitted a PDR for the case report (report # 14-001121). According to officers who spoke directly with Officer Apple; a couple of days after the PDR was filed, Captain Myers reportedly ordered Officer Apple to change his case report so that it would not show that Myers had instructed Apple to resolve the serious wildlife violation with a verbal warning. Apple refused to change the report. On 05/06/14 I received the PDR response including case report 14-001121, which had apparently been altered and no longer made reference to Captain Myers telling Apple to resolve the crime with a warning. Officer Apple stated he did not make the changes to the report, yet the report was changed. Someone from WDFW changed Officer Apple’s report, then WDFW sent me the PDR response which worked more favorably for the administration. If WDFW employees altered an official police report, then purposely sent me an altered inaccurate response to my PDR, those actions would likely constitute a crime.
7) Disclosure of confidential information to the media by WDFW administrators- On Sept. 18th 2012, DC Cenci was on television and internet telling the world (at 11:15 am) about an undercover WDFW case (Operation Cody) and the warrants which would be served across the state that same date. Many warrants were scheduled to be served later that same day (as late as 7pm), yet Cenci warned the state (by way of the media) about the warrants; thus jeopardizing the case evidence as well as his own officer’s safety;
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Raids-target-alleged-wildlife-poachers-170212656.htmlThe above-listed release of confidential information was certainly not the only incident of such Cenci has made, but perhaps the most egregious in that it also violated a written contract (Cooperative Agreement) between the US Fish and Wildlife Service and WDFW.
On 06/29/11, WDFW Chief Bjork and USFWS Special Agent in Charge (Paul Chang) signed a case specific contract/agreement for Operation Cody. Section IV I states; “All press releases associated with this investigation shall be reviewed and approved by the Special Agent in Charge of Region 1 and Chief of WDFW and will be released only upon mutual agreement of both. All press releases will be coordinated with the appropriate State District Attorney and US Attorney’s Office.” No such approval was made for Cenci’s new releases, nor were the US Attorney’s Office or the USFWS even contacted about such.
After the initial news release, regarding Operation Cody, Cenci conducted other media releases (also without clearing the releases with the US Attorney or the USFWS), including a radio interview in-which he describes a portion of Operation Cody which was a federal investigation of paddlefish caviar (strictly a federal crime), and untruthfully described the suspects as engaged in international smuggling (there was no indication the caviar had entered international markets);
http://kuow.org/post/back-alley-caviar . Apparently Cenci either spoke about the case without bothering to check his facts, or he embellished the truth because “international smuggling” sounded better than the truth.
In response to a PDR I submitted (asking for the internal investigative report of Crown’s missing drug evidence) WDFW provided a suspect’s complete confidential criminal history, including his conviction records. WDFW redacted the suspect’s social security number, but left all remaining information in-place, including his name and date of birth (WDFW actually did this on two of the PDR returns). This is a violation of RCW 10.97 (Washington State Criminal Records Privacy Act) punishable by a criminal misdemeanor and potential loss of criminal history access.
8) Quoted from retired WDFW Sgt. Matt Nixon- “I heard him (Cenci) direct HQ staff to change timesheet coding to reflect the spending of federal grant money in ways it were not worked. I heard him direct investigators to find crimes committed by tribal members to embarrass the tribes publicly. I believe a forensic audit of the program's use of federal monies would show vast abuse of overtime and misdirected funds.”
9) Under Bjork and Cenci’s administration, F&W Officer changed to “F&W Police Officer”. The change was more than just a change of title, as WDFW Officers are now praised for law enforcement work which has nothing to do with WDFW’s mandate to “To preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities”.
While most officers did not object to the title change, they have found they are now spending far less time doing what the general public expects of them; catching poachers, and more time seeking out violations of “general authority” crimes. WDFW “Police” are now rewarded for working duties outside of F&W violations; officers are also being praised for spending huge amounts of time on marijuana eradication, traffic violations, check fraud, metal theft, etc., all the while spending less time working fish and wildlife crimes.
10) Many officers and Sergeants are retiring early, to escape the abuse and mismanagement.
11) WDFW Officer Dave Jones, as the F&W Officer Guild vice-president, pushed for Director Phil Anderson to conduct an investigation into multiple allegations of wrong-doing by Deputy Chief Cenci. For months, Director Anderson refused to investigate and when Anderson finally conducted an “investigation” it was incomplete and biased. Months after Jones pushed through an investigation of Cenci, Jones was fired.
12) Loss of officers in the field- WDFW continues to shift officers from the field to administrative positions. In 1997 WDFW had ~122 F&W officers in the field. Currently WDFW has ~96 officers in the field, a reduction of over 23%, despite the fact the legislature has funded “additional F&W officer positions”.
13) Cenci interjecting himself into WDFW investigations- Due to his love of cameras and the media (as well as the money he receives from unnecessary travel expenses) Cenci frequently interjects himself into WDFW investigations, at the take-down stage. Multiple times a year Cenci interjects himself into WDFW high profile investigations or patrols, normally at the culmination of the cases. He does so without always bothering to attend briefings and reading all the applicable reports, but rather shows up and takes over, normally taking the lead role in the interview/interrogations of key suspects, then stands before the media to brag about WDFW’s success. In no other large law enforcement agency, does the deputy chief interject himself or herself in such a manner, as doing so is unnecessary and can jeopardize the success of the operation (i.e.- interrogation of key suspects without full knowledge of the case, can lead to missed opportunities for full confessions). Also; such behavior costs the state unnecessary travel expenses.
Cenci also misleads younger officers into inappropriate behaviors. One such example seemed to have occurred in the San Juan Islands, in November of 2013, when Cenci came all the way from Olympia to lead a routine deer decoy patrol on Lopez Island. It is our understanding that under Cenci’s supervision the decoy deer team (consisting of Officer Rosenberger, Officer Stout, and Cenci) trespassed and placed a decoy deer on the private property, in hopes of enticing suspects into unlawfully shooting the decoy deer, but the landowner caught the officers trespassing on his property (this information has not yet been verified, due to those involved being totally supportive of Cenci (all marine officers)).
14) Reckless driving- Cenci has a well-earned reputation for reckless driving. Cenci has reported at least 5 vehicle accidents, in state owned vehicles, since 2000 and an additional one in 1998 (it is unknown if there are additional unreported accidents). Cenci has also been involved in at least 2 boating accidents/incidents, and has been stopped for speeding. In several of Cenci’s vehicle accidents, he admitted to speeding and/or reckless driving. These accidents have cost the state 10’s of thousands of dollars, but fortunately have not yet hurt or killed any citizens. Cenci’s accident record is rather impressive considering he spends the majority of his time behind a desk.
15) Promotions- Several promotions were custom made for specific officers- examples: Chris Clementson (a personal friend of now retired Captain Volz’s). Captain Volz crafted the Detective job announcement to Clementson’s background and geographical location, told SIU detectives he was going to make Clementson the next detective, and reduced minimum qualifications (as Clementson came nowhere near the existing minimum qualifications), then announced (at a retirement luncheon with the chief and deputy chief present) that Clementson would be the next detective, before the position announcement even came out.
Deputy Chief Cenci “self-demoted” to captain when Chief Bjork retired, but weeks later when Steve Crown was appointed the chief, Crown gave Cenci a deputy chief position back without even announcing the position, or interviewing for it. Crown also created a second deputy chief position, which he held interviews for.
Several years ago, Charles “Alan” Myers (now Captain Myers) said this about the promotional process in WDFW (under Cenci and Bjork’s leadership): “Charles Myers wrote: I had some experience recently in interviewing for a detective position this past summer. I interviewed for the position that was filled by Brad Rhoden. Anyone planning on applying for the position needs to know some things right up front. For example, If you are not networked in with anyone from SIU, especially Ed Volz do not bother applying. Until and unless someone from SIU is your children's god-parent, or something else just as intimate, it will be a waste of time. Also, get a heads up on the interview questions. They ask you questions that demand that you have extensive commercial investigation experience and knowledge. Also, check and see who was already pre-ordained to fill the spot. This is relatively easy information to find out. It seems that most know ahead of time who is more apt to be given the golden pass. If it's not you, then don't bother, unless you're just a sucker like me who was looking for a soul crushing, ego stomping experience to have. But, don't cry for me Argentina. I should have done more to prepare myself. Like move to the west side and become marine officer for one. That definitely would have helped.” Shortly after writing this email, Officer Myers took an undesirable office job in Olympia which allowed him to gain access to the administrative inner circle. He then was quickly promoted up the ladder to Captain.
16) Investigation of Deputy Chief Cenci- When guild representative (Officer Dave Jones) was investigated for an allegation of inappropriate behavior, the investigation was handed to WSP and the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office. When WDFW finally investigated Deputy Chief Cenci, a private attorney was hired by WDFW to conduct the “investigation”; many witnesses were not contacted, and the report was badly skewed and incomplete.
17) Wasting money by retaining unused vessels- One large patrol vessel (vessel #1- protected by Cenci) is believed to have zero hours from November 2010 through June 2011, but the moorage bill for that vessel is over $380 per month for it to just sit there. That is well over $3,000 in moorage costs alone (not including power and maintenance), over 8 months for an unused vessel.
18) Petition- In late March 2014, retired WDFW Detective Todd Vandivert started a petition to remove Director Anderson, Chief Crown and Deputy Chief Cenci (this was at least the second petition to remove Cenci, as the citizens of his own county had one going in 2006). Vandivert obtained well over 1,000 signatures in the first week! Many present and past WDFW employees signed the petition.
19) WDFW employees have been harassed by WDFW administration for supporting the petition to remove the administration, including a WDFW office worker who was brought to tears by administrators (including Captain Myers) for “liking” the petition on her personal Facebook page; in what seems to be a clear violation of freedom of speech.
20) Many WDFW employees voiced support for the petition to remove administrators, but would not sign it due to a valid fear of retaliation.
21) WDFW Officers have been ordered to not have any contact with myself or Officer Dave Jones, as we are both known to be involved in investigating wrongdoing by WDFW enforcement personnel.
22) Almost all of the marine officers support the administration, and very few land officers support them, which shows clear favoritism towards marine issues and programs.
In an 04/12/13 letter to Director Anderson, the F&W Officers’ Guild attorneys stated “Upon review of this investigation, it appears that the following allegations against Cenci are SUSTAINED by the investigator, or SUPPORTED by the investigative report” (Director Anderson was made aware of the investigative report findings on March 12th 2013):
23) Cenci failed to file a WDFW boating accident report for a boating accident he had at Seafair.
24) Cenci engaged in sexual intercourse, with a dept. employee, while at work.
25) Cenci called a female officer a “bitch”.
26) Cenci commented, in a restaurant, about a waitress’ breasts.
27) Cenci called officers (including a female officer) “cowards” and “pussies” for not jumping into the water to find a missing boater, and failed to listen to their explanation of why they did not do so.
28) Cenci has, on different occasions, told officers “you don’t know @#$#”
29) Cenci made a comment, in reference to a Sgt., that he was “going to kick his ass”.
30) Cenci has stated, several times when discussing work priorities, “Nobody gives a [Bleeeeep!] about deer and elk” and “if it doesn’t have fins, it doesn’t mean [Bleeeeep!]”.
In Director Anderson’s response letter to the F&W Officers Guild (regarding the Cenci “investigation”), Anderson ended his letter by stating; “From the Department’s perspective this concludes the matters associated with the allegations of unethical and unlawful actions on the part of either Chief Bruce Bjork or Deputy Chief Mike Cenci. It is regrettable that these two outstanding and dedicated employees were subjected to these type of unwarranted allegations.”
As you digest and process the above-listed information, keep in mind that WDFW just demoted an outstanding sergeant (Rich Phillips) and terminated a dedicated K-9 officer (Dave Jones). The sergeant was demoted for failure to supervise Officer Jones (because the Sgt. had knowledge that Officer Jones had allegedly not properly handled “safe-keeping property”). Officer Dave Jones (the officer who initiated the investigation of Deputy Chief Cenci) was terminated, in part, for not properly handling property held for safe keeping. Yet Chief Crown mishandled drug evidence, Deputy Chief Cenci “found” a pistol in his files, which had been missing for 22 years, and Deputy Chief Hobbs (who conducted the investigations of Sgt. Phillips and Officer Jones) had himself failed to supervise one of his subordinates resulting in severe evidence issues in a major case. We don’t think we need to point out the hypocrisy of the WDFW administration terminating/demoting employees for the same, more serious, acts they have committed themselves.
What saddens me the most it that for 25+ years, when any young college student would ask me what it’s like to be a Fish and Wildlife Officer in Washington, I always answered; “It’s the best job on earth”. Now, I (like many others) tell them to look elsewhere.
We sincerely thank all of you for your attention to these serious issues, and I will avail myself to questions, comments or requests for supporting documentation.
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