SANTA MARIA - About two-thirds of the members in the Santa Maria Police Officers Association have expressed a lack of confidence in Chief Dan Macagni and his administration.
SMPOA board members were quick to point out the no confidence vote that was announced last Friday night was not directly related to the Chief's handling of an internal investigation into Officer Albert Covarrubias Jr. and his alleged illegal relationship with a 17 year old girl.
Covarrubias was shot and killed last month after SMPD says he resisted arrest by fellow officers and then fired his weapon at the officers.
The POA says the no confidence vote was a statement by a majority of union members of what they see as a lack of leadership and supervision in the department that has existed for years.
The Covarrubias shooting is being investigated by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department along with an internal department probe of how the Covarrubias case was handled.
"People are making comments about who should go, who should stay, for me its not a matter of who should go and who should stay", says Santa Maria City Councilman and former Santa Maria Police Officer Mike Cordero who echoed other city leaders calling the current situation in the department a "crisis".
"Its how quickly we can address the problems to return the confidence within the organization and within the community", Cordero says, "we must have confidence in our Police Department and I believe that has been weakened by all of these chain of events, so we need to restore that confidence and that's what is most important to me."
Fellow City Councilmember and mayoral candidate Alice Patino says she is eagerly awaiting the outcome of an independent audit of the Santa Maria Police Department by a civilian organization from L.A. County.
The City of Santa Maria has hired the auditor to come in and examine the policies, procedures and administration of the Santa Maria Police Department.
