from: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0413copstudy.html
Firm reviewing Chandler police knows controversy
Edythe Jensen
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 13, 2003 12:00 AM
Maximus Inc., a giant national consulting firm that will start probing Chandler's embattled Police Department this week, was a contributor to 2002 Arizona political campaigns and holds a $14 million, four-year contract to run the state's "Arizona Works" welfare-to-work program.
It also has a history of being drawn into controversial local issues that trigger even bigger public battles.
"Controversy . . . that's usually why consultants are hired," said Kenneth Murray, Maximus' vice president of management studies in Chicago. "We take a lot of pride in the fact that we are neutral and find solutions."
Just last year, Scottsdale hired Maximus to analyze the city's private Rural/Metro fire service. The firm's finding that Rural/Metro's response time to more than half of the community was longer than four minutes spurred a May 20 ballot initiative calling for a municipal fire department.
Chandler, which is paying $181,148 for its study, is the third Valley city to hire outside reviews of its police department in the past three years, following Scottsdale and Apache Junction.
The Chandler City Council voted to commission the review after complaints about excessive use of force and allegations that officer training is inadequate.
It also comes as former Officer Dan Lovelace awaits trial on second-degree murder charges stemming from an on-duty shooting. In October, Lovelace shot and killed a woman, behind the wheel of a car, suspected of trying to pass a forged prescription at a drugstore drive-through window as her toddler sat in the back seat.
Rich Dlugas, an assistant city manager who oversaw the selection process, said Maximus' size and experience persuaded a selection committee to pick the firm over four competitors.
The company is the nation's largest government services consultant, with 4,800 employees in 170 offices including Phoenix. It reported a 2001 gross income of $487 million.
"Their representatives really listened to us; they didn't come in with preconceived ideas," said Dlugas, adding that the committee liked the reviews the firm submitted of police departments in Texas and Florida.
City records show the firm made no campaign contributions to Chandler's current elected officials. But Maximus' political action committee gave $10,720 to 30 state campaign funds last year, including $5,000 to the Arizona Republican Party and $700 each to Tom Horne, state schools superintendent, and to Matt Salmon, unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor. The committee made no contributions to Salmon's opponent, Gov. Janet Napolitano.
The winners of last year's state elections will decide whether Maximus' lucrative contract is renewed in the 2004 budget. The company got a $1 million bonus in 2001 for placing 3,600 people in jobs through Arizona Works.
But the program also has been criticized for its high cost compared with its success rate. "It's wonderful to get people off welfare, but this isn't turning out to be the big savings they promised," said Senate Minority Leader Jack Brown, D-St. Johns. Since Arizona Works' inception in 1999, Democrats have been its most vocal critics.
In New York, a state court threw out a $104 million welfare-to-work contract awarded to Maximus by New York City under former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, citing "compelling evidence that the contracting process has been corrupted."
That decision was later overturned on appeal, but new Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped the firm last October. Revelations that Maximus and some of its subcontractors had close ties to Giuliani's administration led to more than a year of political battles.
Dlugas said Chandler did not know about the state welfare program or its critics; the city was more focused on the firm's other police studies.
What wasn't written in the voluminous analyses of those agencies was something all had in common with Chandler: a chief under fire.
Chandler Police Chief Bobby Joe Harris retired in February, two weeks after the council voted to commission an outside review.
Harris' retirement also came after police widows Ann Marie Neilsen and Dawn Snedigar publicly raised questions about officer safety.
Neilsen's husband, Rob, died last June when his Ford Crown Victoria cruiser burst into flames in a collision.
Snedigar's husband, James, was killed in April 1999 when his special-operations squad pursued armed robbery suspects into an apartment.
As part of its contract, added at Dawn's urging, Maximus will review the tactical decisions and training that preceded James' death.
Murray said the 27-year-old firm does about 25 police department reviews a year. He declined to provide details of its police review functions, saying that information is discussed only with clients.
Chandler officials released one Florida and two Texas studies submitted to the city by Maximus as work examples.
Geoff Whitt, former police chief of Terrell, Texas, retired shortly after Maximus reviewed his department. Former Pasco County Sheriff Lee Cannon lost his bid for re- election when a Maximus study was under way.
In Chandler, Mayor Boyd Dunn tied the council's credibility and the community's healing to an independent review of the Police Department. "We need to gain back the trust of our citizens," he said before the unanimous March 27 vote to hire Maximus.
Reach the reporter at edythe.jensen@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-7939.