The man chosen as Guadalupe’s next director of public safety has had a career filled with controversy, including several incidents at his previous job in San Diego County, but the city appears set to move forward with his hiring after solving a last-minute glitch.
The Guadalupe City Council was poised to hire Michael Cash during a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Guadalupe City Hall, according to agenda documents posted Friday.
However, those items had been removed on a revised agenda posted Monday morning, and instead the matter will be discussed in closed session as public employee hiring.
In addition to approving the employment contract, the original agenda called for swearing in Cash to his new job leading the police and fire departments in the small city at the northwestern corner of Santa Barbara County.
City Attorney Philip Sinco told Noozhawk both sides were still negotiating terms of the contract.
The next chief will replace Public Safety Director Gary Hoving, who is retiring after a 40-year-career in law enforcement, most of which was spent at the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department.
A ceremony at 5 p.m. Tuesday will mark Hoving’s retirement after more than five years leading the Guadalupe Police Department.
The new chief candidate previously led the Police Department for Southwestern College, a Chula Vista-based community college, although a Guadalupe staff report oddly left out any mention of Cash’s previous job history.
His five-year stint at Southwestern College included being placed on leave twice, including after his gun fired in the police locker room, sending a bullet through a wall and into a room inhabited by three people, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported in early 2014.
No one was injured in the incident.
He was placed on leave for more than a month and apologized to the campus for firing the weapon, reportedly at head level.
However, The Southwestern College Sun newspaper reported in December 2013 that a witness claimed Cash almost immediately shouted, “Accidental discharge. Accidental discharge,” as colleagues told him to put down the weapon.
He later went down to the ground and rolled onto his back, apparently hyperventilating, the Sun reported.
Cash later denied the errant gunfire was caused by a medical condition, according to the Sun.
An internal investigation determined the shooting was not accidental, but an outside investigator reportedly offered a different conclusion. Both reports remain confidential.
The college newspaper also reported Cash’s tenure included covering up sexual assaults, misuse of police funds by hiring friends, and inaccurate crime log reporting, a requirement for keeping federal funding.
In early 2017, the Southwestern College Sun reported community college leaders again placed Cash on paid administrative leave, and he submitted his resignation although he was to be paid through Dec. 31, the newspaper reported in September.
Lawsuits also have been linked to Cash’s alleged mismanagement, including one indirectly connected to his illegal hiring of friends who retired from the San Diego Police Department although “the college had no openings, no budget and no job descriptions” for the employees, according to the Sun.
The unbudgeted, unauthorized hires cost the district close to $1 million, the Sun reported.
In another lawsuit, the Sun said, a former student worker accused former and current employees of chronic sexual harassment and assault, including attempted rape, allegations she said the chief failed to handle properly.
At one point, Cash filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against the community college newspaper’s adviser due to the reporting about the Police Department’s mismanagement, the Sun reported.
Some of Cash’s supporters have brushed off the criticism of him by saying it came from one source, the college newspaper.
“We absolutely stand by everything published in the Southwestern College Sun. It was meticulously researched and was accurate,” faculty adviser Max Branscomb told Noozhawk on Monday.
Earlier in his career, Cash worked for the San Diego Police Department, where he was suspended four days for excessive use of force, according to a 1989 Los Angeles Times story that says Cash punched a suspect in the face even though another officer already had him in a chokehold.
Cash also worked for the National Football League and the San Diego Chargers, but those stints ended with his abrupt departures, the community college newspaper reported.
The background of the candidate chosen as finalist for police chief drew spirited discussion on social media.
Guadalupe resident Jeannie Mello said she opposes hiring Cash for the city.
“I think he’s just got too much baggage,” she said.
The Guadalupe staff report said Cash was selected after “a thorough background investigation” and that he had accepted the position.
Guadalupe was prepared to offer Cash a two-year agreement with an annual salary of $98,000. It also called for a three-month severance package if the contact was terminated early.
The small city’s public safety director and city manager are the only two employees hired directly by the City Council.
Guadalupe council members and City Administrator Cruz Ramos did not respond to several requests from Noozhawk for comment about Cash, who also could not be reached.
However, Councilwoman Gina Rubalcaba defended the council in a Facebook post Monday night.
“It is very frustrating when people want to believe newspapers as you all should know that now a days they are only one-sided and basically have become more of an opinion pieces rather than actual factual news. So take a breath and just let us walk out our process,” she wrote.
Departing public safety director Hoving said he had not been consulted about the hiring, although he had offered to review candidate backgrounds. The offer was not accepted despite his years of experience in law enforcement.
Hoving retires after bringing stability to the department following turmoil under former chief George Mitchell. At one point before his replacement, Guadalupe police officers announced a vote of no confidence on Mitchell.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.