Officer made demands over Fresno police chief’s affair with wife. Were they legal?

Reality Check is a Fresno Bee series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email tips@fresnobee.com.

Police officer Jordan Wamhoff’s attempt to gain concessions from the city over Fresno Chief Paco Balderrama’s affair with his wife does not rise to the level of extortion or appear to cross legal lines, according to scholars contacted by The Bee.

But from an ethics standpoint, Wamhoff, who is also a Madera County supervisor, was in more questionable moral waters when he sent a list of demands to city leaders in exchange for not filing a lawsuit, the same legal experts said.

The demands included firing the chief within 30 days, granting Wamhoff a more flexible work schedule, and the parties somehow signing nondisclosure agreements.

The Bee paraphrased the demands in Wamhoff’s text message to longtime Fresno attorney David R. Mugridge, who said it appeared Wamhoff had not done anything improper in his ultimatum to the city because threatening to sue is not illegal.

“He certainly has the right to sue the city of Fresno, and to sue Paco Balderrama,” Mugridge said. “It’s not as if he’s demanded that they pay him any money.”

Sending demands in a text message to city leaders was a bad idea, however, because Wamhoff ”exposed it,” Mugridge said. The text message may also serve as a “presumption of a waiver” of confidentiality, the lawyer said.

As an elected official, Wamhoff retains his right to file a lawsuit, Mugridge said. “The key is, is he doing anything that he couldn’t otherwise do?” he said. “Is he taking advantage of his position?”

But, the Madera supervisor has also given up the expectation of anonymity afforded to a regular citizen, Mugridge said.

The demands were ethically questionable, according to Lawrence Giventer, a professor emeritus at Stanislaus State University who has more than 40 years of experience in political science and public administration. The City Council should not give in to any of Wamhoff’s demands, he said.

Wamhoff’s role as a Madera County supervisor potentially complicates the issue because elected officials are held to a higher standard than typical citizens, he said, but the ultimatum made by Wamhoff out of the public eye alone stirs suspicion. “Nobody should be making demands,” he said.

Along with the ultimatum, Wamhoff’s text message called for a nondisclosure agreement between the city and the officer. Giventer said public business should not be done out of the public view, and bristled over the request of a non-disclosure agreement.

“That is a bunch of BS,“ he said. “If they (city leaders) caved in, they would be in violation of the Brown Act.”

The 1953 Ralph M. Brown Act ensures that matters of public interest are conducted openly, and regulates what City Council votes must be held publicly, how topics are addressed on public agendas and other open government policies.

Giventer pointed to the clash at City Hall as a reason why cities and police departments could benefit from active citizen oversight boards.

Giventer said he recommends the Fresno County Civil Grand Jury take up Fresno’s issue because it has more power to request information than regular people. They could partner with a counterpart grand jury in Madera County, he said.

Another scholar who spoke to The Bee came to a different conclusion.

Wamhoff has the right to negotiate with the city over his job if he has been passed over for a promotion or a schedule he desired, according to John P. Pelissero, the director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and a professor emeritus of political science at Loyola University Chicago.

“You have a leader of the police department who’s violated his oath of office and engaged in inappropriate behavior with one of his subordinates’ spouses,” he said in a phone interview with The Bee. “But the issue here, at the end of the day is really, who’s looking out for the public’s interest here rather than the private interest of the chief? He clearly put his personal interests ahead of serving the public here.”

City Manager Georgeanne White and Mayor Jerry Dyer said last week an internal investigation turned up no violations of the abuse of power by the chief.

The most ethical route for handling what had happened in the police department boils down to fairness, Pelissero said.

It is not uncommon for cities to sign a nondisclosure agreement with another party involved in a negotiation, he said, but it’s not always the best option.

“So you want to ensure that you’re being fair to this officer in resolving the matter in the most appropriate fashion, but you also have to be fair to the taxpayers,” he said. “And sometimes when if you want to be fair to the taxpayers, you have to be willing to disclose what has taken place.”

The mess at City Hall continued last week, when Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama, 47, announced he will resign from the city as of July 25 in the wake of the affair with an officer’s wife and the internal city investigation that followed.

City officials have not named the other officer who was entangled in the affair and described as a victim by his attorney and the Fresno Police Officers Association union. The officer alleged Balderrama had passed him over for a promotion in order to further the affair.

The Bee confirmed that the officer was Wamhoff, a Fresno officer for about a decade who won a seat on the Madera County Board of Supervisors at the end of 2022. The Bee also confirmed for an earlier story that Wamhoff sent a text message to city leaders listing demands in exchange for agreeing not filing a lawsuit against the city of Fresno, multiple city leaders confirmed.

While Wamhoff’s negotiations tactics were not unusual, according to Pelissero, the perception of the handling of the affair and its aftermath is paramount because taxpayers are watching, he said.

“It becomes an issue for the city to deal with, because it impacts the trust that the public has in its police department and in the city government in general,” he said.