The supervisor with the Denver Sheriff’s Department looked at Ed Bagwell’s Teamsters shirt and said: “Nice bowling shirt.” Bagwell looked back at the supervisor’s uniform and muttered under his breath, “Nice clown suit.”
The fight was on.
Matters got so tense during this predisciplinary hearing for a deputy who Bagwell represented that the team of supervisors in the Sheriff’s Department ended up aborting the meeting and shunting the matter over to internal affairs for further investigation.
In an era of budget cuts and tightened discipline standards, Bagwell and the Teamsters are looking to organize deputies.
About 125 of the city’s 760 sheriff’s deputies, in search of a more aggressive defense, have turned to the Teamsters to represent them in discipline matters this year.
What they get is Bagwell, Local 17’s director of the public-services division, a stocky, no-holds-barred fighter.
During one predisciplinary meeting with a parks and recreation supervisor, Bagwell got so mad he urged the supervisor to take it outside, promising, “I guarantee I’ll be the only one who ends up coming back inside.”
His behavior during that meeting and another one so offended an assistant city attorney that the attorney wrote a letter to Bagwell’s boss, Michael Simeone, complaining about Bagwell’s “unnecessarily hostile and inappropriate behavior.”
The assistant city attorney reported that Bagwell, when he was urged to tone it down during one meeting, thundered: “You have no idea how aggressive I can be.”
While that message is roiling the city attorney’s office, which is more used to dissecting legal briefs than dealing with such theatrics, it is resonating at the Sheriff’s Department, where deputies are angry about firings due to budget cuts and the prospect of stricter discipline standards.
A group of deputies wants the Teamsters to take over work done by the Fraternal Order of Police, the union that has handled collective bargaining for the deputies since 1993 and defended them in most discipline cases. A third union also exists, but the momentum is with the Teamsters, which signed up more than 100 deputies so far this year.
William Lovingier, director of corrections, said he thinks the dispute is less related to a tougher stance on discipline and more to the FOP’s decision to conduct a petition drive seeking to expand the law-enforcement powers of deputies, a move that increased the union’s dues. A third of the FOP deputies voted against the petition drive.
“I wouldn’t say the Teamsters are any more confrontational than the other two unions,” Lovingier said.
Capt. Frank Gale, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he thinks his union will succeed in staving off the Teamsters. A switch in who handles collective bargaining would occur only if more than half of the 760 deputies voted for the Teamsters. Twice before, the Teamsters have failed to reach that threshold, Gale said.
Deputies who want the Teamsters can pay a prorated amount of their union dues to the Teamsters to ensure legal representation on criminal matters, civil litigation and in discipline cases. They pay another prorated amount to the FOP for handling salary negotiations.
“They seem to assert that we’re not tough enough,” Gale said of the Teamsters. “I think our record speaks for itself.”
Gale pointed out that his union beat Mayor John Hickenlooper’s administration in arbitration and sued the mayor in an attempt to block his firing of 11 deputies to save money.
“I think we have in case after case shown that we are willing to fight what we think is a fight,” he said.
Some deputies have rallied around Deputy Christopher Pratt, accused of lying about what he saw when he was a passenger in a car driven by another deputy. The other deputy, who has since resigned, was accused of using a fake siren in the private car to make traffic stops.
Pratt recently switched some dues from the FOP so the Teamsters could defend him in his discipline hearings.
Sgt. Rob Petrie said he also turned to the Teamsters because he thinks an outside organization will be more willing to challenge the administration.
“People are fed up with status quo politics,” Petrie said. “It’s time for a change.”
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
