Richard Wiles may be the El Paso police chief whose recent four-year tenure never got messy, kept El Paso at the top of the safe-city list and led to the accreditation of the department, but a coalition of public safety unions endorsed his opponent and predecessor, Carlos Leon, for sheriff.

There has been a lot of speculation about the why the El Paso County Sheriff’s Officers Association, the Municipal Police Officers Association and the El Paso Firefighters’ Association chose Leon over Wiles.

Wiles thinks it may have been his tough discipline standards, and Leon doesn’t disagree.

But the union leaders say the unions’ collective and individual endorsements weren’t meant to tell voters whom the officers’ organizations think would make the best and most effective sheriff.

It was, they say, a decision about which candidate, Leon or Wiles, would be best for the labor unions themselves -- and chiefly the members of the sheriff’s officers union.

And the biggest issue, the union leaders say, was probably the fact that Wiles sought the support of a break-away union established by sheriff’s deputies.

“Both are real, real qualified for the job,” Joe Marrufo, a sheriff’s department detention guard and the president of the officers’ association, said of Leon and Wiles. “What it boils down to, I think, was a labor issue.”

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On March 12, the executive committees of the three unions’ boards interviewed the runoff candidates. The next day, the sheriff’s association’s executive board decided to call a membership election on the endorsement as well, which hadn’t been done in more than 20 years.

That’s because Sheriff Leo Samaniego, who died in December, held the office for 24 years. His relationship with the union, Marrufo said, was strong enough and his opponents were weak enough that there was little need for a membership vote while Samaniego was sheriff.

Only 106 of the sheriff’s association’s 793 members voted in the Mar. 17, St. Patrick's Day election.

Leon received 76 votes and Wiles, 26.

Following the sheriff’s association’s lead -- and by prior agreement -- the El Paso Municipal Police Officers Association and the firefighters union also endorsed Leon.

Police union president Robert Gomez said the vote by his 10-member executive committee was “a large majority,” for Leon but he could not provide the totals.

Leon said the total was 7-0 for him, with three abstentions.

Marrufo and Gomez insist the endorsements had nothing to do with the two former police chiefs’ different approach to discipline.

Wiles introduced the use of the polygraph, sometimes referred to as a lie detector, in internal investigations and practiced a policy of firing officers caught lying.

“When I became chief, I started using it in internal affairs and administrative investigations, and the association hated that,” Wiles said. “It’s very useful. One piece of the investigative puzzle.

“I think we owe it to the community. When we are investigating serious cases in the police department of excessive force or for issues of integrity, you should use every tool available to get to the bottom of it.”

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Internal discipline is the only area in which Wiles is openly critical of Leon.

“I think the situation with integrity under the previous chief was pretty lenient,” Wiles aid. “If they got caught lying, he would give them a suspension. He never fired anybody for lying.”

Wiles estimated that 30 officers were fired or forced to resign or retire over integrity issues during his tenure.

“I don’t want to give the impression that the department is full of liars. It’s not,” he said. “The vast majority of people in the department would never lie.”

Wiles also used a disciplinary matrix that let officers know what to expect and kept punishment consistent.

The matrix listed about 30 common types of misconduct, such as family violence, a DWI conviction, missing a court hearing, being tardy or absent without leave. The matrix would list the likely penalty for first and subsequent offenses.

Some offenses, such as lying under oath, theft and brutality would result in termination the first time.

Asked if he would institute that system at the sheriff’s department if elected, Wiles said he might, but added, “I can’t say that everything in the police department would be a good fit in another agency.”

Wiles said he thought the union came to support his methods and conceded that he was surprised by the endorsement. He noted that the unions initially endorsed Sheriff’s Lt. Marvin Ryals, the president of the sheriff’s association, who came in last in the 11-way primary earlier this month.

Leon said he thinks the differences between Wiles and him over discipline is a big reason the endorsements went his way.

“I don’t believe in using the lie detector in administrative cases,” he said. “I just don’t feel it’s an appropriate tool to use against our own personnel.”

In general, Leon said, “Any organization takes on the personality of the leader, sooner or later.

“When I was there, I think the organization took on the personality of Carlos Leon.”

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Marrufo disagreed and said the biggest issue was probably Wiles’ decision to acknowledge and seek the endorsement of a new labor group, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputies Association, organized as a local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police -- the nation’s biggest and oldest law enforcement union.

The fledgling deputies’ association endorsed Wiles after organizing two public candidate forums that 10 candidates for sheriff attended seeking the group’s endorsement. Ryals stayed away.

Headed by Sheriff’s Deputy Eddie Campa, the deputies association has about 70 members and no collective bargaining powers.

Maruffo said he and other sheriff’s officers union leaders still view it as a potential competitor.

“We don’t recognize that organization,” Marrufo said. “I asked (Wiles) if he would acknowledge them. He said he would keep them around because they helped him with his election.

“But I wouldn’t sit at the same table as Eddie Campa.”

Marrufo and Campa say the bad blood arose over the sheriff’s officers association’s endorsement last fall of the larger union’s president, Ryals.

In the March 14 Democratic primary, Wiles led the 11-candidate field with 39,737 votes or 40 percent of the total, followed by Leon with 19,608 votes or 20 percent.

Ryals brought up the rear with 2,086 votes, 2 percent of the total.

“The deputies association broke off last year from the officers association in October last year,” Campa said. “The issue was we didn’t like the way the current association was handling things, like the endorsement of Marvin Ryals for sheriff.

“Only four candidates had announced, but the executive board decided to endorse Ryals without asking the general membership. Ryals was president of the association and controlling the executive board.”

Campa also questions the legitimacy of the St. Patrick’s Day membership election on the endorsement, saying few sheriff’s officers were knew about it.

Marrufo said word of the election went out four days beforehand and was posted on union bulletin boards in the department and at the two jails.

There were three polling places for sheriff’s officers union members at three locations.

He said he couldn’t say why more officers didn’t vote.

The deputies association, Campa said, voted 49 to four in favor of Wiles before the March 14 primary because he pushed for the certification of the police department, introduced new technology and stresses education. The group has since re-endorsed Wiles unanimously.

“The majority of people in our department don’t have a degree, including me,” Campa said. “It would be for the betterment of our department and ourselves if we did.

“And during the forums, he stood out, he understood budgets. He just has a very good understanding of the way things are supposed to run.”

David Crowder can be reached at dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or at 351-0605