Questions raised about consultant’s role in allegedly tainted chief search

BRIDGEPORT — According to federal investigators, during the 2018 search for a permanent head of the police force, the consultant hired for that process witnessed some of the alleged efforts to make then-Acting Chief Armando Perez a finalist.

Mayor Joe Ganim in November 2018 ultimately chose Perez from a list of three names for a five-year contract.

Now, after Perez’s arrest Sept. 10 on charges of conspiring to ensure he got the top cop’s job, the Bridgeport City Council president and budget committee heads want to know whether the consultant had any knowledge of the scheme and, if so, whether the city is owed money for a tainted search?

“If she felt this was not right, then she should have blown the whistle,” said Council President Aidee Nieves.

“Whether we deserve a refund or not I don’t know,” said Councilman Scott Burns, a budget committee chairman.

“We have discussed it and are looking at her role and does she owe the city money in this?” said Burns’ co-chairman, Councilman Ernie Newton.

All three were talking about Randi Frank, whose Kentucky-based human resources consulting firm was hired by then-Acting Personnel Director David Dunn and paid $17,022 to help him conduct a national search for Bridgeport’s permanent police chief.

Frank has not been accused of wrongdoing and her name is not mentioned in the 25-page federal complaint detailing the case against Perez and Dunn, who was also arrested Sept. 11. Both men have since resigned. Their probable cause hearings in federal court, originally scheduled for Thursday, have been rescheduled, though no new date has been set.

The federal document frequently refers to “Consultant-1 ... who runs a company that specializes in executive searches for municipalities and other government entities (and) was retained to conduct the purportedly open and competitive examination to select the city’s permanent Chief of Police.”

Frank, who declined to comment for this story, was in 2018 the only outside professional publicly identified by Dunn and Ganim’s administration as working with Dunn to recruit, interview and narrow down a pool of candidates for chief to forward to the mayor. As such she visited the city on a few occasions for both private and public meetings, including with the council. And Ganim’s office released Frank’s contact information to the public for anyone who wished to offer feedback on the search.

“She was the only consultant we had in this process,” Nieves said.

The federal complaint paints a picture of Perez as desperate to be appointed permanent top cop but frustrated with his inability to fill out the necessary paperwork and answer exam questions. So, allegedly, Dunn assisted Perez by providing him with the test questions in advance and two unnamed police officers helped Perez write his application and test responses.

However, the complaint also states that Dunn gave some unusual instructions to Consultant-1 and alleges that those instructions would only benefit one candidate: Perez.

For example, around May 2018, when Consultant-1 was preparing to advertise the minimum qualifications for police chief, Dunn, the complaint alleges, “instructed that there should be no requirement that a candidate possess a bachelor’s degree, or any penalty for candidates who did not have one.”

“In Consultant-1’s experience, it is unusual for a police chief not to have a bachelor’s degree,” reads the complaint. “Armando Perez ... does not have a bachelor’s degree and was the only applicant without one.”

Ganim promoted Perez, who campaigned for his election in 2015, from captain to acting police chief in March 2016. Perez had publicly stated he never completed college after initially taking some courses with plans to pursue a banking career. Critics of the 2018 search at the time publicly complained that eliminating the college education requirement was done to help Perez.

“Cities across America require (college degrees),” retired Bridgeport Police Lt. Ron Bailey had said in 2018. “So why is it we have to settle for less?”

Later in the chief search, according to the complaint, Dunn “asked Consultant-1 to make certain changes to the (written exam) scoring system ... all of which benefited Perez.” Those allegedly included awarding more points for duration of law enforcement experience and forgoing penalties for not living in Bridgeport — Perez resides in Trumbull — and for not having a bachelor’s degree.

“All of these changes benefited Perez and in some cases Perez alone,” the federal complaint states. “Moreover, at the request of Dunn, Consultant-1 also agreed to award extra points to Perez for his service as acting police chief.”

Lastly, the complaint claims that Dunn phoned and sought to influence one of five outside law enforcement and human resources professionals — “Panelist-1” — convened by the city to interview the candidates.

“Dunn stated that the mayor wanted Perez to be ‘in the top three,’ ” reads the complaint. “Panelist-1 understood Dunn to be asking Panelist-1 to score Perez higher and/or to influence other panelists to do the same. Panelist-1 ... found Dunn’s statement to be ‘totally inappropriate’ (and) reported Dunn’s call and comments to Consultant-1 shortly after the panel interviews concluded.”

When The Connecticut

Post first reported that the FBI was probing the chief search in April 2019, Frank in a brief interview at the time said, “It was a professional process. It’s the only way I do my work.”

Ganim, who has denied any involvement in the alleged effort to make Perez permanent police chief, referred to Frank’s work in a Sept. 13 interview with News12. The mayor said had his administration been alerted to any improprieties, “we would have stopped the (search) process immediately.”