Millbrae police chief remains silent after I-Team finds he's allegedly commuting from Idaho
MILLBRAE, Calif. (KGO) -- The mayor of Millbrae is calling for a thorough investigation into his police chief who lives in Idaho and slept in the police station during the workweek, until the ABC7 I-Team investigated.
"It's just, you know, there's a lot of information here that is disturbing, right?" Mayor Anders Fung told the I-Team.
This situation raises so many questions, and there were tense exchanges over the issue Wednesday night at the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting. Once again, the I-Team's Dan Noyes gave Millbrae Police Chief Eamonn Allen a chance to respond in person and he remained silent.
"Yeah, and that needs to be proven," Mayor Fung said. "I still need to be able to get the facts of those allegations. And, you know, I have not heard from the chief, so that's important."
EXCLUSIVE: Millbrae police chief facing questions for allegedly commuting to work from Idaho
Wednesday marked five days since Noyes' first report and Chief Allen was sitting there during the City Council's public comment. He left right after, and the I-Team caught up with him at the police station's front door.
"Eamonn, have you found a place to stay besides the police station?" Dan Noyes asked. "Do you have any comments about the report?"
He did not respond.
Beyond the issue of using taxpayer facilities for personal benefit, this raises questions about a first responder with a 646-mile drive to work or a 1.35-hour flight.
"Not able to return to work on short notice in the event of an emergency is ridiculous," former SFPD Commander Richard Corriea said.
The City of Millbrae contracts with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services. Allen acts as Millbrae police chief, but he's also a sheriff's captain. Tensions rose over this controversy at Wednesday night's Board of Supervisors meeting.
In the I-Team's original report, Board President David Canepa said, "If someone is living out of county or out of state, they have to pay for their own lodging, meaning San Mateo County is not a Holiday Inn."
Supervisor Noelia Corzo criticized Canepa over his comments.
"I want to make sure the public knows that it is actually very common practice for most law enforcement agencies, including ours, to have sleeping quarters available to their staff," Corzo said.
Canepa explained he has no issue having beds available to deputies who work a night shift and must appear in court the next morning, for example. But he has questions about sheriff's employees with homes far out of state, who stay here on the county dime during the workweek.
"If you don't believe looking into something like this is in good policy, I don't know what to tell you," Canepa told Corzo.
Supervisor Ray Mueller had to interject between the two.
In the board meeting, Supervisor Corzo did not mention one important issue: How can these first responders quickly get to a catastrophic event - a mass shooting or an earthquake, for example - if they are at home out of state, hundreds of miles away?
Investigations are moving forward on the city and county level.
Take a look at more stories by the ABC7 News I-Team.
