FAIRBANKS — The Fairbanks mayor’s office says a former city police chief did have a conflict of interest that barred him from the job.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported Friday Mayor Jim Matherly’s office said in a news release that the investigation into former Fairbanks Police Chief Randall Aragon’s personal security-survey business is complete and substantiated allegations of conflict-of-interest violations.
Aragon was accused of using his position as police chief to promote his personal business. He resigned in October.
The chief was placed on administrative leave after former police Chief Dan Hoffman asked the City Council to investigate Aragon. Hoffman said he received a report from a business owner of “unethical activity” by Aragon.
“The investigation substantiated Mr. Hoffman’s concerns regarding the potential conflict of interest from secondary employment that Mr. Aragon engaged in while employed as a full-time officer of the law,” according to a news release from the mayor’s office.
A summary of the investigation shows that Aragon engaged in work for his secondary business while on-duty as police chief.
An investigation by Russell Consulting investigation shows Aragon conducted five surveys for a fee of $600 each, all while he was off-duty and working for his own licensed business, Certified Security Surveys. Aragon also conducted four surveys for no fee while on-duty as police chief.
“Chief Randall Aragon engaged in secondary employment that presented potential conflict of interest between duties of a law enforcement officer and duties for the secondary employer, profiting from information gained through his position as a law enforcement officer to advance financial or other private interests,” according to the executive summary.
Aragon said in a statement that there were not city rules prohibiting such behavior.
“The executive summary does not address whether there were, or were not, specific city personnel rules which prohibited Chief Aragon from conducting permitted off-duty industrial inspections as a qualified, (certified protection professional),” Aragon said in the email.
City officials are reviewing the policy for employee moonlighting, and changes are planned to prevent similar situations arising in the future.
