Stop ‘getting defensive,’ Henderson city manager told police chief before firing, emails show

In one email, Garcia-Vause scolded Chadwick for being too “defensive” in her communications.

“We need to create positive changes in HPD (and) change is difficult and requires a lot of work,” Garcia-Vause, who took over as city manager after her predecessor Richard Derrick retired Jan. 21, wrote in the Feb. 5 email. “To be successful in leading the changes, I need you to refrain from immediately getting defensive when I ask questions or whenever a problem is brought to your attention.”

In the same email, Garcia-Vause also chided Chadwick for not showing up to a retirement celebration for former Henderson City Councilman Dan Shaw, telling Chadwick that it was “not acceptable that neither you nor anyone from your command team was present.” Shaw left office in January after falling short in his re-election bid, and he, an associate and their businesses were accused in a class-action lawsuit last year of issuing predatory loans and falsely representing his firm as a tribal lender.

Chadwick on May 22 announced a run to become the city’s next mayor, and campaign spokesperson Lisa Mayo-DeRiso told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a statement that the emails provided by Henderson reveal an “orchestrated, planned, and timed destructive campaign” against Chadwick.

“Stephanie Garcia-Vause took over as City Manager Jan. 21, 2025, and 14 days later on Feb. 5th, negative, accusatory and rude emails were sent to the Police Chief,” the statement read. “Any reasonable person who reads these would be alarmed by the unprofessional and threatening tone and tenor of the communications.”

The statement continued: “This onslaught of emails continued until Chadwick was placed on leave. What these emails reveal to the residents of Henderson is a management style based in a culture of fear that permeates the governance of the City of Henderson; from the top.”

Garcia-Vause could not be reached through a city spokesperson to respond to Chadwick’s statement or the documents released by the city. The documents were released in accordance with state law and “took considerable time and effort” to gather, according to a statement from the city’s public information office. A specific public information officer was not identified.

“The city does not participate in, or engage in political activities or campaigns,” the statement said.

Following a public information request from the Review-Journal and other media outlets earlier this year, the city on Thursday released nearly 250 pages of emails, employee satisfaction surveys and other documents, mostly in reference to the Henderson Police Department. Most of the emails are from early this year.

Garcia-Vause also questioned perceived “favoritism” within the Police Department. She also told Chadwick in the Feb. 5 email that she was requiring Chadwick to meet with a consultant every week to “review current operations” and to determine “what we can do to make improvements.”

Ultimately, Garcia-Vause decided those improvements couldn’t be made with Chadwick at the helm. When she announced Chadwick’s firing on March 6, Garcia-Vause said that she had lost confidence in Chadwick’s ability to improve the department’s culture and operations.

On May 28, Garcia-Vause announced that Chadwick’s successor would be Metropolitan Police Department veteran Reggie Rader.

Running for mayor

But Chadwick isn’t going away quietly. Chadwick was flanked by supporters when she announced her mayoral run last month during an event in front of Henderson City Hall. To be successful, she would have to unseat incumbent Michelle Romero.

Chadwick has her fair share of supporters in Henderson. After sources told the Review-Journal on Feb. 13 that Chadwick had been given an ultimatum to resign or be fired, some residents protested. A petition started on Feb. 15 on Change.org to reinstate Chadwick amassed nearly 2,000 signatures.

Until the announcement of the firing, the city had only stated that Chadwick was on leave. In a March 4 City Council meeting, dozens of residents criticized city officials for what they said was a lack of transparency.

Romero and other city officials have rebuffed those criticisms, citing a city policy to not discuss personnel matters.

New city manager

In the Feb. 5 email, Garcia-Vause outlined 16 measures that she wanted improvement or clarification on with respect to Henderson police.

In one paragraph, Garcia-Vause told the then-chief that her “management style is very different than my predecessor’s style.” In another, Garcia-Vause wrote that she knows that Chadwick did not “feel supported by me.”

In the trove of emails, Garcia-Vause repeatedly requested information and explanations from Chadwick and others in the Police Department. One request was for an “analysis” of all “officer-involved shootings” for the past two years.

Another request was for an analysis of all “use of force incidents” going back two years. In both cases, Chadwick wrote back asking for a 30-day extension to get the city manager the information.

The new city manager informed Chadwick she had retained leadership consultant and former Aurora, Illinois, police Chief Kristen Ziman to meet with the chief on a weekly basis. Garcia-Vause insisted she sit in on a potential introductory meeting between Chadwick and Ziman, “but thereafter, you and Kristen can meet without me.”

“(Ziman) is here as a resource for us both to help determine what operational changes need to be made and how to best improve the culture of the department,” Garcia-Vause wrote.

Chadwick’s tenure as Henderson’s police chief began in 2023, and it wasn’t without controversy.

She cleared the disciplinary record of a detective who was accused of hurling a racial slur and urging the killings of Mexicans and Black Lives Matter protesters, a 2023 Review-Journal investigation found. The detective, Kevin LaPeer, denied the accusations.

In February 2024, another Review-Journal investigation reported that Chadwick reversed recommendations to fire officers who were found to have conspired to cover up a suspected DUI car crash involving an off-duty co-worker, according to police investigative records.

Chadwick previously declined to comment to the Review-Journal for those investigations, and through her campaign spokesperson has denied allegations of a cover-up.

Refuting allegations

In some of the emails released Thursday, Garcia-Vause leveled allegations that Chadwick denied.

In an email dated Dec. 9, 2024, Garcia-Vause, then an assistant city manager in Henderson, questioned whether Chadwick “left” a conference she was attending in Louisiana to “visit friends instead of attending the conference.” Chadwick denied the accusation.

In the same email, Garcia-Vause told the then-chief that “there have been several representations that you cannot express a difference of opinion without fear of career ending/limiting consequences” in the Henderson Police Department. Chadwick replied that “there is no merit” to the allegation.

In another email dated Feb. 5, Garcia-Vause instructed Chadwick to “hand over” the “responsibilities of the department’s (public information office) division” to the city’s department of communications by Feb. 24.

Garcia-Vause wrote that the change was needed because “having a department PIO division outside of the city’s public information office is inefficient and leads to inconsistencies.”

Overworked and underpaid

Also included in the trove of documents released Thursday were results from an October 2024 survey submitted by Sacramento, California-based CPS HR Consulting that asked police employees to report their level of engagement and to list what changes they would make to the department.

The responses were anonymous, but more than 330 comments were submitted. (The department has more than 400 sworn officers and civilian employees, according to its website.) While some responses defended city and department leadership, a large portion of respondents stated they felt overworked and underpaid, and suffered from low morale.

“All management in the police department should take notice how our Chief treats employees and they should follow her example,” one comment stated. Another said Chadwick was “doing a great job and needs no further suggestions, just continued support.”

Others disagreed, with some calling for outside oversight of the department, and others lamenting working conditions that have made retaining employees difficult.

“We are one bad day away from being short so many officers that we can no longer defend and service the city like we should,” another comment stated. “There are dozens of current officers who have applications in at other agencies right now and all it takes is for several of them to get selected and this department is down an entire squads worth of individuals which would be devastating to the already depleted patrol staffing.

“This isn’t a complaint; this is a cry for help and sadly its being ignored,” the feedback continued.

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X. Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Casey_Harrison1 on X. or @casey-harrison.bsky.social on Bluesky.