NLV parts company with chief

North Las Vegas Police Chief Mark Paresi no longer will be working as the city's top lawman, North Las Vegas' mayor confirmed Tuesday.

Citing Police Department morale and other issues, Mayor Michael Montandon said the city is negotiating a severance package for Paresi, who has served as police chief since June 2002.

A combination of "policy, human resources and personal issues" led to Paresi's departure, Montandon said.

He would not elaborate but said there were issues "over the last months that we've been trying to work out, and we just can't."

Montandon would not discuss the specific conditions under which Paresi vacated his post.

"You can't portray this as a firing, but he is leaving," Montandon said.

"There are changes we need to make that both we and he feel can't be made with him at the helm," he said.

A woman who answered Paresi's cell phone said he would not comment Tuesday.

Assistant North Las Vegas Police Chief Joseph Chronister will serve as acting chief until Paresi's replacement is found, North Las Vegas police said.

Chronister and other North Las Vegas police officers declined to comment Tuesday.

Paresi's salary is $159,618.42, a North Las Vegas spokeswoman said. He will remain on paid leave until his severance package is negotiated.

Councilwoman Stephanie Smith also would not give specifics aside from saying that Paresi had been relieved of his duties.

"Everybody has their strong points and weaknesses, and unless they've done something that's egregious or a violation of the public trust, you don't need every piece of your dirty linen aired."

She said Paresi had improved training at the Police Department and had been a proponent of community policing.

But "it's a good time for both him and the city" for him to leave, Smith said.

Councilman William Robinson said he did not know Paresi's current status with the city. He said the only complaint he had with Paresi's job performance was that the chief had not done enough to recruit more minority police officers.

"He didn't do some things I thought he should have done, but there are a lot of (city) employees I feel that way about," Robinson said

Michael Yarter, vice president of the North Las Vegas police union, declined to comment on Paresi.

Paresi replaced Joey Tillmon, who retired early in late 2001.

A law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Paresi had never fit in with the department's culture.

Paresi, originally from Oregon's Portland Police Bureau, where he served as the assistant chief of operations support, was criticized for bringing in outside staff to fill a top position rather than hiring from within the department, the source said.

North Las Vegas Municipal Court Judge Warren Van Landschoot echoed what the source said.

Van Landschoot, a longtime North Las Vegas resident who has had dealings with Paresi, described him as "difficult to work with" but would not give specifics other than to say paperwork delays from North Las Vegas police to his courtroom had occurred.

Van Landschoot agreed that Paresi's status as an outsider made people within the department nervous and hurt him within the department.

"When the morale isn't there, things don't go well," he said.

Review-Journal writers Molly Ball and Beth Walton contributed to this report.

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-4638 and reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0285.