Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Desia seven six Here forty five car c DE talk station.
Wacky things going on in the City of Cincinnati as
we fast approached the Yoga Bay November election. Early voting
is open if you want to change the course of
the city. Welcome back to the fifty five CARC Morning Show.
President for the Fraternal Order Police Chapter sixty nine, Ken Kober,
representing the Cincinnati City of CINCINNTI Police Officers, Ken, real
pleasure as always to have you on the program.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hey, good morning, Brian, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And I'm sure you're familiar with Cheryl Long's announcement and
statement yesterday UH putting Police Chief three cy Thigi on
administrative leave paid administrative leave, pending an internal investigation on
the effectiveness of her leadership. She said the city continues
to face serious public safety challenges that underscore the need
for stability at the command level. Therefore, I've named Assistant
(00:50):
Chief Adam Henny as the interim police chief. Our focus
remains on maintaining stability within the department ensuring the highest
standard of service to our residents. Ken, is this an
acknowledgment by the at Parvoll administration that we have a
problem with crime in downtown Cincinnati. And why is Police
Chief Fiji being put on administrative leave subject to an
(01:11):
investigation into her ability on her job when she as
I understand it, and you can correct me and for
my listeners if I'm wrong on this. Wasn't she merely
following the parvol Long directive in terms of how they
view law enforcement, you know, rethinking the police department allocation
and resources, et cetera. So she's being suspended for following
the will of the administration. Now, am I close on that?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Now? You're you're You're absolutely right, And that's the problem.
I've said it before. Chief Fiji absolutely has the ability
to lead this police department, but she's not given that ability.
This goes back to fourth and Alum. You and I
said a nauseum that politics need to stay out of policing.
And here we are yet again seeing you know that
exact very thing the infiltrating this police department is, you know,
(01:57):
having them, you know, put her on a minute straight
of lee for simply doing what she's told to do
by city administrators.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Well, your reference to fourth and ELM is, of course
that terrible beatdown situation. And I always like to refer
my listeners to Holly specifically, who was merely rendering aid
to someone who had been beaten up and got cole
cock in the face, having done absolutely nothing to deserve it.
But that was the day. My understanding from I know,
you know John Newsom, he said, Henny the new assistant
(02:26):
or well former assistant police chief, Henny who's now interim
police chief, was the one who issued the citation against
the white guy who slapped that black guy in that fight,
when the other police department said there was no grounds
for a citation on that is he the one who
actually cave them to the whim of the purv All
administration and issued that citation. He was the one that
(02:46):
was ordered to do it, ordered to do it correct.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
He ordered to do it to protect the two investigators
that were involved because they fought out said I'm not
doing it, and he didn't want them to be put
in a position where they had to stand up to
the administration, so he said, I'll do it for him.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So you're not suggested that he too should have stood
up to the administration, since there was no at least
in the hearts and minds of the officers that were there,
no justification or grounds to issue a citation.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, and what we're seeing right now is exactly that.
You know, the chief my understanding, at some point decided
that she's going to stand up to this administration and
the end result is okay, fine, then we'll replace you.
And you have to understand that this going on, This
isn't going to be fixed with a new person in
charge of this police department. As long as City Hall
decides that they are going to control with us on
(03:38):
the police department, this exact same thing's going to continue.
That's just the reality of this.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, so now I suppose you could say, well, Fiji
deserved to be placed administratedly because she refused to follow
the administration administrations and control of her destiny. They can
fire her. They could fire her if they're not happy
with her leadership role. But she's being let go because
she I thought, worked with the administration, did what they wanted. Now,
(04:06):
if Henny, as in current role, goes on his own
and you know, performs law enforcement as chief of Police
the way he sees fit in his twenty five years
of experience, and he tells a par of all, No,
I'm doing it my way. This is the way I
believe that resources should be allocated. I mean, that's what
we kind of want from a police chief, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Oh, without a doubt, you know, but this has been ruined.
Issue five has essentially ham strained every police chief from
being able to do that. And that's the problem. Like
I said, until something like that changes, until a police
chief has protections to not be fired because they are
making the best law enforcement decision that they can make,
(04:48):
not you know, being dictated by what city Hall tells
them to do. Until that changes, none of it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter who you make the police chief.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, what's your reaction to the administration? Per of all?
Cheryl Long acknowledging what we collectively have known has been
a real problem crime. They've been denying it up until
within the seemingly the last five minutes, and now it's like, Wow,
we need to get rid of police chief TG. We've
got a law enforcement problem. We have a safety of
public safety challenge on our hand. That's rather profound. And
(05:19):
I mean a couple of weeks away from the election,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah. Well, I mean it's no different than you heard
the Marror last week when he was asked the question,
do you still support or do you still have confidence
in the chief, And he goes, all options are on
the table, everything's on the table. We're not really sure
we're going to do well. Then as this progresses, he goes, Look,
this isn't my decision. This is a city manager's decision.
It's not mine. So, I mean, it doesn't surprise me
(05:42):
that there's absolutely no transparency. There's no truth in any
of this. But there's one thing that's for certain. The
way that chief has been treated is wrong. If you
were going to do this, why would you have her
fly back across the country after she just flew out
to represent this police department and as soon as she
lands tell her to fly back, and then you do
nothing and you just sit on this for days. You know,
(06:05):
if they wanted her gone, we can agree to disagree
about that. However, you don't treat somebody this way. That's
the matter at hand. Here is the way that she's
been treated. It's absolutely wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, I don't want to tea leave read into this.
They've got a meeting with her lawyer at ten o'clock
at the Finny Law Firms, so we'll find out what
the story is buying this. But do you expect that
she will be terminated and that her actually asked to
resign and that along with that resignation will go a
check written from the city of Cincinnati and the police
chief Thiji's pocket.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, I mean when they say that there's gonna be
an investigation, I said it to me, it's more like
we're going to negotiate further. Yeah, they're gonna put her
on administrative leave, so she's still employed, so she can't
go out and say what she wants to say, what's
going on, And that's going to kind of buy that
city more time to say that you're gonna take this
agreement or we're gonna or we're gonna fire you.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Huh So you expect a gag order to go along with.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
This, Well, there's not a gag order because she's still
an employee. She's just on administrative leave.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
As long as you're administrative leave, you still have to
follow the orders because if you don't, then they'll fire you,
and then they may have a reason.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Then for cause. I see that would create a four
cause motive to terminate, right, huh So, right now we're
just kind of well, I guess they're just waiting around
till ten o'clock and see what her lawyer has to say.
I doubt he's going to step in that potential downside
risk for Police Chief Dji, though, now you.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Know if she hired, you know, one of the one
of the best employment attorneys that are around here, So
I certainly expect that they will do the right thing
and that there probably won't be a lot said. But yeah,
that's that's you have to be seen. We'll see at
ten o'clock this morning.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Well, if we have the as the city manager place
to these serious public safety challenges, I guess I'm kind
of wondering because you and I are in agreement of
our perception that Police Chief Theji is being fired for
folowing the will of the pervol had been, So that
seems odd. But it seems also kind of odd that
Provol and presumably Manager Long were the ones that were
in a position to accept Governor de Wine's offer of
(08:08):
a full month every month worth of Ahouse State patrol
when they only took two or four days, originally two
and only four days. I mean that is their decision,
not Police Chiefdiji's decision. Right, So we have them to
blame for not taking up the offer of additional resources.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're you're absolutely correct. You know, she doesn't get to
make that decision. You know, that's that's the city manager,
that's the mayor's decision, and they chose not to take,
you know, everything that the highest state patrol was offering.
And by the way, it was free. I've never seen
in my life, you know, politicians that are offered something
that's free and they didn't take it.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, the Butler County sheriffs making millions and millions of
dollars off of merely housing ice of illegal immigrants that
ice picked up. We're not doing that in Hamilton County,
so we've turned had an opportunity to make millions of
dollars along those lines as well. So this doesn't surprise me. Sorry,
I had to connect that, Ken, I wants your hold
wrong because Christopher Smithman had an idea this whole thing,
(09:09):
this polaritization of the police chief's office brought about by
issue five. He had an idea, and I wanted to
bounce it off your head to see if you think
it would better this situation at seven point fifteen right now,
more with Ken Cober first, USA Insulation, the great no
Brainer product. It is Station sevent nineteen fifty five KR
City Talk Station Tuesday, Bryn Thomas with FOP President Ken Kober.
(09:30):
We're talking about well management instructure in the city of Cincinnati.
Of course, a police chief DJ on paid leave now
having been placed on paid leave yesterday, we have the
interim chief, Adam Henney, who just recently got promoted to
assistant chief, now running the police department. Ken Kober commented
on that and the reasons of the things that came
(09:50):
about and brought about Police chief Fiji's I'll call it termination.
I think we can expect that or maybe retirement. But
city manager Cheryl Long and Perl Vall decided this. They
have the authority to hire and fire the chief, the
same thing with the fire chief. Christopher Smithman suggested that, well,
at least you know, prior to Issue five being passed,
that you on the police department, the men and women
(10:11):
in uniform decided who the chief was going to be
with an internal vote. Your vote or your recommendation was
ignored post Issue five. That's in the hands of Perwall
and Long. They ignored your recommendation on who you wanted
to hire. They hired Fiji anyway, and so we see
that it's in political hands. Same thing with the fire chief. Now,
Cheryl Long fired Michael Washington as the chief. He's now
(10:34):
sued the City of Cincinnati. Most recently judged Stephanie Bowman
determined that well city manager Cheryl Long didn't give him
his due process before firing in March of twenty three,
violating his pre termination due process rates. He's now seeking
punitive damages back paying loss benefits, and it looks like
he's going to win. So Christopher Smithment solution is this
(10:55):
is not to go back to the pre issue five days,
but maybe a new way amending the rules to require
unanimous approval of all members of council and the mayor
and the manager. I guess for hiring and firing of
the various chiefs chief the fire department or the police department.
Would that solve any perceived problems with the structure? Ken?
(11:15):
Is it a step in the right direction or do
you have a different solution?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
No? I think Christopher is spot on, you know, but
at issue five, it's less about who they hire and
it's how they fire them. So previously, if you five
like a chief Striker when he was here, he was
he fell under the ffpslective Borgning Agreement, so he was
able to work absolutely independently of city Council, the mayor
(11:39):
of the city manager. They could try to tell him
what they do and his response could be, I'm not
doing it. I'm doing what I think is law enforcement
professionals best for this police department. If you don't like it,
I'm sorry about your luck, you know. And currently now
we have this system under Issue five that it basically
gives a city manager the authority, the sole authority, to
terminate the police chief or the fire chief. And it's
(12:01):
just not working. You know, We've we've seen that. You know,
we saw with James Craig. He was here for two
years after Chief Striker retired, and you know, he pushed
back to City Hall at the time, and they didn't
like that. So the end result was, Okay, at the
end of your two years, you're out. We'll find somebody else.
And that's that's what's going to continue to happen. So
I do agree with Christopher that you have to give
(12:22):
the police chief some protection from being thrown into a
political circus that we're seeing right now, and maybe that's
the that's the solution, is that your city council has
to unanimously, uh you know, vote to fire the chief.
Because I could tell you right now there are plenty
of city council members that support the chief. I've had
(12:43):
these conversations with them. They all believe the same thing
that that I've talked about that cops feel is that
she's being absolutely railroaded for political purposes. And all it
would take is one council member to stand up and
say we're not doing this, otherwise she'd be here right now.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Well, I'm glad you characterize a current makeub of council
on those lines and that you have had conversation with
the current council because, as Christopher was explaining that, I'm thinking,
you know, Purvol's probably got enough sway and influence over
the unanimously one Democrat council that he could get his
way regardless of the way the rules are set up.
But you're telling me, you know that that's not the case.
Right now.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, I've had conversations with several council members that you know,
of course have not said much publicly, of course not,
but have said listen, this this isn't right. This isn't right.
So they're trying, they were trying to do things behind
the scenes to try to get this resolved, you know.
But ultimately, if they had their feet to the fire
and they had to stand there and say yeah, yeah,
(13:39):
I agree, we should fire, or there are council members
that just wouldn't do it. So the system has to change.
The days of the chief being under the ffp's collective
bargain agreement. I recognize it that would never ever happen
in this climate, sure, but I do think there's opportunity
for change, And there's opportunity. You elect the city elects
these council members, trust them collectively to do the right thing.
(14:02):
You take this out of the hands of one person,
allow collectively for people to decide the fate of a
police chief. This is the person that is in charge
of the police department for the city. It shouldn't just
be one person making this decision. Now.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I know it's just been it's been a couple of
weeks brewing leading up to yesterday. How do you have
any comments on or perceptions of how this particular component
of dealing with police chief DJ has impacted morale the
City of Insane Police Department.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Well, yeah, I mean the cops are absolutely frustrated. They
don't know who's in charge until so last night we
finally found out, Okay, this is who's going to be
in charge. But absolutely because cops are walking around thinking
they'll do this to the chief, what are they going
to do to me? And I think the long term
effects of this, and I talked to a council member
yesterday about this, long term effects of this are going
(14:54):
to be recruitment and retention. The very things that they
were trying to focus on to get people on the door,
to keep people here are things that are going to
be certainly negatively affected by this.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
This is terrible marketing, right, Ken.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Let's put it this way. If they were in charge
of marketing for a private business, they'd have been out
of business a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
FOP President, Ken Cover. I'm sure you're a popular guy
today getting this out there. I'm sure you're going to
be well watching the ten o'clock news conference with Tiji
and her lawyer, and you know you're always welcome here
in the morning show A show, sir, I really appreciate
your willingness to discuss these important issues with my listeners.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Absolutely, Brian, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Have a great day my friends. Seven twenty five care
City Talks to You
Desia seven six Here forty five car c DE talk station.
Wacky things going on in the City of Cincinnati as
we fast approached the Yoga Bay November election. Early voting
is open if you want to change the course of
the city. Welcome back to the fifty five CARC Morning Show.
President for the Fraternal Order Police Chapter sixty nine, Ken Kober,
representing the Cincinnati City of CINCINNTI Police Officers, Ken, real
pleasure as always to have you on the program.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hey, good morning, Brian, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And I'm sure you're familiar with Cheryl Long's announcement and
statement yesterday UH putting Police Chief three cy Thigi on
administrative leave paid administrative leave, pending an internal investigation on
the effectiveness of her leadership. She said the city continues
to face serious public safety challenges that underscore the need
for stability at the command level. Therefore, I've named Assistant
(00:50):
Chief Adam Henny as the interim police chief. Our focus
remains on maintaining stability within the department ensuring the highest
standard of service to our residents. Ken, is this an
acknowledgment by the at Parvoll administration that we have a
problem with crime in downtown Cincinnati. And why is Police
Chief Fiji being put on administrative leave subject to an
(01:11):
investigation into her ability on her job when she as
I understand it, and you can correct me and for
my listeners if I'm wrong on this. Wasn't she merely
following the parvol Long directive in terms of how they
view law enforcement, you know, rethinking the police department allocation
and resources, et cetera. So she's being suspended for following
the will of the administration. Now, am I close on that?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Now? You're you're You're absolutely right, And that's the problem.
I've said it before. Chief Fiji absolutely has the ability
to lead this police department, but she's not given that ability.
This goes back to fourth and Alum. You and I
said a nauseum that politics need to stay out of policing.
And here we are yet again seeing you know that
exact very thing the infiltrating this police department is, you know,
(01:57):
having them, you know, put her on a minute straight
of lee for simply doing what she's told to do
by city administrators.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Well, your reference to fourth and ELM is, of course
that terrible beatdown situation. And I always like to refer
my listeners to Holly specifically, who was merely rendering aid
to someone who had been beaten up and got cole
cock in the face, having done absolutely nothing to deserve it.
But that was the day. My understanding from I know,
you know John Newsom, he said, Henny the new assistant
(02:26):
or well former assistant police chief, Henny who's now interim
police chief, was the one who issued the citation against
the white guy who slapped that black guy in that fight,
when the other police department said there was no grounds
for a citation on that is he the one who
actually cave them to the whim of the purv All
administration and issued that citation. He was the one that
(02:46):
was ordered to do it, ordered to do it correct.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
He ordered to do it to protect the two investigators
that were involved because they fought out said I'm not
doing it, and he didn't want them to be put
in a position where they had to stand up to
the administration, so he said, I'll do it for him.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So you're not suggested that he too should have stood
up to the administration, since there was no at least
in the hearts and minds of the officers that were there,
no justification or grounds to issue a citation.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, and what we're seeing right now is exactly that.
You know, the chief my understanding, at some point decided
that she's going to stand up to this administration and
the end result is okay, fine, then we'll replace you.
And you have to understand that this going on, This
isn't going to be fixed with a new person in
charge of this police department. As long as City Hall
decides that they are going to control with us on
(03:38):
the police department, this exact same thing's going to continue.
That's just the reality of this.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, so now I suppose you could say, well, Fiji
deserved to be placed administratedly because she refused to follow
the administration administrations and control of her destiny. They can
fire her. They could fire her if they're not happy
with her leadership role. But she's being let go because
she I thought, worked with the administration, did what they wanted. Now,
(04:06):
if Henny, as in current role, goes on his own
and you know, performs law enforcement as chief of Police
the way he sees fit in his twenty five years
of experience, and he tells a par of all, No,
I'm doing it my way. This is the way I
believe that resources should be allocated. I mean, that's what
we kind of want from a police chief, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Oh, without a doubt, you know, but this has been ruined.
Issue five has essentially ham strained every police chief from
being able to do that. And that's the problem. Like
I said, until something like that changes, until a police
chief has protections to not be fired because they are
making the best law enforcement decision that they can make,
(04:48):
not you know, being dictated by what city Hall tells
them to do. Until that changes, none of it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter who you make the police chief.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, what's your reaction to the administration? Per of all?
Cheryl Long acknowledging what we collectively have known has been
a real problem crime. They've been denying it up until
within the seemingly the last five minutes, and now it's like, Wow,
we need to get rid of police chief TG. We've
got a law enforcement problem. We have a safety of
public safety challenge on our hand. That's rather profound. And
(05:19):
I mean a couple of weeks away from the election,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah. Well, I mean it's no different than you heard
the Marror last week when he was asked the question,
do you still support or do you still have confidence
in the chief, And he goes, all options are on
the table, everything's on the table. We're not really sure
we're going to do well. Then as this progresses, he goes, Look,
this isn't my decision. This is a city manager's decision.
It's not mine. So, I mean, it doesn't surprise me
(05:42):
that there's absolutely no transparency. There's no truth in any
of this. But there's one thing that's for certain. The
way that chief has been treated is wrong. If you
were going to do this, why would you have her
fly back across the country after she just flew out
to represent this police department and as soon as she
lands tell her to fly back, and then you do
nothing and you just sit on this for days. You know,
(06:05):
if they wanted her gone, we can agree to disagree
about that. However, you don't treat somebody this way. That's
the matter at hand. Here is the way that she's
been treated. It's absolutely wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, I don't want to tea leave read into this.
They've got a meeting with her lawyer at ten o'clock
at the Finny Law Firms, so we'll find out what
the story is buying this. But do you expect that
she will be terminated and that her actually asked to
resign and that along with that resignation will go a
check written from the city of Cincinnati and the police
chief Thiji's pocket.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, I mean when they say that there's gonna be
an investigation, I said it to me, it's more like
we're going to negotiate further. Yeah, they're gonna put her
on administrative leave, so she's still employed, so she can't
go out and say what she wants to say, what's
going on, And that's going to kind of buy that
city more time to say that you're gonna take this
agreement or we're gonna or we're gonna fire you.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Huh So you expect a gag order to go along with.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
This, Well, there's not a gag order because she's still
an employee. She's just on administrative leave.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
As long as you're administrative leave, you still have to
follow the orders because if you don't, then they'll fire you,
and then they may have a reason.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Then for cause. I see that would create a four
cause motive to terminate, right, huh So, right now we're
just kind of well, I guess they're just waiting around
till ten o'clock and see what her lawyer has to say.
I doubt he's going to step in that potential downside
risk for Police Chief Dji, though, now you.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Know if she hired, you know, one of the one
of the best employment attorneys that are around here, So
I certainly expect that they will do the right thing
and that there probably won't be a lot said. But yeah,
that's that's you have to be seen. We'll see at
ten o'clock this morning.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Well, if we have the as the city manager place
to these serious public safety challenges, I guess I'm kind
of wondering because you and I are in agreement of
our perception that Police Chief Theji is being fired for
folowing the will of the pervol had been, So that
seems odd. But it seems also kind of odd that
Provol and presumably Manager Long were the ones that were
in a position to accept Governor de Wine's offer of
(08:08):
a full month every month worth of Ahouse State patrol
when they only took two or four days, originally two
and only four days. I mean that is their decision,
not Police Chiefdiji's decision. Right, So we have them to
blame for not taking up the offer of additional resources.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're you're absolutely correct. You know, she doesn't get to
make that decision. You know, that's that's the city manager,
that's the mayor's decision, and they chose not to take,
you know, everything that the highest state patrol was offering.
And by the way, it was free. I've never seen
in my life, you know, politicians that are offered something
that's free and they didn't take it.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, the Butler County sheriffs making millions and millions of
dollars off of merely housing ice of illegal immigrants that
ice picked up. We're not doing that in Hamilton County,
so we've turned had an opportunity to make millions of
dollars along those lines as well. So this doesn't surprise me. Sorry,
I had to connect that, Ken, I wants your hold
wrong because Christopher Smithman had an idea this whole thing,
(09:09):
this polaritization of the police chief's office brought about by
issue five. He had an idea, and I wanted to
bounce it off your head to see if you think
it would better this situation at seven point fifteen right now,
more with Ken Cober first, USA Insulation, the great no
Brainer product. It is Station sevent nineteen fifty five KR
City Talk Station Tuesday, Bryn Thomas with FOP President Ken Kober.
(09:30):
We're talking about well management instructure in the city of Cincinnati.
Of course, a police chief DJ on paid leave now
having been placed on paid leave yesterday, we have the
interim chief, Adam Henney, who just recently got promoted to
assistant chief, now running the police department. Ken Kober commented
on that and the reasons of the things that came
(09:50):
about and brought about Police chief Fiji's I'll call it termination.
I think we can expect that or maybe retirement. But
city manager Cheryl Long and Perl Vall decided this. They
have the authority to hire and fire the chief, the
same thing with the fire chief. Christopher Smithman suggested that, well,
at least you know, prior to Issue five being passed,
that you on the police department, the men and women
(10:11):
in uniform decided who the chief was going to be
with an internal vote. Your vote or your recommendation was
ignored post Issue five. That's in the hands of Perwall
and Long. They ignored your recommendation on who you wanted
to hire. They hired Fiji anyway, and so we see
that it's in political hands. Same thing with the fire chief. Now,
Cheryl Long fired Michael Washington as the chief. He's now
(10:34):
sued the City of Cincinnati. Most recently judged Stephanie Bowman
determined that well city manager Cheryl Long didn't give him
his due process before firing in March of twenty three,
violating his pre termination due process rates. He's now seeking
punitive damages back paying loss benefits, and it looks like
he's going to win. So Christopher Smithment solution is this
(10:55):
is not to go back to the pre issue five days,
but maybe a new way amending the rules to require
unanimous approval of all members of council and the mayor
and the manager. I guess for hiring and firing of
the various chiefs chief the fire department or the police department.
Would that solve any perceived problems with the structure? Ken?
(11:15):
Is it a step in the right direction or do
you have a different solution?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
No? I think Christopher is spot on, you know, but
at issue five, it's less about who they hire and
it's how they fire them. So previously, if you five
like a chief Striker when he was here, he was
he fell under the ffpslective Borgning Agreement, so he was
able to work absolutely independently of city Council, the mayor
(11:39):
of the city manager. They could try to tell him
what they do and his response could be, I'm not
doing it. I'm doing what I think is law enforcement
professionals best for this police department. If you don't like it,
I'm sorry about your luck, you know. And currently now
we have this system under Issue five that it basically
gives a city manager the authority, the sole authority, to
terminate the police chief or the fire chief. And it's
(12:01):
just not working. You know, We've we've seen that. You know,
we saw with James Craig. He was here for two
years after Chief Striker retired, and you know, he pushed
back to City Hall at the time, and they didn't
like that. So the end result was, Okay, at the
end of your two years, you're out. We'll find somebody else.
And that's that's what's going to continue to happen. So
I do agree with Christopher that you have to give
(12:22):
the police chief some protection from being thrown into a
political circus that we're seeing right now, and maybe that's
the that's the solution, is that your city council has
to unanimously, uh you know, vote to fire the chief.
Because I could tell you right now there are plenty
of city council members that support the chief. I've had
(12:43):
these conversations with them. They all believe the same thing
that that I've talked about that cops feel is that
she's being absolutely railroaded for political purposes. And all it
would take is one council member to stand up and
say we're not doing this, otherwise she'd be here right now.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Well, I'm glad you characterize a current makeub of council
on those lines and that you have had conversation with
the current council because, as Christopher was explaining that, I'm thinking,
you know, Purvol's probably got enough sway and influence over
the unanimously one Democrat council that he could get his
way regardless of the way the rules are set up.
But you're telling me, you know that that's not the case.
Right now.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, I've had conversations with several council members that you know,
of course have not said much publicly, of course not,
but have said listen, this this isn't right. This isn't right.
So they're trying, they were trying to do things behind
the scenes to try to get this resolved, you know.
But ultimately, if they had their feet to the fire
and they had to stand there and say yeah, yeah,
(13:39):
I agree, we should fire, or there are council members
that just wouldn't do it. So the system has to change.
The days of the chief being under the ffp's collective
bargain agreement. I recognize it that would never ever happen
in this climate, sure, but I do think there's opportunity
for change, And there's opportunity. You elect the city elects
these council members, trust them collectively to do the right thing.
(14:02):
You take this out of the hands of one person,
allow collectively for people to decide the fate of a
police chief. This is the person that is in charge
of the police department for the city. It shouldn't just
be one person making this decision. Now.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I know it's just been it's been a couple of
weeks brewing leading up to yesterday. How do you have
any comments on or perceptions of how this particular component
of dealing with police chief DJ has impacted morale the
City of Insane Police Department.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Well, yeah, I mean the cops are absolutely frustrated. They
don't know who's in charge until so last night we
finally found out, Okay, this is who's going to be
in charge. But absolutely because cops are walking around thinking
they'll do this to the chief, what are they going
to do to me? And I think the long term
effects of this, and I talked to a council member
yesterday about this, long term effects of this are going
(14:54):
to be recruitment and retention. The very things that they
were trying to focus on to get people on the door,
to keep people here are things that are going to
be certainly negatively affected by this.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
This is terrible marketing, right, Ken.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Let's put it this way. If they were in charge
of marketing for a private business, they'd have been out
of business a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
FOP President, Ken Cover. I'm sure you're a popular guy
today getting this out there. I'm sure you're going to
be well watching the ten o'clock news conference with Tiji
and her lawyer, and you know you're always welcome here
in the morning show A show, sir, I really appreciate
your willingness to discuss these important issues with my listeners.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Absolutely, Brian, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Have a great day my friends. Seven twenty five care
City Talks to You
Brian Thomas News
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