COLUMN: Barking up the wrong tree

I was covering an election for a newspaper in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains some years ago, and that year was marked by a contentious sheriff’s race.

The incumbent was a natural “man of the people,” but he wasn’t necessarily the brightest Crayon in the box. He’d had a handful of significant foibles during his time as the top law enforcement officer in the county, largely due to his propensity to speak without thinking — a bad habit he couldn’t seem to shake. But the people still loved him.

The challenger, meanwhile, had an extensive career in law enforcement, though his personality wasn’t quite as warm. But he was competent, skilled and a natural leader in the world of law enforcement.

At the time, I had a good relationship with the sheriff department’s public information officer, and we enjoyed regular off-the-record conversations that helped both of us do our jobs better. Well, amid those conversations, it became apparent that nobody within the department really liked the sheriff. They found him to be a blowhard who lacked the respect of his department personnel.

In fact, with weeks to go before Election Day, the local sheriff’s deputy union — which represented 90-plus percent of the staff — officially endorsed the challenger.

And guess who won the race. That’s right — Sheriff Doolittle. I can only imagine the dynamic within the department in the days, weeks and months following. Talk about a hostile work environment. But at the end of the day, they had a job to do, and loving their boss was never part of the job description.

In fact, in my experience, good bosses tend to be the exception to the rule. I’ve had a few over the years, but most of the time, “toleration” is the operative word.

Leading up to the Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department former chief Richard Allen’s retirement over the summer, plenty of grumbling began to surface on social media, mostly from a handful of officers and spouses — and former officers and spouses.

When Lt. Kevin Julian was appointed interim chief, the cheerleading began. And that cheerleading continues. They want Julian as the new chief, and it seems the self-described “new council” — made up of former MMPD officer and councilman-elect Jeff Cook, councilman-elect Shane Williams, and current councilwoman Jessica Hester, whose husband is also a former MMPD officer — want the same.

Outside a couple of brief follow-up calls related to Mooresville police incidents, I don’t know Lt. Julian, but from all I gather, he’s a great guy and a respected officer.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the right person for the job of new chief. Or maybe he is. But that question will be up to the Mooresville Police Commission’s recommendation, and more importantly, the Mooresville Town Council’s official vote.

On the heels of Allen’s retirement, the commission took the unprecedented step — by most recollections — to use an HR firm to hire the new chief. The reason? They want the best person for the job. Not the most liked by officers. Not the relative or buddy of somebody in a local position of power.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the commission was bombarded by questions from the “new council,” including Hester, ironically, who has been regularly absent from council meetings during her brief tenure on the council — including the most recent on Nov. 19. (A fact that further bolsters my own personal policy push that elected officials only get paid when they show up, an approach Greenwood recently voted to implement for all the right reasons. But I digress.)

Tuesday night, the “new council” requested that in the event the commission comes up with its top candidate sometime in the next month, they want the name withheld from the current council so they can’t vote on it.

Cook also argued that the town could have saved some money and handled the hiring process in-house.

Well, it’s amazing what result that most often produces — a political popularity contest. In this case, the writing’s on the wall on who the new council thinks should get the job, and the description still applies.

Cook also contended that the hiring process has “been put on fast forward.”

“I know it has,” he said. “I have the facts, and I knowwhat’s going on behind the scenes.”

It’s abundantly clear that both Cook and Hester (by way of her and her husband’s affiliation with MMPD) are still in close contact with folks on the department. The network of the “thin blue line” is ever present, regardless of the department patch on someone’s arm.

The underlying argument made Tuesday is that the current council is pushing to get a name so they can vote on it prior to leaving office. Commission member Danny Lundy pushed back on that notion at the meeting, as the search for a chief has been ongoing for months: “The process is done when it’s done.”

“I really don’t want to get in the middle of whatever you guys have got going on with the current town council,” he said. “I just want to do our job and be done.”

For Lundy, the commission is “trying not to consider any politics in this. We’re just trying to do what’s right for the department.”

But councilman-elect Williams gave a subliminal warning to the commission Tuesday — if the current council gets the name and makes a vote on the new chief, the “new council” is all but guaranteed to revisit the vote once they’re in office come Jan. 1 — saying it’s “not really as fair to the new chief to take over an uncertain situation like that.”

Cook wasn’t so subtle, insisting that if the current council hires a new chief, he “could be a regular patrolman Jan. 1, versus a police chief.”

The “new council” — which hasn’t even taken office yet — is ready to take control of the town and its boards
and commissions.

“Change is coming, from not just this board — other boards, this town,” Cook said Tuesday. “And we’ve got to look out moving forward.”

The power of a “good ol’ boy network,” it seems, is only a bad thing when your hands aren’t on the reins.

Meanwhile, the new chief — whomever the person ultimately is, including Julian — has already become a political position before the person is even named. And if I were a qualified candidate looking at this situation, I would be running for the hills.

The whole thing really is a shame, particularly because public safety is at the heart of the issue. But of course, politics and public safety are too often intertwined. I’ve seen it before.

~ By Stephen Crane | Editor | Published November 30, 2019 in The Mooresville Times