mayor at odds with commission he appointed
TRANSCRIPT
Mayor at odds with commission he appointed Daniel Carson, [email protected] 9:45 a.m. EST February 7, 2015
Jim Ellis (Photo: File)
FREMONT – The mayor and three Fremont City Council members are sharply divided over a city commission'srole in resolving issues and addressing harassment allegations residents made against individual officers.
Mayor Jim Ellis authored a twopage letter to council members and city residents Tuesday that blasted somemembers and supporters of the city's Community Relations Commission, including councilmen Joe Michles andMike Koebel, as well as City Council President Dallas Leake.
While Ellis blamed Leake, Koebel and Michles for not using the commission to improve community relationsbetween residents and police, all three men fired back that the mayor's charges were baseless and politically
motivated. They said the commission had been doing what the mayor wanted it to do, which was independently investigate citizen claims of policemisconduct and harassment.
"The biggest thing is when you disagree with Jim Ellis, he always goes into attack mode," Michles said Wednesday.
In his letter, Ellis praised the police department for doing an excellent job protecting citizens and noted that officers had on four separate occasionsrecently diffused situations involving weapons.
He said he had hoped the commission, which he reestablished upon election in 2012, would work with him in the spirit of Gov. John Kasich's call toimprove relationships between local police departments and communities.
Instead, Ellis claimed, commission members used their roles to attack city police officers and disregard established disciplinary policies.
Commission members respond
At the source of the mayor's discontent, according to his letter, were efforts by some commission members and Leake to release information to a regionalnewspaper about individual police officers' personnel issues and falsely accuse the city of not investigating misconduct and harassment complaints.
"Rather than not 'doing something' about the 'problem employees,' the police department has in fact fullyinvestigated each of the few complaints that have been raised by the Commission, most of which involved arelative of Mr. Leake and Mr. (Ed) Lindsey (commission chairman)," Ellis wrote.
Leake, who is a mayoral candidate, called the mayor's allegations totally inaccurate and said he and othercommission members strived to help residents pursue harassment and misconduct complaints without fear ofretaliation.
Leake said there is a lingering sense of frustration and fear among some Fremont residents that if they go to thepolice department to file a complaint against an officer, they will in turn become a target.
The vast majority of officers in the police department are trying to work with residents and providing good serviceto Fremont as law enforcement officials, Leake said.
"We've said all along, 99 percent of officers on the force are doing what they're supposed to do," said Leake, who also is president of the local NAACPchapter.
Ellis said he directed Police Chief Tim Wiersma and Safety Service Director Bob Ward to stop attending commission meetings last year as exofficiomembers after they were greeted with open disrespect by other members.
He said he started attending meetings in their place and insisted he was not trying to take over or direct the commission's work in investigating anddiscussing concerns involving the police department and community relations.
"I started going and realized how dysfunctional the commission had become," Ellis said.
(Photo: Jonathon Bird/Staff photo)
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Michles accused Ellis of wanting to control the process and disrupt the commission's independence. He said the mayor had been aware of complaints forthree years and did nothing to follow up with investigations, a claim denied by Ellis.
Dallas Leake (Photo: File)
The city councilman said that, for years, the Fremont NAACP chapter had received complaints of police harassment and misconduct involving officers.Michles is a member of the NAACP.
Michles said he's had three or four people talk to him as a commission member about policerelated misconduct issues, but when he pressed them tosign a complaint form they were worried about repercussions.
He said the reluctance by some community members to come forward formally was part of the reason those harassment and misconduct issues had notcome to light publicly in recent years.
"If they're not willing to sign a complaint, we can't jeopardize the officer's reputation," Michles said. "This isn't a witch hunt."
Commission purpose
Wiersma said the idea for the commission was first initiated by former Mayor Terry Overmyer's administration and had progressed during Ellis' term asmayor.
The police chief said he liked the commission's focus on bringing people together, regardless of whether they were different races, ages or ethnicities, totry to solve community problems.
Wiersma said there was one community resident, Michael Williams, who had been invited to several commission meetings to address misconductcomplaints he had regarding officers Lester Daniels and Robert Karr.
Williams said he approached the commission in early November 2014 about concerns over treatment by Daniels and Karr. He claimed he was the targetof ongoing harassment, including traffic stops.
Williams said he attended and voiced his concerns during the meeting.
"All I'm asking is that they leave my family and me alone," Williams said.
During his time as police chief, Wiersma said, residents have come to the department with complaints about officers, but no residents have claimed to beracially profiled by Fremont police officers. Complaints have been about traffic stops and why individual officers had stopped residents, Wiersma said.
At Thursday's Fremont City Council meeting, Koebel also challenged Ellis' assertions and told the mayor he was one of his biggest supporters. Hereminded Ellis that he had been appointed to the commission by the mayor.
Ellis later responded to Koebel, with the mayor saying he stood by everything he wrote in the letter. The mayor said there had been six or sevencomplaints brought forward from the commission to the city administration since he took office, with all of those complaints fully investigated and closed.
He said the police department could always do a better job in certain areas, but Ellis stressed that Fremont police had performed well in resolving severalsituations involving weapons without violent outcomes.
"We don't have a violent department," Ellis said.
Koebel said he wanted to be clear that he recognizes the members of the police department have a difficult job, but the councilman stressed it isimportant to be able to look at problems independently if they came up.
Like Michles and Leake, Koebel strongly denied leaking information about police officers or residents' complaints to any media outlets for stories criticalof the department.
The councilman asked Wiersma and Ward if he had treated them poorly at commission meetings. Both men replied, "No."
Michles asked both men if he had disrespected them at commission meetings. Wiersma said no, but said Michles had not brought complaints forward fordiscussion at those meetings. Ward said "no, not directly."
City resident Delores Burel told council members that, as a citizen, she feels residents should be able to address the commission about communitypolicing concerns and not be viewed as negative.
She recalled an incident in 2013 where she was stopped by Fremont police and accused of drinking alcohol and operating a vehicle. Burel said anotherFremont police officer intervened and help to resolve the matter, but she noted that her whole reputation as a church minister could have been destroyedby the stop.
"It was a very negative experience for me," Burel said.
Wiersma said the police department investigated the incident and he told Burel that the stop wasn't meant as a personal affront to her.
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Twitter: @DanielCarson7
Mayor's viewpoint
"When I became mayor, I reformed the Community Relations Commission, which had been dormant. It was my hope that the commission would work inaccordance with city law and policy as set by the city council to improve community relations. Clearly, this is not happening."
READ THE MAYOR'S ENTIRE LETTER, OPINION PAGE, 6A
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