An Editorial...Abusing the Police Chief
The new GrovePAC dominated City Council is taking out its licks on Ivan Devitt, currently the Chief of Police in Grove, simply because he was appointed by former city manager Bill Galletly. This childish behavior is unbefitting adults elected by the people. Is it really necessary that the council take their grievances out on Devitt, who by most standards has done an outstanding job since he was appointed last August.
In eight months on the job, Chief Devitt has upgraded the police department offices with new carpet and paint, created two new offices, moved the municipal courtroom to the city hall, obtained new vests, and a new radar trailer, to mention a few items. He spent 18 years on the Houston, TX police force, retired, moved to Grove, and was not seeking the job when former Police Chief Mark Wall was fired by Galletly. Councilman Larry Parham questions Devitt's qualifications to be Chief. But did Parham ever question the qualifications of the former chief?
Devitt is working to bring the long neglected department up to standards, seeking four new officers, new vehicles, in-camera videos, higher salaries for his employees including the assistant chief, dispatcher, animal control officer and records clerk. At current salaries, the department has been unable to attract or even retain quality personnel. Chances are your trash man makes more than most people at the Grove PD. And average calls per month have gone from 1299 in 2004 to 1895 so far in 2007.
Devitt proposes adding four new vehicles to the fleet, four-wheel drive; the DARE vehicle, the VIP vehicle, and the animal control vehicle, a '98 model with more than 110,000 miles on it. He also wants a fingerprint scanner and in-car video cameras, some new laptop computers, narcotics enforcement equipment, firing range improvements, tasers, rifles, body armor, digital cameras for use at crime scenes and accidents…the list goes on. He also wants to put in a Fitness Incentive Program and Continuing Education Program, plus a photo ID Badge maker for city employees.
The Council, in its Budget sessions, should find ways to give the police department the salaries, staffing and tools that it needs for the safety of all Grove citizens. Several made campaign promises to do so.
And, four councilmen need to get over their childish animosity towards Devitt, lest their Mama's take them out back behind the woodshed and give them a 'whippin.
In eight months on the job, Chief Devitt has upgraded the police department offices with new carpet and paint, created two new offices, moved the municipal courtroom to the city hall, obtained new vests, and a new radar trailer, to mention a few items. He spent 18 years on the Houston, TX police force, retired, moved to Grove, and was not seeking the job when former Police Chief Mark Wall was fired by Galletly. Councilman Larry Parham questions Devitt's qualifications to be Chief. But did Parham ever question the qualifications of the former chief?
Devitt is working to bring the long neglected department up to standards, seeking four new officers, new vehicles, in-camera videos, higher salaries for his employees including the assistant chief, dispatcher, animal control officer and records clerk. At current salaries, the department has been unable to attract or even retain quality personnel. Chances are your trash man makes more than most people at the Grove PD. And average calls per month have gone from 1299 in 2004 to 1895 so far in 2007.
Devitt proposes adding four new vehicles to the fleet, four-wheel drive; the DARE vehicle, the VIP vehicle, and the animal control vehicle, a '98 model with more than 110,000 miles on it. He also wants a fingerprint scanner and in-car video cameras, some new laptop computers, narcotics enforcement equipment, firing range improvements, tasers, rifles, body armor, digital cameras for use at crime scenes and accidents…the list goes on. He also wants to put in a Fitness Incentive Program and Continuing Education Program, plus a photo ID Badge maker for city employees.
The Council, in its Budget sessions, should find ways to give the police department the salaries, staffing and tools that it needs for the safety of all Grove citizens. Several made campaign promises to do so.
And, four councilmen need to get over their childish animosity towards Devitt, lest their Mama's take them out back behind the woodshed and give them a 'whippin.
Labels: Editorials
posted by Editor | 1:10 AM
9 Comments:
Why was their no outcry when mr.
Galletly was taking his animosity
of the previous adminstration on
the employees, Gary Metcalf, Gary
Dunham, Duane Brown, Jeannie Culley, Mark Wall etc. All they
did to Mr. Galletly was work for
the previous city manager and
several different city councils for
seventeen years.
Dear Editor:
The election is over, and the side you supported lost. Now it is beginning to look like sour grapes.
Exactly what are the Grove councilmen doing with regard to Chief Devitt that you find objectionable? I find only very vague generalities upon which you are criticizing the council.
You say Mr. Parnam is questioning the qualifications of the chief. What specifically is Mr. Parnam questioning, and how does it fall outside of his responsibility as a councilman? We should keep in mind that if Mr. Parnam is concerned about the qualifications of the police chief, it is his responsibility to appropriately confront the issue.
Further, you accuse the four councilmen of childish animosity toward the chief, but provide absolutely no specifics. If the specifics exist, please lay them out.
The city council was elected by the citizens. The citizens knew full well that these councilmen were supported by the Grove PAC, yet the citizens elected them anyway. It sounds like the citizens were on the same wave length as the Grove PAC on the issues.
Through their election, the councilmen now have the responsibility and the authority to set city policy, and they can expect city employees to either follow their policies or the council has an obligation to remedy the problem.
The voters decided they wanted to make some changes at City Hall. The changes have started via a clear mandate from the people. The losing side might not like it, but that is simply how democracy works.
You must have a reading deficiency. The article clearly pointed out that four councilmen are going after Chief Devitt to get back at Galletly, with the Grove public safety to suffer. Your assumption that the voters wanted some changes at city hall is overreaching...Larry Parham did not even carry his own Ward. Council may not fire the police chief, as he reports to the City Manager, so making his life difficult is the weapon of choice.
As for Mr. Galletly, perhaps he had good reasons to fire the employees named above, perhaps not, but at least he did not endanger the citizens by taking cheap shots at bystanders.
Council should at least have the balls to vote on the issue instead of letting it die for lack of a second.
The Editor
So much for moderation. Another Galletly legacy as far as I can tell. It seems to me that Mr. Galletly has so polarized the community that moderation is not possible in local government. And you Mr. Editor, while I applaud your alternative coverage of the local news, are helping to perpetuate this nonsense by making note of the every little wink and slight of hand of the new council. The change was sorely needed and now a good dose of moderation would go a long way toward a better Grove. And that goes for both sides.
All we can say is "what's good for the goose is good for the gander."
Would you prefer that we give a free pass the next four years to the new council and city manager?
A watchful eye should be kept on government officials no matter who they are. Please be aware also that most of the previous dust ups occurred before we moved to Grove or even started the blog. We will see what kind of moderation is presented at next week's joint GMSA-Council meeting.
The Editor
You are certainly right in saying that the new council is in and the former members are out..
So, what's the big deal? It looks like the new members are being micromanaged by Mr. Parham, who seems to have a personal vendetta
against employees that were hired during Mr. Galletly's tour of duty.
I would really like to see our new council get on with the future of Grove instead of looking under rocks to see how much more turmoil they can cause our city. Do what they were elected to do and make us proud to be residents of a great small city.
It is still amazing that members of the Grove Pac all have one name when it comes to writing comments on this blog. Anonymous said seems to be the name of choice. Why don't you have the balls to come out in the open and let everyone know who you are. Are you ashamed to be known???????
Editors Note:
You may have noticed that Google has changed the blog format, and now stories can be categorized for easy look-up later; for example, all city council stories are labeled City Council and will be grouped together.
Re comments: Google also has installed a smell sensor. It will automatically detect:
Will the comment pass the smell test, or
is the comment strictly bullshit.
If the comment fails in either case, it will not appear on the blog.
"What's fair for the goose is fair for the gander."
Sure. But from here, it looks like the Grove Observer is nit-picking the current council, while the Observer has consistently prefers to overlook conduct on the part of the last city manager and council that, when litigated, lest we forget, was in fact confirmed as illegal.
The best example of ridiculous nit picking is the Observer criticizing the council for letting the proposed ordinance regarding smoking at an accident scene die for lack of a second. A motion that lacks support from all but one council member is not going to get a second and will die. That is the way it works. There is absolutely no obligation for every proposed motion to get a second. In fact, in none of the other four councilmen supported the motion, we would expect it to die for lack of a second.
Apparently the Observer would now twist Robert's Rules to throw a barb toward the opposition. This is certainly not even an issue of any great importance, and so what if the council disagrees with the police chief, fire chief, and city attorney on this point? These city employees implement policy. They don't make policy. These employees have a right to their opinions and have been heard, but at the end of the day, the council makes policy.
So far, I see no evidence that the new council is doing anything more than tending to city business in a manner consistent with their best judgment. Some decisions may not please all (and none of their decisions appear to please the Observer), but so what.
Unlike the recent past, under the new council, there have been no potentially libelous attacks on private citizens, no attempts to withhold records and close meetings in violation of the Open Meetings Act, no accusations of bid splitting, and no wholesale turn-over in key city positions to build an empire of cronies. (By the way, if a majority of the new council lacks confidence in the qualifications of the police chief, as is alleged by the Observer, it is the duty of the council to deal with the issue.)
To date, the Observer has simply opposed everything the new council has supported, and supports everything the new council has opposed. In my opinion, the absolute worst aspect of the last regime wasn't the details of what they did, but the animosity created within the community by their aggressive, secretive, and dictatorial style. By its arguably blind criticism of the new councilmen, the Observer continues to feed this animosity.
A side note to Mr. Miller: I am not a member of the Grove PAC. In fact, I am not aware that I know anyone who is. To my knowledge, I have never met any of the current councilmen.
A second side note: am I too sensitive by observing that the vulgar language that has crept onto the Observer demeans the quality of these discussions? I suggest we have a better dialogue if we avoid the vulgarities.
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