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Since when is the city marshal a hostile witness?
- On Jan. 23, 2012, Ron Kelley took the police department to task for its handling of noise ordinance violations. In a regularly-scheduled city council meeting, the city councilman claimed to be “amazed” that the police department was not able to enforce the city’s noise ordinance. (It seems that an attorney for the state told City Marshal Mark Weeks that the city’s ordinance was vaguely worded, and therefore difficult to enforce.) Kelley went on to suggest that the police department should be writing citations for violations of the ordinance, without regard to whether the charges would hold up in court. Furthermore, when Weeks argued that it was his job to ensure good arrests and successful prosecutions, Kelley disputed the claim. He said that the prosecution wasn’t Weeks’ problem.
- On April 28, 2011, Mac Work told Weeks that the captain’s position at the police department did not need to be filled, because the Police Department has a chief, lieutenants and sergeants. When Weeks dismissed it as opinion, Work claimed the suggestion was a financial opinion. The city has a budget problem that needs to be fixed, Work said.
- Fast forward, then, to June 25, 2012, when Weeks appeared before the city council requesting a pay increase for two officers who were recently promoted to sergeant. Although the two officers were promoted from within the local police department, and they have previous experience, and they have taken on additional responsibility, Work balked at raising their pay. Despite the fact that the pay for the two officers was already accounted for in the annual budget, and that no one would be hired to fill the positions they vacated, Work wondered aloud if lieutenants could fill in instead. He then suggested that, since other communities around ours have lower staffing levels, perhaps ours are too high.
So what it is that leads Kelley to believe that his knowledge of ordinances and legal proceedings surpasses that of our state attorneys and our publicly elected city marshal?
Why does Work seem intent on finding all his “budget cuts” within the ranks of our police department? And how can he deny the need for a captain, using the argument that we already have sergeants, and then deny the need for sergeants? Who, exactly, is safe within our police department, Mr. Work?
Furthermore, how does Work fail to see that staffing levels based upon the local population are simply one slice of the pie: what about the tens of thousands of people who pass through our town on their way to a vacation destination? Certainly he realizes that those transient visitors fall under the jurisdiction of our law enforcement while they are here? In fact, the beach traffic in town is enough of a problem that Kelley brought it up at the July 9 meeting, pointing out that the traffic at the Coy Burgess light is a problem. So can we agree that the vacation traffic is a significant issue for our police force?
Chief Weeks said it best himself: “I’m not asking for anything outside of my budget. My decision is for the safety and well-being of the citizens.”