On Saturday, February 15 the OC Register reported that “A Fullerton officer suspected of stealing $24,000 from a lender and an auto buyer while off-duty is facing grand theft and embezzlement charges”. According to the story, an officer on the force took out a $ 12,000 loan with his truck as collateral. The officer later sold the truck to a wholesaler without divulging that it was used to secure a loan. After the officer made only two payments on the loan, the lender repossessed the truck from the new buyer, who did not recover his investment in the vehicle.
Although none of this financial malfeasance was alleged to have taken place while the officer was on duty, these actions obviously do not reflect well…
When will Dan Hughes acknowledge that for a relatively small department, the FPD has had more than there share of officers who have conducted themselves in a manner that is embarrassing to both the city and our community? This is not to mention the catastrophic consequences that have lead to civilian deaths and millions and millions of dollars of our tax money that has and will be spent to clean up the FPD mess! Your silence Dan is deafening!
It is past the time when the Federal Government needs to step in and do a complete investigation of the FPD! It has become crystal clear that the proper reforms will not be forthcoming under the leadership of current Police Chief Dan Hughes! He has been both Acting and Permanent Police Chief for over 2 years and those of us paying attention are still waiting for Chief Hughes to even begin to match his PR rhetoric to the sad realities continuing to face the FPD!
What about the City Council? Are they also silent?
Unfortunately, Mayor Chaffee and Council members Flory and Fitzgerald have all been more than happy to promote this fantasy of a reformed FPD! They need to be held accountable as well. They also voted to give Joe Felz and Dan Hughes contracts that basically gives them their jobs for as long as they want them unless malfeasance, criminal behavior or gross negligence can be proved. Council member Bruce Whitaker was our only representative who spoke for giving them an at will contract. This would have allowed any future council to replace one or both gentlemen without cause. It is the same way all private sector employees are hired and fired. I suggest you thank Bruce the next time you go to a council meeting and let the others know that they did not act in the best interests of the citizens of this city!
Correction:
Chaffee, Fitzgerald and Flory voted to give a contract to Police Chief Hughes, only. They were not in office when Felz was given his contract. However, Quirk-Silva, McKinley, Bankhead and Jones did vote to give Felz his city manager contract. You can draw your own conclusions as to whether Chaffee, Fitzgerald and Flory would have voted the same way as they did for Hughes. I report, you decide!
I understand Seaborn hasn’t been as much of a fighter for justice as most of us expected either. How come you don’t mention him?
Sebourn. Who said what now?
Sebourn is worthless, and folded like a used Post-it note about three seconds after being elected.
Vern this is in response to your question. As far as the Hughes contract vote, I was not positive which way Sebourn actually cast his vote. I always want to be factually correct. So I did some more research. On the discussion regarding how to procedurally go about filling the position of Police Chief, both Whitaker and Sebourn both stated that they wanted the position to be opened up for others to be able to apply, in addition to Acting Chief Hughes. Chaffee, Flory and Fitzgerald did not want to consider anyone other the Dan Hughes. They wanted to anoint him without considering anyone else either within or outside of the FPD! Generally good things do not happen when our leaders subvert the open civil service process of formally announcing a position and giving all qualified candidates a time certain to apply for that job. The fact that Dan was their choice does not justify their willingness to subvert the system.
The following meeting included an agenda item to specifically vote to enter into direct contract negotiations with Acting Chief Hughes. Again both Whitaker and Sebourn briefly restated that they would have preferred the competitive process but that they would be supporting Dan Hughes as permanent Chief of Police. The vote was then taken, 5-0 to enter into contract negotiation with Dan Hughes.
I would like to state the following with regards to your comment that Council member Sebourn “has not been much of a fighter for justice”. I have been both surprised and disappointed by Sebourn’s apparent decision not to highlight the myriad of police abuse and corruption claims against the FPD. I believe that being an elected official gives you a unique opportunity to make it well-known to the public when an injustice has occurred. I believe he should have spoken out more often on this very important issue. I personally cannot think of a more important topic facing our citizens and our city.
However, every council member has to decide for himself/herself, which issues they will place on their list of priorities.
Why he has remained relatively quiet compared to Council member Whitaker or to myself for that matter on the issue of alleged police abuse and corruption is a question best reserved for Council member Sebourn himself?