Remember this line? “There is a cancer growing on the presidency.” It dates back to the Nixon presidency and the Watergate scandal.
Well, there has been a cancer growing on the City of Pacific. It was introduced about 10 years ago, and it has sapped the strength of the city and alienated it from its residents. The cancer is the public safety division.
Like most cancers, it wasn’t recognized for what it was until it had a firm grip on its host. But for the past 10 years it has dominated the life of a government that has been afraid of the surgery necessary to excise it. It grew, it thrived, and it has insinuated itself so thoroughly into the body of its host that its removal may prove uncomfortable, indeed. But it is time for this cancer to go.
In 2000, Howard Erickson was elected mayor after a bruising political fight in the city. After taking office, he fired the police chief, then introduced the concept of merging the police and fire departments into a public safety division as an economy measure. It proved to be anything but economical. The concept involved having a public safety director who would be both police and fire chief. The council agreed. It eliminated the position of police chief and created the position of public safety director. Two days after the filing period for that position closed, Mr. Erickson appointed John T. Calkins to the position. Without thoroughly vetting Mr. Calkins, the council approved.
Soon afterward, the folly became apparent. A house caught fire and burned to the ground. Fire staff who should have been on hand to manage the response were out of state, driving a new fire truck back to the city. A hydrant that should have served the house was dry. In a subsequent city council meeting, Mr. Calkins showed up in a full dress fire uniform which he was not qualified to wear and, in front of TV cameras, yelled at Councilwoman Bernadine Harrison that she was a disgrace and should resign. Her offense – holding the public safety division to account for the debacle.
Mr. Calkins had essentially gone on record as being unaccountable to the city’s civilian authority. And the council allowed it.
Following the fire, Pacific hired a fire chief, thereby nullifying the savings that were supposed to occur by consolidating the police and fire chief positions.
10 years later, Pacific no longer has a fire department. But it still has a public safety director, who is paid more than $100,000 annually for doing half the job the position was created to perform. Due to financial constraints, some staff salaries have been cut, but the public safety director’s position is secure. The division continues to be a burden on the city’s coffers and staff.
During the past 10 years,
During the past 10 years,
- John Calkins failed a polygraph examination on whether he threatened a man with a handgun.
- John Calkins was stopped for drunk driving. On the evening of his arrest he had worn to a public event a T-shirt celebrating police brutality during the Chicago Police Riots of 1968.
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| Note the statement: "We kicked your father's ass, now it's your turn." |
- Following the filing of vehicular assault charges against John Calkin's son, Mr. Calkins was investigated by the Sumner Police Department for tampering with one of the witnesses to the assault.
- John Calkins sent officers for training on immigration enforcement, which is not the mission of the City of Pacific. The training took place in Arizona, with a department which recently was cited by a federal judge for racial profiling. Pacific’s racial profiling policies garnered poor media coverage and drew the attention of the Governor, who sent an emissary to speak to the city council.
- John Calkins violated federal civil rights law in trying to suppress a civil rights march protesting his racial profiling policies.
- John Calkins was accused in at least one deposition of calling probationary employees into his office to view pornography on city time and on a city computer. One former employee has provided evidence that Mr. Calkins’ division provided a fraudulent document to a magistrate considering the termination of that employee and that the fraudulent document included a forgery.
- In a memo released at a Public Safety Committee meeting, John Calkins disclosed that, due to budget constraints he was going to increase revenue for his division by instructing his officers to write more tickets. Improving public safety was not mentioned in the document.
- Calkins continued to wear a police uniform he is not qualified to wear. He is a civilian.
- When the city council called for an investigation into the improper use of a city credit card by Mayor Richard Hildreth, John Calkins helped the mayor by having his division ask the wrong questions.
- During the most recent election campaign, a public safety police officer was sent to investigate a mayoral candidate who circulated an election flier that irritated Mayor Richard Hildreth.
- During that same campaign, Mr. Calkins demonstrated his incompetence by sending out a news release exaggerating a residential burglary into a home invasion. This was clearly a bid to rally the community behind the mayor. The news release– also circulated by Mayor Richard Hildreth – identified the neighborhood involved and disclosed that the victim was an elderly man who had kept large sums of money in his home. The news release provided information on how the home could be entered.
So our public safety division is headed by a screaming, incompetent, unethical, disrespectful racially profiling bully who is accused or requiring subordinates to view porn, and is being paid for a job that no longer exists.
The city council can’t claim this is the mayor’s problem. They can simply rewrite the ordinances, eliminating the position of public safety director, re-create the position of police chief, advertise the position for police chief, and then confirm only a candidate with the best credentials and best reputation for that position. Or, they could enter into a contract with a competent government to provide public safety services. We are already doing that with the regional fire authority.
There is a cancer that has lodged itself in Pacific’s city government. Time for the city council to adopt a New Year's resolution: perform some radical surgery. The sooner, the better.
If they don't act to correct this situation, knowing what they have been told, perhaps it's time to start considering recall on the basis of misfeasance or nonfeasance.
Next time: A Roadmap to Recall.
If they don't act to correct this situation, knowing what they have been told, perhaps it's time to start considering recall on the basis of misfeasance or nonfeasance.
Next time: A Roadmap to Recall.
