Calkins awaits his fate

Pacific's fired public safety director, John Calkins, is awaiting word on how Pacific's civil service commission will rule on his dismissal. Mr. Calkins' civil service hearing on his firing by Pacific Mayor Cy Sun took place last week.

A fairly thorough (and presumably, accurate) report on this hearing has been presented on the blog for the Committee to Recall Cy Sun.

Of particular interest to me in the recall committee's blog were these three points:

• Police Lt. Ed Massey was a witness whose testimony appeared to support Calkins. It should be noted that, when Calkins was stopped for driving while intoxicated in Bonney Lake three years ago, it was Massey who he summoned and who quickly appeared, and who became a defense witness for Calkins during the pre-trial evidence hearings.

• City Council Member Clint Steiger, chair of the public safety committee, also presented testimony which appeared to favor Calkins. Steiger has been pretty close to Calkins since he was hired, and apparently was one of the city council members who all but yawned when a Kittitas County Sheriff's Department investigation determined that Calkins had on two occasions abused his authority. It was also Mr. Steiger who tried to suppress the taping of a public safety committee hearing, and who walked out, leaving behind a memorandum from Mr. Calkins that supported increasing city revenue by writing more traffic tickets. The memorandum made no mention of improving public safety by increasing the tickets written. That memorandum abruptly disappeared from city files, but I retained my copy.

• According to the recall committee's blog, Mr. Calkins testified he had never been investigated for anger issues. That's simply not true. In 2002, he failed a polygraph examination on the issue of whether he had ever menaced his wife's former husband with a handgun, and the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office investigated this issue in 2010, concluding that he quite likely did point the handgun at that individual. That represent two investigations on a rather serious breach of ethics, and something that conceivably could have resulted in criminal charges. You wonder why the city's attorney didn't ask him about this during cross examination. Did no-one remember any of this? Really?

This is the second time that the city's top public safety official has had a civil service hearing on improper behavior. The last time was in the 1970s, and resulted in a sea change in Pacific's political makeup. That story is told on a separate Web site, entitled 100 Years of Law and Order in Pacific 1909-2009.

What seems abundanty clear is that this time the procedure is more tightly controlled, offering greater advantage to the appelant, Mr. Calkins, than that enjoyed by his predecessor. This time around, a bumbling mayor is swimming upstream against the good 'ol boy's club that has allowed Mr. Calkins a very long, loose leash. It's highly conceiveable that Calkins will win his job back. There would be irony in that. The only reason he got this job in the first place was the dismissal of a more competent police chief who ran afoul of the mayor at that time, Howard Erickson, who was as much a bumbler as Cy Sun. Also, Calkins may win a job back only to find out that there is no city to return to, or that the city's credibility is so badly tarnished, it won't be a job worth having.

There are two reasons you might want to turn to the "100 years" site. The first is for an in-depth report on what happened in the 1970s and how that compares with more current history.

The second reason is for a little diversion. If you feel that Mr. Calkins is the kind of guy who needs to be locked up, you'll have a chance to put him in jail! I invite you to visit 100 Years of Law and Order in Pacific 1909-2009.

Knock yourself out!