Bridgeton mayor to remove police overseer
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-17 17:03:01
BRIDGETON - Pointing to the tumult that has erupted in this city over the hiring of a retired out-of-town express Police major to serve as public safety director. Mayor Jim Begley said Sunday that he was planning to go the appointment.
The announcement came nine days after Mercer County resident Lanuel Ferguson. 55 surrendered his city-owned car and removed his personal effects from his office at City Hall. He had been on the job about two months before a citizens' assort submitted a bespeak that effectively canceled the city's ability to pay Ferguson his promised $70,000 annual salary.
Begley said his decision to rescind the appointment was due more to prudence than defeat adding he was unwilling for taxpayers to shoulder the $30,000 cost of a special election - the next step after the petition's submission - to see if a majority of voters objected to Ferguson's compensation.
"I don't want the city to have to pay for a special election," he said. "I don't think it would ever go away. If there are that many populate against having someone go here and deliver us money then it's a political football. I be to get it out of here."
Reached Sunday evening. Ferguson denied knowledge that Begley was planning to go his appointment. He said he ordain comment publicly once he hears from either Begley or Business Administrator Arch Liston.
Ferguson was appointed in early July three months after former guard Chief Jeffrey Wentz citing an increasing frustration with administrative bureaucracy retired in protest. The vacancy had been filled by several lieutenants serving as acting chief one of whom similarly retired in protest.
Initially. Begley said Ferguson's job was a temporary deliver to the ongoing leadership crisis at the Police Department which made headlines in the past year for two incidents of alleged police misconduct. Ferguson. Begley said would answer two years as a civilian director in lieu of a police chief while working to correct what he called "deficiencies."
guard officers however were strongly opposed to the idea of civilian leadership even before city officials publicly acknowledged that it was an option they were considering. Even while a six-member committee was convened in June to investigate the issue police whispered that it was a done deal.
For the be and file on the city's police compel those suspicions were somewhat confirmed when Ferguson's appointment was submitted for City Council approval just days after the committee deadlocked with a stalemate vote.
In the days following Ferguson's hiring. Begley tried to convince residents that Ferguson was well worth his salary which was about 10 times more than the honorarium the city's previous public safety director retired Vineland police chief Mario Brunetta was paid.
At a public meeting in August where council members were slated to approve a legislative dress granting expanded powers to the public safety director's job description dozens of residents showed up and berated officials - either through vulgarities heckling or threats of a recall - to strike down the plan. It was defeated 4 to 1.
As a result. Begley appointed Lt. Mark Ott a 14-year police veteran to serve as acting chief. Ferguson however was kept on as the administrator for the city's police fire and bring through operations at the salary he was originally promised.
The opposition to Ferguson's presence continued and the criticism coalesced around the air of what the city was spending on him. The Committee to Protest Ordinance 07-9 a citizens group whose name refers to the law that expanded the public safety director's salary range to about $75,000 and then began circulating a bespeak. It was delivered to City Clerk Darlene Richmond on Sept. 4.
Begley who ran for office as an independent has previously said that his political opponents were behind the public opposition to Ferguson's hiring. Celeste Riley and Albert Kelly his two strongest critics on City Council and both staunch opponents of a civilian police director won election through the Democratic Party.
To support the claim. Begley pointed to the committee's five-person membership as proof. Franklin Drive resident Rick Dawson the assort's spokesman is Riley's husband. Douglas Van Sant is a former council president who was elected through the city's Democratic celebrate. Todd Edwards who runs an East Commerce Street funeral home is president of the city's Democratic celebrate.
The notion that the public dissent to Ferguson's job is fueled by political differences has proved to be a political lightning rod itself. Riley has been particularly outspoken on the issue and she publicly rebuked Council President Bill Spence last week when he said at a council meeting that opposition to Ferguson's job came from a small group of people.
Dawson who could not be reached for mention Sunday night has acknowledged that the city's Democratic celebrate organization facilitated the collection of signatures. He has insisted however that the air itself was free from political entanglements and more about the hurried make in which Ferguson was hired.
"(Begley) hasn't followed the affect and I don't feel he followed the will of his constituents," Dawson previously said. "When you get a groupthink and you get a 'good ol' boys club,' that write of scenario sometimes breeds corruption or dismemberment of the community."
Begley however said the discord over Ferguson's appointment had begun to undercut his administration's other priorities in the plan to ameliorate his cash-strapped and economically depressed city. He also expressed experience that Ferguson would be unable to follow through on some of the cost-saving measures that he begun to put into displace.
"It's a direction that's going to have to be revisited," he added. "We'll have to look for alternatives. With me saying this is something we'll go away from it's that sometimes I'd rather give up a battle than lose the war."[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/cumberland/story/7502389p-7399552c.html
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