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Coopertown Personnel Committee Meeting of 3-17-08
I apologize for taking so long to publish a recap of this meeting.
Sam Childs
Even though there was no agenda passed out and there was no stated meeting objective for
the meeting, it appeared that the agenda was as follows:
1. Select an Acting Police Chief
2. Review applicant Resumes for the position of Police Chief
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM by Chairman, Robert Dale Anderson.
Mayor Crosby took over the meeting and announced that as of Friday, March 14, 2008, the
Acting Police Chief, James Rose, had resigned. Mayor Crosby passed out Acting Chief
Rose’s letter of resignation to Committee members. It stated that the Acting Chief was
resigning for personal reasons. It then went on to cast disparaging remarks at an alderman
and other un-named “local people”.
Chief Rose’s letter after the first paragraph became a tirade of hear say introduced by, “I
was informed …" His accusations appear to have come straight from the mouth of the
Mayor or Vice Mayor. The accusations criticize “some local persons living here” as “…
creating problems, making untruth statements about city employees and their family’s” and
other things. He accused the Town’s only working alderman of “… caused this city to fall
behind due to time being wasted dealing with her false accusations and … her not caring
about people, etc. …”.
Where have we heard this kind of rhetoric before? For those of you who don’t attend Town
meetings, these and similar statements are often made by Mayor Crosby and Vice Mayor
Gill. These statements often arise when Alderman Ruth is advising the Board that an action
being considered probably violates the law. In most cases Alderman Ruth quotes the
Tennessee Code concerning the issue. The time being “wasted” is that the Board must take
action that complies with the law. The Mayor and Vice Mayor frequently display their distain
for Alderman Ruth for presenting these kinds of concerns.
After the Board finished reviewing Acting Chief Rose’s resignation letter Mayor Crosby
requested input from the Committee on the selection of another temporary Acting Chief.
They discussed most of the Sergeants in the current Police Department and a couple of
prospective hires. Jessie Burchwell was named as the best choice for the position.
Mayor Crosby introduced several resumes from candidates for the open Chief of Police
position. Each resume was reviewed by the Committee and discussed. The Committee
decided to run an advertisement in the Tennessean for candidates for a permanent
replacement.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:30 PM.
Comment on the meeting:
During the discussion of selecting a new Acting Police Chief from current Officers,
qualifications and shortcomings of the officers were discussed. Hearing this discussion I
found myself feeling as if I were eaves dropping on a private conversation. Behavioral
characteristics of current employees should, I believe, be discussed in private or with an
audience of restricted composition. Personal traits of current employees should never be
discussed in an open public forum.
The Town charter allows the Mayor to appoint a temporary replacement for any position in
City government without participation by the Board or committees. If the Mayor wanted
input from Committee members before naming a replacement he could have asked them
outside the meeting. The kind of information I heard discussed, when it gets back to the
individual being discussed, is a morale buster. It should never be done in public. This kind of
‘openness’ is not required by the City Charter or the State’s ‘Sunshine law’. The only
justification for openly discussing an employee’s personal behavior traits in public is an effort
to try to get an employee to quit instead of having to fire them. … Again, this practice really
should be avoided.
I apologize for taking so long to publish a recap of this meeting.
Sam Childs
Even though there was no agenda passed out and there was no stated meeting objective for
the meeting, it appeared that the agenda was as follows:
1. Select an Acting Police Chief
2. Review applicant Resumes for the position of Police Chief
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM by Chairman, Robert Dale Anderson.
Mayor Crosby took over the meeting and announced that as of Friday, March 14, 2008, the
Acting Police Chief, James Rose, had resigned. Mayor Crosby passed out Acting Chief
Rose’s letter of resignation to Committee members. It stated that the Acting Chief was
resigning for personal reasons. It then went on to cast disparaging remarks at an alderman
and other un-named “local people”.
Chief Rose’s letter after the first paragraph became a tirade of hear say introduced by, “I
was informed …" His accusations appear to have come straight from the mouth of the
Mayor or Vice Mayor. The accusations criticize “some local persons living here” as “…
creating problems, making untruth statements about city employees and their family’s” and
other things. He accused the Town’s only working alderman of “… caused this city to fall
behind due to time being wasted dealing with her false accusations and … her not caring
about people, etc. …”.
Where have we heard this kind of rhetoric before? For those of you who don’t attend Town
meetings, these and similar statements are often made by Mayor Crosby and Vice Mayor
Gill. These statements often arise when Alderman Ruth is advising the Board that an action
being considered probably violates the law. In most cases Alderman Ruth quotes the
Tennessee Code concerning the issue. The time being “wasted” is that the Board must take
action that complies with the law. The Mayor and Vice Mayor frequently display their distain
for Alderman Ruth for presenting these kinds of concerns.
After the Board finished reviewing Acting Chief Rose’s resignation letter Mayor Crosby
requested input from the Committee on the selection of another temporary Acting Chief.
They discussed most of the Sergeants in the current Police Department and a couple of
prospective hires. Jessie Burchwell was named as the best choice for the position.
Mayor Crosby introduced several resumes from candidates for the open Chief of Police
position. Each resume was reviewed by the Committee and discussed. The Committee
decided to run an advertisement in the Tennessean for candidates for a permanent
replacement.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:30 PM.
Comment on the meeting:
During the discussion of selecting a new Acting Police Chief from current Officers,
qualifications and shortcomings of the officers were discussed. Hearing this discussion I
found myself feeling as if I were eaves dropping on a private conversation. Behavioral
characteristics of current employees should, I believe, be discussed in private or with an
audience of restricted composition. Personal traits of current employees should never be
discussed in an open public forum.
The Town charter allows the Mayor to appoint a temporary replacement for any position in
City government without participation by the Board or committees. If the Mayor wanted
input from Committee members before naming a replacement he could have asked them
outside the meeting. The kind of information I heard discussed, when it gets back to the
individual being discussed, is a morale buster. It should never be done in public. This kind of
‘openness’ is not required by the City Charter or the State’s ‘Sunshine law’. The only
justification for openly discussing an employee’s personal behavior traits in public is an effort
to try to get an employee to quit instead of having to fire them. … Again, this practice really
should be avoided.
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