Personal or Personnel????

I guess we're at another cross road because after a special called meeting on Friday, May 31, 2019, Mayor Rogers vowed that he would not swear in Chief Adam Jones and that he would put him on the agenda to be terminated. We are almost at our 2 year mark as a board and Jones is the 6th person to serve a Lumberton's Chief of Police and will be the third Chief of Police sworn into office. Apparently, there was a personal matter that was brought to the attention of the Mayor and he feel that this personal matter should be used to prevent Jones from serving as Chief of Police. For transparency purposes, I was not originally in favor of Jones becoming the next Chief of Police but since the majority of the board wanted him to serve then, like many of the other times, I went along with the majority. We've had so many problems retaining a chief and I had checked out of the process because it seemed that my voice wasn't getting heard anyway. However, I remember when the resignation of former Interim Chief, Larry Allen, became an issue, and Jones was appointed Interim Chief; shortly thereafter, the board members received a letter indicating that Jones was instructed to delete or destroy some evidence by his immediate supervisor. Many of us were troubled by the allegations outlined in the letter but the person accused of this action vehemently denied the allegations. At that moment, I thought Jones may be the person Lumberton needed as Chief of Police but someone else didn't agree.

There's been a lot of personal agendas pushed over these two years and I was planning on blogging about them this weekend but I guess we will have to deal with one fire storm at a time. One of the major issues we continue to face is personnel issues. Board members are always accused of interfering with the day to day activities of department heads, or maybe that's an accusation that levied against me, but I need full disclosure when I have to make a decision. Additionally, whenever I want information from a department head, I request that information in writing and the requests are always in the form a question; not a demand. Truth be told, the board has been at logger heads with the Mayor since the termination of former chief, Elsie Cowart. After her termination, there was constant friction between board members and our Mayor. Later, former chief, Shane Flynt, was caught on tape smoking what was believed to be marijuana. There was this he said she said gossip about who had the tape and who had seen the tape. To this date, the only portions of the tape I viewed were the parts shown to me by the reporter from WDAM. During and interview, Mayor Rogers said that board members had the tape and refused to allow him to view the tape but that wasn't true. Flynt tried to resign but Mayor Rogers refused his resignation, and suspended Flynt with pay. Later, the board accepted Flynt's resignation just as they accepted the resignation of Interim Chief Larry Allen who was often referred to as a "friend of the Mayor" and that's why certain people were apprehensive about coming forth with information about Allen. After Flynt left the Lumberton Police Department, Phillippe Ducksworth served as Interim Chief. He too found himself at odds with the Mayor and at one point, Ducksworth told the board he didn't have to answer questions about his personal life and nothing else was said about that matter until the Mayor brought it up when another incident arose.

Eventually, part-time officer, Carlus Page, was appointed as the new Chief of Police. While serving as Lumberton's Chief of Police, Page convinced the board that he needed a take home car to get back and forth from Biloxi. During Page's short term at the helm, he was using surveillance cameras inside the office to monitor the officers, he rarely worked a full shift, and there were times he actually brought his child to work and left him in the office all day with confiscated drugs and ammunition and the Mayor knew about it. Page was re-classified and asked to return to the role of a patrolman but he never returned to work after he was informed that he was no longer serving as Chief of Police. Ironically, Flynt's final pay check was held hostage until he returned all the equipment that belonged to the City of Lumberton, including his badge, but to this day, I don't think the City of Lumberton ever recovered all of the property, including a badge, that belong to the City of Lumberton and unlike Flynt, his final check was not withheld from him until he came to see Mayor. When Allen was interim chief, there were reports of him taking home a car, without board approval, but Allen said "the Mayor gave him permission to take home the car." Like I said, so much has gone on in such little time and we're preparing for another battle here in the little City of Lumberton. The Mayor has the right to request that someone be fired but there's so much going wrong in other departments, I wonder why he's so focused on the Lumberton Police Department? I'm sure he's going to be angry about this blog but this is my blog and my opinion. I'm not ready to deal with another lack of leadership in the Police Department. It's time to appoint someone that will establish some order and get officers on board that want to be here. As I stated earlier, he wasn't my first choice but he's the one I'm supporting as we move this city and the Lumberton Police Department forward. One thing is for certain, Tuesday's meeting will be very interesting. Hope to see you there!