Some in Woodstock think it is time for a change - a change in the recording secretary of the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners.
In February the Board made an important decision which has never been documented in the form of Minutes of the meeting. The three-man Board voted 3-0 in favor of NOT terminating Sgt. Steve Gorski and directed Chief Lowen to reinstate him with full back pay.
This decision and award of back compensation creates a financial obligation on the City of Woodstock, and it should have been met within one week. Gorski has gone without pay since the Chief suspended him at the end of August, 2007.
Instead, the Chief filed in McHenry County Court for an Administrative Law Hearing, and that Hearing is scheduled for Friday, July 18.
From February until July? Five more months without pay.
The recording secretary of the BOFPC has been Tamara Reed. She is the administrative assistant to Chief Lowen. She is a good worker and a happy person - an asset to Woodstock and to the City of Woodstock.
Typically, I would venture a guess that Minutes of a meeting, especially an important meeting like the February Special Meeting, would be prepared and published online within a week or so. Even if the bulk of the meeting had been in Executive Session, when the closed portion of the meeting was over, the Board should have re-convened in public and announced its decision.
However, five months have passed, and no Minutes of the February meeting have been published. I understand that the City's administration is working with the BOFPC to obtain the Minutes.
It is critical to the City and to the BOFPC that the Minutes be prepared on a timely basis and that they be correct and complete. I propose to the City that the Village Clerk become the recording secretary of the BOFPC.
Having an impartial recording secretary should eliminate any appearance of conflict-of-interest, undue influence, or possible omission of important facts and decisions.
The BOFPC is the defendant in the above-mentioned Administrative Law Hearing. Didn't the Members of the BOFPC convene to discuss what action they will take to defend themselves and how their defense will be paid for? Where was the announcement of that Special Meeting? Where are the Minutes of that meeting?
Or did they just talk about it among themselves? And, if they did, was that a violation, even if unintentional, of the Illinois Open Meetings Act?
I commend the Commissioners for their decision in February. They listened to the City's side of the story and did not even need to hear from Sgt. Gorski. This needs to be recorded and preserved in City records.
© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT
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3 months ago
1 comment:
It leaves me sad and disappointed that this situation exists. It surely does not shine like a bright start on the chest of resposibility of the Chief, his administrative assistant or the City and it lawyers. It only adds to contentions that this was allegedly not a straight forward legitimate complaint for legitimate reasons set forth by the Chief...it makes the whole thing smell a little worse and places in the minds of the citizens of Woodstock and perhaps the court the feeling that something was allegedly wrong with this whole scenario right from the start. The BOFPC did there job and I commend them for going against the grain that lesser honorable men might have taken... their 3 to 0 decision in Sergeant Gorski's favor. They rightly left the responsibility for the paper work to the Chief and his administrative assistant...it appears it was not done...why...? Could you and your family go without pay for almost a whole year. Like it says, I believe in the Bible, if you can't be trusted in little things (and this was not little) how can you be trusted in large things. This is the alleged question that the City, its manager should ask the Chief of Police Robert W. Lowen. Going after someone's job and livelihood after almost 20 years of service and two in-line of duty injuries is not a small thing to most reasonable people. Do you get the feeling we allegedly are not always dealing with resonable people but with a person or persons with their own agenda? And last but not least citizens of Woodstock don't forget: you are paying for this whole process with your tax dollars. If I were you I would be angry with the official that authorized this entire fiasco, which is what, day by day, this is turning out to be. We are talking thousands and thousands of dollars being paid to the City's attorneys, the firm of Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle of Crystal Lake.
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