BOFPC Meeting - June 1

Yesterday afternoon the Woodstock Board of Fire and Police Commissioners met in the City Council chambers, continuing the new program of meeting "in public." The Board and the City are to be commended for moving this meeting of a City Board into an easily-accessible public building that does not require a visitor to be admitted into a secure area, which was the case for years when this Board met in the confines of the Woodstock Police Department.

It was interesting to note on the Agenda that the Public Comment period had been removed. The entry to remind Board members to make a motion to act on any discussions conducted in an Executive Session was also dropped from the June Agenda.

Yesterday's meeting was devoted to discussion of filling the one open position for an officer at the Woodstock Police Department. Woodstock HR Director Janelle Crowley referred to a Memo she had sent to the ,but she was careful to avoid discussion in public about the contents of it. A summary of it would have been nice, but I was the only "public" there.

This Memo may contain a recommendation from the City's HR Department to establish a college degree as a minimum educational requirement. Part of the current testing includes asking an applicant to write, at the time of testing, why he would like to become an officer of the Woodstock Police Department.

One can only guess at the quality of the answers, both in terms of content and writing skill. Do the Commissioners ever see any coherent, logical, organized, well-written answers? It was clear that, in some examples, they do not.

Since there was no Public Comment time, I did not ask if they ever use graphoanalysis on the handwritten tests. If the City wonders whether it is about to hire someone they will soon wish they hadn't, it should use the services of a competent graphoanalyst.

A representative of the testing firm was present and stated the cost of testing. While no number was mentioned about the estimated number of applicants there might be for the one position, his firm will continue its 2006 pricing to Woodstock of $28.00 per applicant for physical testing and $38.00 for written testing.

Crowley mentioned that the sheriff's department recently tested 300 applicants (for deputy positions). She would know about that because she serves as Chairperson for the McHenry County Sheriff's Department Merit Commission. Then she asked the Commissioners to approve a $30.00 applicant fee "for paperwork."

I don't suppose that 300 men and women will apply for the single WPD officer position but, if they did, the City would receive $9,000 in fees. That seems a lot to push some papers into a neat, alphabetized stack and mail out notices with the time and place for testing. Keep in mind that not all applicants show up for testing and, of those who do, not all take both the physical and the written tests.

The Board caught up on Minutes for the March 2, March 12 and May 13 Meetings, and it also, somewhat surprisingly, approved Minutes for at least one Executive Session. Executive Sessions normally include topics of a confidential nature and, while Minutes must be kept, they are not usually released soon after the meetings. No topic or content of discussion was disclosed in the Minutes of the May 13 Executive Session, so there must be a second set of Minutes somewhere.

The Board will meet again on June 11 to discuss and vote on a decision whether to allow Chief Lowen to amend his Complaint against Sgt. Steve Gorski. Apparently, the City may want to add Judge McIntyre's Decision to its original complaint. On June 11 it will make that decision. That ought to be a really short meeting, and their answer should be, "No."

On June 30 the Board will meet again to continue the hearing of the chief's case to terminate Sgt. Gorski. The Board has already ruled once on this. It ruled that the chief had not made his case and directed the City to pay Sgt. Gorski all his back pay. In 15 months the City has not done so.

The Board is charged to be fair - fair to the City; fair to the City's employee. When the Commissioners read Judge McIntyre's Decision, it should take the 2-3 hours necessary to understand what Judge McIntyre said - and, importantly, what she didn't say.

Members of the community should attend meetings of Boards and Commissions of the City. Be there to understand what takes place and also to support the volunteers from the community who serve the public on these boards and commissions.