Woodstock continues to avoid BOFPC vacancy

The Woodstock Board of Fire and Police Commissioners is supposed to be a three-man (ok, well, "person") public body of the City of Woodstock. It has important responsibilities regarding the Woodstock Police Department.

As residents recently learned, it has the VERY important duty of firing police officers when necessary or advisable. The City itself, according to the City Council and the City Attorney, cannot fire a police officer. (I wish I believed that; I don't.)

Since September 2013 the three-person Board has been short one person. A commissioner (or is the term "commissioness" or "commissioneress" was appointed to fill a vacancy and served only a short time, when she resigned because she no longer lived in the City.

The Police Department and officials of the City knew about an embarrassing matter that was brewing at the police department and being investigated by the Illinois State Police. The City Fathers should have promptly appointed a resident to fill the vacancy, so that the fully-staffed Board would consider the serious matter headed its way.

On October 28, 2013, the Board issued the maximum discipline of an officer that it could, without firing him. The City attempted to bury the news, even though a Chicago Tribune reporter had caught a whiff of the stink. The Board is a public body, and meetings are open to the public. Apparently, the public didn't show up, nor did the Chicago Tribune reporter or even a reporter from the Northwest Herald or The Woodstock Independent. The media should have been given notice of the Special Meeting of the Board, as required under the Illinois Open Meetings Act. The decision became public record on October 28 and went unreported until the Chicago Tribune's story was published on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

The two men on the Board, long-time member and Chairman Ron Giordano and Lakewood Police Chief Larry Howell, made the decision.

And still the Woodstock City Council has not appointed a resident to fill the vacancy! The Agenda for the March 14 City Council meeting, and the Council is poised to make an appointment to the Transportation Committee. How absolutely wonderful!!!

Has no interested resident expressed a willingness to serve on the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners? Hasn't the City made a short list of possible appointees and sought them out?

Is the City Council shirking an important duty here?