Today the Middletown Press published a piece which reports that Council member Hope Kasper claims that police officers were paid and assigned to attend the Council meeting, as a show of support, for Acting Chief Patrick McMahon, who was being considered for the permanent position. McMahon was rejected by the Council as chief largely as a protest against the process by which he was chosen.
Yesterday, while pursuing the same story, I interviewed Detective Derek Puorro, who is the police union president, and who attended the meeting. He said that only one officer, the Sargent-at-Arms, was ordered to attend the meeting.
"Everybody was there of their own free will," Puorro said. "Nobody was ordered to go."
As the Press story indicates, some of the officers at the meeting were "on the clock." Puorro contends that no members of the force were paid overtime while attending the meeting.
"Surely the chief would never authorized payment of overtime for attendance at the meeting," Puorro said.
Puorro noted that the police union as a body does not endorse, or offer negative opinions of chief candidates.
The accusation about police attendance at this meeting has been forwarded by three sources to the Middletown Eye, and is one of several "confidential" accusations that have surfaced since the Common Council meeting.
8 comments:
geez ed mr puorro was direct and straight forward with his answers and i believe him no one was ordered toattend or on overtime. you just forgot to ask him how many on duty officers, seargents and the liutenant dead center behind mr c. i think i counted 11 officers that police personnel that were on duty and stayed untill 11pm, just 45min before thier shift change. and by the way ed I LOVE YOU MR.C dont give up!!!!!
Puorro says that none of the officers there was on overtime. That means that they could still have been on duty, just not on overtime. Puorro says none of the officers there was ordered to be there. That means they could have been urged or even pressured to attend, even if they weren't ordered to go to the meeting.
Anonymous 6:29
He did not deny that some were on duty. He said they were there of their own free will. You would have to be an idiot not to urge people who you think would support you to be at a public meeting where your future is at stake.
Your comment is one big speculation. Why don't you gather some facts, and come back and comment.
10:27pm says: thanx for answering 6:29's answer. i guess your respone makes me reshape my question to president puorro. how can 11 officers that are on duty sit in the counsil chambers from 7pm-11pm and have it called thier own free will ? not to be (oh man im gonna bomb on this spelling) ficicious but how can they be at work and attend for 4hrs of thier shift, half 1 work days time by thier own free will ? the third shift LT. was there 2 SGTs. and at least the whole street crime division and 3 dectectives (look at pic behind mr. c). its nice that the whole second shift was thier to support thier canidate and i highly dought they were ordered to do so BUT how can it be said "of thier own free will" ? it gives the impression that while they are at work they do what thier own free will wants them to do. you were there that night ed i saw ya on tv. could you ask mr. puorro this please? just in case i forgot to say-I LOVE YOU MR.C
If officers were paid and assigned to attend the meeting McMahon should be fired. If the officers were paid and not assigned to attend the meeting then shouldn't someone inquire what the officers were SUPPOSED to be doing, and why they weren't doing it?
Anonymous 10:27 and 8:12
Thanks for your research. I'm beginning to get the feeling you're a cop who doesn't like McMahon. Why else would you be so familiar with who is on and off duty.
It probably wasn't a good idea for paid police to be at a five hour meeting (just as it wasn't necessary to have a five hour meeting when most Council members had made up their minds before the meeting began).
Still, to have officers attending a meeting for a candidate they support, and one who will affect their jobs, is not much different than any employee attending a meeting which affects their future. A big deal is being made of something that appears to be little more than a distraction to me.
If you want to look at waste in this city, there are lots of other places to look.
10:27 says ...
good guess ed but im not a policeman. dont get a side job trying to guess peoples weight for colemans carnival you'll cost em a lot of money and cheap teddy bears. hahahahahha. on a serious note ed i was not in support of the deputys appointment you got me there. as far as being able to identify the officers, there were some small clews that gave them away. the long shirts that go all the way past thier knees (some are very short) the appearence of having 2 and 3 shirts on and looking like a greek adonis with chiseled muscles and last but not least those 2 foot long radios that they beat people with (or at least i would i dont like guns). as far as the selection of the deputy chief like i said i didnt support it, but i also garner no ill feeling towards deputy mcmahon. he is just a guy trying to get a better job and at the very basics i feel bad he didnt get it because of that reason, a good christian never enjoys anothers pains. but you are not taking into account that the only officers there were the ones on duty. there were maybe 3 off duty officers present (calculated guess from a cameras view). none of the day shift guys i see regularly were present. if i call 11 cops there that means 93 or so police officers werent there. it looked liked there was only 25 people in the audiance. i just think mr. puorro and yourself are taking a ahh its alright attitude to these guys beeing there on the job. 11x$35x5hrs=$1925. i agree that it would be proudent to be present for a confirmation hearing that would affect your livelyhood. so it would appear to seem that only 9% of the force cared and bet it all on him getting the appointment. ie: everybody that was in fear of change and thier status in certain jobs. thats all ed. i would say your bout 208lbs and 6'-2" but televiosion is decieving, think i could get a job with ringalling bros ?
10:27 says
thanx for the grammer advice on the other editorial comments ed. im not that savy, plus not computer savy. my mother had a masters in english and no matter how much i used to try to use good grammer i always failed, i think it is some sort of subleminal act of rebelion that has carried into my 60's besides f7 is programmed for something called caret browsing and i dont get those cute red squigelly lines like you said. i just noticed ed i did not give my man his deserved props......... WRITE IN MR.C FOR PROBATE JUDGE ON TUESDAY !!!!!!
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