Dismissal hearing scheduled for Oakland's police chief.Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard OAKLAND - It was nice while it lasted. This town's brief respite RESPITE, contracts, civil law. An act by which a debtor who is unable to satisfy his debts at the moment, transacts (i. e. compromises) with his creditors, and obtains from them time or delay for the payment of the sums which he owes to them. Louis. Code, 3051. from City Hall turmoil ended less than a week after a harmonious meeting of its new mayor and City Council on Jan. 3. At that meeting, the council unanimously approved a series of Friday workshops with city department heads, including Police Chief Norm Counts, as a way to familiarize Oakland's new leaders with City Hall operations. But Counts received a letter from City Recorder Barb Mock last week informing him that his scheduled Jan. 26 session would now be a termination hearing. "I have been instructed instead to proceed with scheduling a special meeting for the Council to consider terminating your contract ... and paying you the three months severance pay Severance Pay Compensation that an employer gives to someone who is about to lose their job. Notes: Severance pay is not always paid to employees. It depends on the situation in which the employee is losing their job and whether legislation requires severance to be paid. provided therein," Mock wrote in the Jan. 10 letter. "I have been instructed to inquire in·quire also en·quire v. in·quired, in·quir·ing, in·quires v.intr. 1. To seek information by asking a question: inquired about prices. 2. whether you desire an executive session/hearing before the Council to contest your dismissal." Mock said this week that Mayor Nanci Staples staples U-shaped stainless steel or vitallium units with sharp points used for surgical fixation. epiphyseal staples used to staple epiphysis to metaphysis; have metal bracing at the corners. instructed her to send the letter, which goes on to tell Counts: "It is not the desire of the Council to terminate you 'for cause,' which could result in problems for you with DPSST DPSST Department of Public Safety, Standards, and Training DPSST Data Product Screening Software Team ." The state's police officer licensing agent, the Department of Public Safety Standards Safety standards are standards designed to ensure the safety of products, activities or processes, etc. They may be advisory or compulsory and are normally laid down by an advisory or regulatory body that may be either voluntary or statutory. and Training, automatically revokes the license of any officer dismissed "for cause" - reasons involving gross negligence An indifference to, and a blatant violation of, a legal duty with respect to the rights of others. Gross negligence is a conscious and voluntary disregard of the need to use reasonable care, which is likely to cause foreseeable grave injury or harm to persons, property, or , insubordination in·sub·or·di·nate adj. Not submissive to authority: has a history of insubordinate behavior. in , incompetence in·com·pe·tence or in·com·pe·ten·cy n. 1. The quality of being incompetent or incapable of performing a function, as the failure of the cardiac valves to close properly. 2. or gross misconduct MISCONDUCT. Unlawful behaviour by a person entrusted in any degree: with the administration of justice, by which the rights of the parties and the justice of the, case may have been affected. 2. . The new council has held just one meeting, on Jan. 3, and Counts' employment status was neither on the agenda nor discussed at that meeting. The decision to send the termination letter without holding a public meeting or executive session appears to violate the Oregon Public Meetings Law, a media lawyer said Thursday. New councilor coun·cil·or also coun·cil·lor n. A member of a council, as one convened to advise a governor. See Usage Note at council. coun Andrea Botwinick, unanimously elected council president at that session, said the "council decision" to schedule the termination hearing caught her by surprise. "Nanci called to read me the letter the night before it went out, and that was the first I knew of it," said Botwinick, daughter of a former Oakland councilor who was among three officials recalled from office in 2005 after firing a previous police chief and hiring Counts. "I have big concerns with them making this decision not in an open meeting and without me knowing about it." She said Staples told her the decision to send the termination letter was "a council consensus." "I asked her how it could be when I didn't know about it and did not agree with it," Botwinick said. "She told me that it would have been 4-to-1 and it didn't matter if I disagreed." Staples said no state law was broken in reaching that consensus. She said she and other council members had only spoken one-on-one about how to proceed with Counts after the previous, two-woman council deadlocked dead·lock n. 1. A standstill resulting from the opposition of two unrelenting forces or factions. 2. Sports A tied score. 3. on whether to renew his contract. Counts said last week that former Councilor Myra Weber, a supporter of the recall election, had given him a poor evaluation, while former Councilor Jackie McCarty had given him a glowing review. But Portland attorney Jack Orchard Jr., who represents members of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, said the lack of a quorum A majority of an entire body; e.g., a quorum of a legislative assembly. A quorum is the minimum number of people who must be present to pass a law, make a judgment, or conduct business. of council members during discussions of Counts' fate doesn't exempt the city from public meeting requirements "if the intent is to manufacture a process that creates a course of action." "It's essentially a vote," he said - particularly if the mayor apprised any of the councilors of the others' wishes. Under state law, such discussions are to be made in a public meeting or an executive session. While campaigning, Staples had said she had an open mind about Counts. "I still have an open mind," she said, calling the Jan. 26 special meeting "an evaluation" of Counts' performance. While the Jan. 10 letter does tell Counts he can request a hearing before the new council to "consider your dismissal and/or to hear complaints or charges against you and to review and evaluate your employment related performance," it also invites him to accept his severance pay and termination without a hearing. In a Jan. 12 letter, Counts declined to do so, and requested that the council discuss his fate Jan. 26 in a public rather than executive session. Botwinick said she fears the council's handling of the matter will throw the city right back into the divisiveness of the past two years, marked by high employee turnover, a bitter recall campaign, and a year of tense governance by two surviving councilors who could not even agree on replacement appointments for the recalled officials. "We all ran on a campaign that we wanted to move forward, doing positive things for the city and and pulling the community back together," she said. "I think this is a bad decision. I think all our employees deserve some time to prove they can work together with us and that the community deserves some stability and continuity. I think this is going to pull the city back apart, and that makes me very sad." |
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