The meeting was long, somewhat tedious, but real progress was made.
The new Board and the new Marshal made numerous positive strides forward for a New Cloverdale. There is definitely a New Attitude in Town.
I will start with the police program:
Mr. Pearson presented three people who are integral to his new program, all of whom received applause.
First of all, Officer Baugh was there and Don P.commended him on his recent graduation from the Academy with high marks, (like a 95 per cent, which is a solid A in anyone’s book). Mr. Baugh was the first to receive resounding and deserved applause for his achievements. If I am not mistaken, he appeared to almost be touched by this welcoming gesture by the community. Hopefully, he will stay on board, get through this transition and contribute to the community.
Donnie McCammack will become the leader of the new Reserve program. He has many years experience as an officer with the County and lives in our fair burg.
A third gentleman, new name to me, was Tony Gregory, who will be training the reserves. He is certified in 37 areas, so he will definitely be an asset. I am not sure how much training will be needed based on some of the comments about the Reserve applicants.
Mr. Pearson said he has had outstanding response to his Reserve Program, many of whom are mature and experienced applicants. The response has been so overwhelming, Mr. Pearson asked to have the number of reserves raised from 10 to 15. After discussion of the costs (bonding, for example) versus dividends of having a larger force for the anticipated weekend crowds due to events at the horse arena, the Board looked like they were going to raise the limits in the near future..
In other news, an ordinance was presented to add a position of Police Commissioner. This goes along with the idea of having a Board member act as liaison or point man for various departments.
There will be an executive meeting at 7:00pm on March 4th to discuss litigation filed by Charlie Hallam.
Prior to that, a complete audit will be done for all police officers, since there appears to be a discrepancy or at the very least, differing opinions regarding vacation days, comp time, sick days, salary ordinance, etc. I believe this will be part of a public review.
The dog cage that came out of the 5th police car will no longer be needed, so the Board agreed to allow it to be sold to another community who has a Crown Vic police car. Being made of stainless steel, the cage still had quite a bit of value. No mention was made of how much doggy paraphanalia will be collected from Quincy.
Also, Mr. Felling, who had agreed to assist Cloverdale to rewrite/update the SOP, Standard Operation Procedures for the force, will be contacted again. I believe, Mr. Gregory will also be of assistance along those lines.
Mr. Pearon also presented an estimate of $400 plus to change the locks on the building. The Board moved on this easily for a variety of reasons, some stated and some unstated. Again, the impact of the strangers roaming around Cloverdale due to the extra visitors was one item stated.
More comments were made about the security of the town files and the fact that the Clerk is ultimately responsible for the office’s contents. Apparently, people are not respecting the fact that it is a business office , that only officials should go into the office. Instead, they feel like they can go in and out of it like it was PJ’s family room. If people from the old regime respected PJ, they would not put her in such a position, in my opinion.
Dan Moon commented that he thought Mr. Pearson should not be getting rid of two officers and that the Reserves would not make up for it. He referred to an article in the Banner. After some time, it was pointed out that the Police Department was only being downsized by one officer. The Banner has been wrong (although I am not sure that is the case here since I found this: On March 1, Pearson will experience a reduction in force of one deputy. The ordinance specifies two deputy officers; three are currently employed. with a simple search online ) like the last article stating that Mr. Sublett was present when Mr. Pearson told Hallam he would be leaving the force. Mr. Padgett was, in fact, the Board member who was present at that meeting.
There were other, very important items discussed, but I am tired.
PS. Special note for the First Lady: Out of semi-retirement for now, however, I still don’t know nuthin about birthin babies, but I did hear the shrimp boat was a-comin, a-comin,, a-comin and you better look for that apron.
