Interim city manager Steve
Hill talked Friday about the latest controversy in Crossville's
operations and said a bit about what he felt led to the resignation
of Crossville Police Chief Rod Shoap.
According to Hill and
documents he provided, the interim chief position that Shoap held was
only to be an 18 month position, a term that would have been up at
the end of July. Hill said he had hoped to keep Shoap in the interim
position until after the election to try and take some of the
politics out of the situation, though he admitted it would be
impossible to take all the politics out of the situation.
Hill said that while he
had discussed Mr. Shoap's position with some of the council members,
they all expressed opinions on the position but none ordered him to
either fire or hire Mr. Shoap for the position full time. Previously
Hill said he had discussed with Shoap staying in the position until
after the election was over and Shoap said to him he didn't want to
wait and he asked Hill to “either hire me or fire me.”
Hill said he wasn't
certain but thought that Mr. Shoap had a conversation with one of the
council members and then indicated he was open to staying through the
election.
Hill said he felt that a
recent meeting he had with Mark Rosser may have precipitated the
resignation. According to Hill, the meeting, requested by Mr. Rosser
was held at his office and Hill said he felt Mr. Shoap found out
about the meeting and thought he was interviewing Rosser for the full
time position. Hill said that was not the case but added, “Shoap
had a knee jerk reaction and decided to turn in his resignation
before he was fired.” Hill said this was just his personal opinion
on what had happened.
When asked about the
meeting, Rod Shoap said the meeting had nothing to do with his
decision and he had complete trust in Mark Rosser. “I'd trust him
with my life,” added Shoap.
Hill mentioned a recording
of former city manager David Rutherford speaking to the police
department about Shoap's hiring and saying that Rutherford Shoap
would be interim and would not be eligible for the full time
position. Hill said he hadn't heard the recording but Hill was
present at a staff meeting with Rutherford before Hill left the parks
department that Rutherford said who ever served as interim would not
be the full time chief and that the position was to train a member of
the department to take over when Shoap left.
Shoap started January 28,
2015 in the position and when announced it was listed as a temporary
position. At the time, some 10 applications had been received and
three of those interviewed. Names of the applicants were not
released at the time.
While Hill said that when
he checked with city attorney Will Ridley, Ridley said that 18 month
period was not binding, Hill felt the city needed to follow the
arrangements as it might affect future such agreements.
The reports that Jesse
Kerley told him to fire Mr. Shoap are not true according to Hill who
added that Kerley told him it was his decision. “I know exactly
how he and Mr. Souza feel about Shoap,” said Hill and he added that
Wyatt, Harris and Mayberry have not discussed the position with him.
According to Hill, the
problem Kerley had with Shoap was not that he wanted people arrested
but that Shoap had not done a report on the two incidents involving
Pete Souza. Hill said he couldn't argue with Shoap's contention that
make a report would just put it out in the media, but added, “Jesse
asked him for a police report.”
Hill said that while
Rutherford was still manager, they had put out a call for
applications for a full time position and Shoap's was the only
application that was received and not withdrawn. A second
application was put in from the department but was taken back when he
and Shoap were the only two applicants. Hill said he wasn't sure how
Rutherford planned to get around the original hiring as a temporary
position, but Shoap was the only applicant at the end of the process.
Hill was asked about the
failure of the city to pay for police chief's meeting that Mr Shoap
talked about in a previous story. Hill said he found out about the
situation from Mr. Shoap. When he checked on it he said the check
was not sent by the finance department as that would have been right
at the end of the 18 months and they felt if Shoap wasn't staying the
city shouldn't pay for the trip. He added that if Shoap was staying
they could always still send in the check.
“It wasn't me that put a
hold on it, finance caught it,” explained Hill. He added that
Shoap and Mark Rosser were signed up to go. As it stands now, Rosser
will attend the meeting.
When asked about Hill's
contention, Shoap said that was not the same information his
questions about the situation turned up. He was told that the
canceling of the trip came from Hill.
There are also some
concerns over an incident that so far has not resulted in any action
or complaint against the city. Both Councilman Kerley and Steve Hill
talked about an alleged incident involving a Crossville police
officer, their sexual orientation and an significant other. The
story being shared is that Shoap spoke to the officer and said they
needed to get rid of their significant other then was contact by the
significant other. Hill said that there was another employee that
verified such an incident had taken place. At this point no names of
those involved have been discussed at all.
When Shoap was asked about
the situation he said that the matter was related to a report that
had come to the department from a professor at a Georgia college
related to a paper written by the officer's roommate that mentioned
using the Crossville resident's firearm to self inflict harm on the
writer of the paper. According to Shoap the situation was a problem
because the officer's roommate was a convicted felon and that was a
policy violation. Shoap said he had no idea about the employee's
orientation and he didn't care, but he said that the fact that Mr.
Kerley was putting out the information in the public would be a much
bigger problem.
Shoap said his concern
about his officer was so that there wouldn't be a problem with any
potential domestic violence that might happen where officer could
lose their right to have a weapon and would then be unable to do
their job as an officer. He added that he has dealt with those kinds
of things for 30 years and is certified in training those kinds of
situations for officers. Shoap said he recently run such training
for the sheriff's department.
“Everything chief Shoap
told you is a bunch of trash,” said Jesse Kerley, “he'll be lucky
if he doesn't cause the city to be sued.” Kerley said. He
continued, “I never asked that man to arrest anybody. I did ask
him to check Blankenship's insurance card because he doesn't have
insurance on his car. I asked him to file a police report on Pete
Souza vigorously elbowing me in the back after the February meeting
which he never filed. That's why Chief Shoap don't like me, he's
protecting Pete and nobody sees it.”
Shoap explained that he
had in fact checked on the registration and insurance of Mr.
Blankenship's vehicle and everything was in order. Shoap added that
the evening of the June meeting, he had passed that information on to
Mr. Hill and asked him to pass it along to Mr. Kerley.
After discussing a
situation that involved an attempt to set up a meeting between
councilman Kerley, chief Shoap and school director Donald Andrews, a
meeting that never took place as Mr. Andrews declined to set up the
meeting, Kerley said that he did not tell employees to do stuff, but
he had asked the city manager what I can and can't do because, “if
you step outside of that charter you have personal liability and they
can sue me for doing that and I know that.”
Kerley described Shoap as
“a better politician then anyone sitting on that city council."
Kerley added, "You tell the public that
I've never had my butt crawled so hard over an issue except when
David Rutherford hired Chief Shoap when there was capable officers in
that department that could have been hired.”
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