The Craig Meidl Show was just that “A SHOW”.

 

I spent a lot of time preparing questions based upon the public records in my possession, I knew the true answers to most of the questions but the “Show” only allowed a person to ask ONE question and absolutely no follow-up questions. Hell…my lawyer even tried to slip more than one in and got cut off. Then we were told that there would be a second round where we could again ask ONE question with all the folks there wanting to ask questions, coupled with Meidl’s propensity for long winded non-answers sprinkled with references to his religious beliefs it was obvious, not only had I been had, but so had the community.

 

Now don’t get me wrong about Meidl’s Religious Beliefs. I believe very much in God, but there are two things in particular that have NO BUSINESS what so ever in Law Enforcement and they are Religion and Politics. It troubles me to no end when a police officer goes on and on about his religious beliefs, the place for that is at Home or in Church but NOT in discussions concerning Law Enforcement. I thought for a minute there we actually were in Church.

 

I got there real early along with my wife and was the first one signed up to ask questions so I went first. Prior to that the “Moderator” told the audience THE RULES which were…ONLY ONE QUESTION…then you could wait around until everyone else gets their ONE QUESTION in and ask ONE MORE QUESTION. I pitched a minor bitch knowing full well it would go nowhere so I walked up to the podium and said to Craig Meidl… “You lucked out!”. If you watch the replay of the “SHOW” on Chanel 5 you can see the big smile Craig Meidl cracked after I said that.

 

I had to hurriedly decide what question to ask. So I asked Meidl he had any help with or cleared the public statement he made after his involvement with the Salute. He denied it and when I brought up an email he sent to Mayor Mary Verner indicating the statement had been cleared by Marlene Feist his response was that he would have to see it. I had a packet prepared with all my documents and was ready, willing and able to show him the email…but the “Moderator” immediately cut me off. I did was able to sneak in a question asking Meidl if he was aware I did a PRR on the Salute, he said he wasn’t. So I gave the packet of documents and a copy of my 29 questions to Councilwoman Kinnear in hopes that at some point they will review the documents and ask the questions…we shall see. I should note that when I asked my ONE QUESTION of Meidl I incorrectly said Marilyn Feist instead of Marlene Feist…don’t worry as soon as I returned to my seat next to my wife she, as she often does, corrected me. I knew when my wife asked me if we were really going to stick around just to ask ONE MORE QUESTION that we would be out soon and we were since sticking around served no real purpose in trying to get the truth out.

 

Here is the email I was referring to:

 

The problem with only being allowed ONE QUESTION and no follow-ups questions is that it isn’t fair to either party as there is no opportunity to clarify… but I guess you have to play by their rules.

 

Everything was not lost however! I did have a nice discussion with Mike Fagan, was able to joke around with Karen Stratton and Ben Stuckart about schools we went to, and got to see Big Wally one of the cops I use to work with. The Mayor wasn’t there but I did manage to listen to one side of a phone conversation he was having with Brian Coddington in a back room…I know sneaky…right?

 

Heck even my buddy Andy Scheldt was there, although I didn’t know that until I got home and watched the SHOW on TV. Andy even asked a decent question. I don’t know why Andy didn’t come up and say hello. 🙂

 

Looks like I will have to answer the 29 questions right here and include some of the documents… of course to be honest…I already knew the answers to most of the questions anyway.

 

 

*** My old AmeriCorps Kitara asked a good question Meidl never did answer I wish I would have known she was there too.

 

Stay Tuned!

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!

 

 

The “Show” starts Thursday at the West Central Community Center between 6-8 PM.

 

The “Show” is of course the roll out of Mayor Condon’s choice for Chief of Police Craig Meidl, supposedly it is going to be a NO HOLDS BARRED AFFAIR, and the public will be able to ask any question of Meidl and get some answers. However, the rules of engagement have not yet been made public, if it is in fact No Holds Barred then myself as well as the public will have an opportunity to ask Meidl questions regarding the Zehm case and the “Infamous Salute” my assumption is that negotiations are going on regarding the ground rules as I type and a part of those negotiations includes Meidl NOT answering questions regarding the Zehm case. Keep in mind that when myself Mitch Ryals, and Rachel Alexander were able to interview Craig Meidl he refused to answer any questions regarding the Zehm case or the Salute, according to him at the direction of Jim McDevitt, so we shall see.

 

It is important to remember that Mayor Condon put together an eight member “Police Leadership Advisory Committee” to establish criterion for picking the next City of Spokane Chief of Police, and it is also important to remember that he completely ignored their criterion with his choice of Meidl who never even applied for the position. That PLAC also took public input at the West Central and East Central Community centers just as this “Show” will. We all also have to remember that this roll out of Craig Meidl is exactly the same as the roll out of the Tentative Contract Agreement of the Guild and Lieutenant and Captains Association that completely gutted OPO Powers and placed power for Body Camera issues entirely in the hands of the Unions. The City Council caved on that and ultimately signed off on the Contract. The big question is, are they going to do the same with Meidl?

 

Somehow lost in this entire discussion is that the City of Spokane is currently in negotiations with the Unions on the next contract, and if Meidl ends up being the new Chief of Police he will continue to be involved in those negotiations supposedly representing the Citizen’s interests, so when I see stories like these I have to laugh.

 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/aug/03/police-association-supports-chief-appointment/

 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/aug/05/spokane-police-guild-gives-chief-nominee-craig-mei/

 

Despite what many folks think…Cops Ain’t No Dummies, we have always known which side the butter is on!

 

IF and that is a BIG IF, Spokane Citizens have an opportunity to question Meidl regarding his involvement in the Zehm case and the Infamous Salute, I am at an advantage in formulating questions because I am the only one that has all of the Public Records regarding the case and the Salute. I have shared SOME but not all of those records with a few folks and you could see some questions by others of Meidl in the news prior to “The Show”

 

Let’s don’t forget that Craig Meidl was third in Command of the Spokane Police Department when the Salute took place.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/44b44582-7ac4-4dfb-901d-99878c58be58

 

My guess is that each Citizen will be limited to three minutes to ask questions or make statements just like Council Meetings, that is a total of six minutes if a Citizen participates in both Shows, obviously that won’t be enough for all my questions so I will have to prioritize and hope that the City Council actually asks Meidl the questions they should be asking when they have a bigger and broader opportunity to do so.

Here are two things I’ll be looking for:

 THE EAT UP THE TIME PLAY, which is a common play in situations like this and simply means the individual answers simple questions often requiring just a simple YES or NO with a long drawn mostly meaningless answer to a simple question. Craig Meidl is notorious for this this, often quoting books he says he has read.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE AMNESIA PLAY, which is a common affliction among many government administrators in situations like this. Somehow they can’t remember certain facts no matter how important they might be.

 

IS THE APPOINTMENT OF MEIDL A DEFLECTION FROM THE CAPPEL REPORT???

You can lump me into the group that believes it is an effort on Mayor Condon’s part to deflect from the issues facing him as a result of violations of the Public Records Act.

The question is… “Will it work?” Well that depends on just how well people, including the City Council, study the Cappel Report and understand Meidl’s involvement in the issues surrounding the entire matter. It isn’t pretty folks and as time goes on even more will come out in litigation depositions, if not Court.

The deflection has worked with me to the extent that I have to prepare for “The Show” and write about that for the time being instead of focusing on the Cappel Report… But “I shall return!” to quote General Douglas MacArthur.

I am going to tip my hand on one of the questions I’ll be asking Craig Meidl. The question requires a simple YES or NO and the answer will be very telling. Since I know Meidl reads my stories, here you go Craig:

“Interim Chief Meidl, would you be willing to withdraw your name from contention because of the tremendous controversy involved with your nomination, suggest that the Mayor and City Council utilize one of the many organizations that provide temporary Police Chiefs for situations like Spokane’s, renew the search, and if you truly are interested submit your application for consideration at that time?”

________________________________________

One of Many Examples of Organizations Available:

 

________________

Interim Staffing and Mentoring

On occasion communities find themselves without a police executive for short periods of time. This can be the result of a short term disability or other unexpected absence. The duties and responsibilities of a police department are too important to the residents of a city or town to allow a void to develop due to the absence of the chief. Municipal Resources has the ability to place an experienced police manager in your police department on short notice and remain in place until the current chief returns to duty or a replacement is selected. A number of former police executives are affiliated with MRI that have years of quality police administrative experience. These former officials continue their involvement in the police field through various consulting projects and can confidently take command of any police department with little time needed for familiarization.

 

http://www.mrigov.com/contentInline/policeservices-30

__________________

 

 

 

 

The answer to that question is a simple YES or NO, and the answer will be very telling from the standpoint of whether or not Meidl’s true desires are self-serving or he really does believe that the Community should come first, the SPD second, and he and his wife’s well compensated and benefited careers last.

 

Now back to preparing questions so don’t look for more stories until after Thursday.

 

*** Special Note to Gonzaga Prep Grads!!! It has been brought to my attention that some of my readers who did graduate from Gonzaga Prep take offense to me sometimes kidding about Prep. Let me assure you it is just that… kidding from this LC Grad, and Prep has some great graduates, some of whom were cops. By the same token along with those Great Graduates there were also some Slugs, just like we had at LC… and yes Fredrick Harlan Coe comes to mind!

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!! 

 

 

 

 

Literally… According to Public Records!!

 

I thought I would throw in this story regarding regarding SPD for a bit of levity and to give you a bit of an idea of how things work at City Hall and SPD. Mayor Condon’s predictable move to name Meidl Chief does of course really STINK but more on that later.

To give you an idea of how it STINKS at SPD I’m providing you with some emails from the documents I have. I might that my last predictions regarding how long it would take to turn things around at SPD was 6-10 years. Given the recent turn of events it appears I will have to put it out even further. I hope I’m around when SPD finally becomes something many of us retired folks are hoping for.

 

______________________________

From: Nemec, Sean

Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:03 PM

To: Scalise, Frank

Cc: Lundgren, Justin; Mullennix, Scott

Subject: Detective S. Carr statements:

At approx. 0900 hours, Detective Carr came into my office wishing to talk to me. She was holding a surgical type mask. She stated that, “Elise was causing her allergies to severely flair up again and that she was moving her work station into the small interview room next to the mail boxes.

Detective Robertson came into my office at approx. 11:45 am. and wanted to know if Detective Carr had complained about her again. I told her “yes”, at which time Detective Robertson told me that she would be filing a complaint with Sgt. Lundgren for “harassment”. She said that based upon a meeting that she had with City HR, she would file said complaint if ever Detective Carr made such allegations against her again.

 

Sgt. Sean Nemec

______________________________

 

From: Scalise, Frank

Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:08 PM

To: Walker, Joe

Cc: Lundgren, Justin; Mullennix, Scott

Subject: RE: Detective S. Carr statements:

Joe, per our earlier conversation, this looks like it needs to go straight to HR. If you agree, I will send it to Gita.

Frank Scalise

Captain, Strategic and Tactical Ops

__________________________________

 

From: Scalise, Frank

Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:55 PM

To: George-Hatcher, Gita

Cc: Walker, Joe; Mullennix, Scott

Subject: FW: Detective S. Carr statements:

 

Gita,

It is my understanding that you are well aware of the details of this situation referenced below. I am referring it to you, since both sides of the issue seemed to reside in HR territory. Let me know what you need from me, Commander Walker or Lieutenant Mullennix to either resolve the situation or take appropriate action.

Thanks,

Frank

Frank Scalise

Captain, Strategic and Tactical Ops

_____________________________________________

 

From: Scalise, Frank

Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:55 PM

To: George-Hatcher, Gita

Cc: Walker, Joe; Mullennix, Scott

Subject: FW: Detective S. Carr statements:

Gita,

It is my understanding that you are well aware of the details of this situation referenced below. I am referring it to you, since both sides of the issue seemed to reside in HR territory. Let me know what you need from me, Commander Walker or Lieutenant Mullennix to either resolve the situation or take appropriate action.

Thanks,

Frank

Frank Scalise Captain, Strategic and Tactical Ops

___________________________________________

 

From: George-Hatcher, Gita

Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 11:16 AM

To: Scalise, Frank

Cc: Walker, Joe; Mullennix, Scott; Lowe, Heather; Wuthrich, Ernest; Jacobson, Erin; Meidl, Craig

Subject: RE: Detective S. Carr statements:

Importance: High

Hello all,

I received your information in the emails below and in the meantime, received an email from Elise Robertson as well as Stacey Carr. I believe the approach we need to take at this time is two-pronged. First, we should have Det. Robertson go through the protocols and complaint process under IA with HR being the lead on the investigation – exactly as it was handled in the recent case we handled a few months ago in the Detectives unit. Second, we schedule a meeting with Stacey Carr, her supervisors and Ernie to follow through on the two actions we discussed to addressing this situation if the attempts that were then in the process did not solve the problem. These actions were temporarily set aside because the situation appeared to be resolved for the time being. Those actions were:

1. To send Detective Carr for a Fit for Duty Evaluation with respect to her ability to continue to work as a Detective given what appears to be serious fragrance sensitivities that we have attempted to address; and
2. To find an alternative work location for the time being while the Fitness for Duty is being conducted that would prevent Det. Carr from coming into contact with the specific fragrance that is being worn by Det. Robertson and that appears to be the main cause of Det. Carr’s sensitivity.

I am also copying Heather Lowe and Erin Jacobson in case they may have additional advice on the direction to take in this situation. I am also copying Asst. Chief Meidl because he had been involved at the last meeting that was held concerning this issue. Please let me know if you are in agreement with the above approaches. Thanks!

Have a wonderful day!

Gita

Gita S. George-Hatcher, M.P.A., C.L.R.P., P.H.R

Human Resources Analyst

City of Spokane

44 W. Riverside Avenue

Spokane, WA. 99201

(509) 625-7083

__________________________________________________

 

 

The reason at this point I thought you would be interested in a previous stink problem at SPD is because the email interaction gives you an idea of how HR interacts with SPD to accomplish what SPD wants. I will have more on that later but since, Gita George-Hatcher is one of the players in the Cappel report I thought you might be interested as well as get a bit of a laugh.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/8cd64d64-9cca-4241-99a0-0405871c0b5a

 

 

I HATE IT WHEN I SEE THIS IN A STATEMENT!

CAPPEL: And I’m just going to go off the record for one second because I want to find out what you have heard he said without it being on the record and then we’ll go back on. (WHEREUPON, a discussion was held off record)

 

 

 

THIS ALSO STINKS!!!

But as we all know it is the way the Condon Administration and SPD has been doing business since 2012.

 

___________________________________

From: Krauss, Benjamin

Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 6:48 AM

To: Straub, Frank; Meidl, Craig; Arleth, Brad

Subject: Position Proposal

 

Chief Straub, Assistant Chief Meidl, Commander Arleth,

Thank you for the opportunity to propose a position aligned with my education, experience and skill set.

I look forward to listening to your thoughts and input.

 

Ben

625.4097

____________________________________

From: Meidl, Craig

Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 7:08 PM

To: Krauss, Benjamin

Subject: RE: Position Proposal

 

This is very impressive. Thank you for sending.

 

Craig

________________________________________

 

From: Meidl, Craig

Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 5:26 PM

To: Krauss, Benjamin

Cc: Straub, Frank

Subject: RE: Position Proposal

 

Thank you Ben. I will discuss further details with the Chief and get back to you ASAP. A couple of the projects we will be working on together (“code” for you’ll do the work but I’ll get all the credit) include a system for auditing department-wide evaluations for consistency, a revamping of our complaint process (not as ominous as it sounds), and developing a separate leadership development program for sergeants and lieutenants (though this is not a priority as we may use material from the LPO course we are hosting this Fall). This development program would be heavy on the different roles at each level, developing and fostering police legitimacy, etc.

 

Thank you,

Craig

__________________________________________________

Hi Craig,

Sounds great, I’m ready to move forward on all of this.

Please remember to use proper hand gestures when presenting key ideas and take-away messages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNCrMEOqHpc

 

Thank you,

Ben

625.4097

_________________________________________________

 

This is real typical of the way positions are made and filled in the Condon Administration, and is typical of what to expect with the pliable, glib, outwardly PC, Craig Meidl. There is of course much more in that regard.

So who in the hell is Benjamin Krauss?

“Mike Fagan, the council’s most conservative member, is being challenged by Randy Ramos, a recruiter with the Spokane Tribal College, and Ben Krauss, an analyst with the city who said he’s running because of Fagan’s views on pay differences between men and women working in city government.”

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/the-contenders/Content?oid=2462464

“Krauss, an analyst with the Spokane Police Department, filed to run against Fagan before suspending most of his campaign because of work.”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/aug/05/condon-and-lichty-advance-in-mayor-race/

You might want to take a good look at this, as Mr. Krauss’s name may show up again.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/0ea49cd0-af9a-468f-858f-b0ba7e03ab64

 

_____________________________________

 

There is a lot of controversy since Mayor Condon’s effort to install Craig Meidl as the SPD Chief because of his relationship with Karl Thompson and the Infamous Salute. Some of you might enjoy reading my earlier stories regarding the Q & A Mitch Ryals, Rachel Alexander, and I had with Craig Meidl and Justin Lundgren.

But keep this in mind the Otto Zehm case and the Salute were off limits to we reporters. I did however manage to sneak a couple in in that regard.

_______________________________

From: Meidl, Craig (cmeidl@spokanepolice.org) You moved this message to its current location.

Sent: Mon 3/28/16 3:57 PM

To: Brian Breen

Dir. McDevitt has advised we will not discuss the Zehm incident any further. His reasonings are well documented in the media and I will honor his direction.

The Arleth investigation you asked about last week is still going through due process so I don’t want to get into that.

The City Hall investigation of former Chief Straub is still on-going. As you know from your investigative days, it is imprudent to discuss open active investigations and would be contrary to our SOPs.

Anything that makes me look unintelligent.

_______________________________

 

https://examplepro.me/2016/04/03/a-conversation-with-interim-chief-meidl-and-major-justin-lundgrepart-one/

 

One of the problems Meidl has as far as the Salute is concerned is that his public statements are not consistent with the truth, and he knows that I know that so it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t want to talk about it.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/dec/03/miedl-named-temporary-assistant-police-chief/

 

The truth is that the “Infamous Salute” was pre-planned and organized by Detective Bryan Tafoya, so for Meidl to say;

“No one realized how negatively the salute would be construed, Meidl said. “The salute was not planned,” he said. “It was spontaneous. Nobody in the courtroom knew anyone from Zehm’s family was there.”

Meidl, who has a military background himself, said his salute after someone said “Present arms” was partly instinctive. He said he was off duty at the time, but as the senior officer present he volunteered to take responsibility for the incident and accept a demotion.”

 

Simply is not the truth…the question is will there be more of the same?

 

There is quite a bit more regarding Craig Meidl of course including his time in IA and his conflicts with the OPO, but I won’t get into that at this point, other than to just throw a couple of things in to give you an idea where SPD is headed.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/c56cca73-e514-4bea-9b72-fd3791135556

 

________________________

Hello and welcome. My name is Barry Bratburd and on behalf of the COPS Office I’d like to introduce

you to Assistant Chief Meidl from the Spokane Police Department, who is here today to discuss use of

force issues. Has your agency been concerned about use of force issues—can you talk about that for a

minute?

 

Craig Meidl

00:27

You know it seems to be not just use of force in general, but mostly it’s the—tends to be the use of

deadly force—that seems to be the hot topic with most of our community. We had an incident about

seven years ago with one of our officers, who got into a fairly prolonged scuffle with a—turned out he

was a janitor, not working at the time, was schizophrenic—as a result of the scuffle the individual

ended up dying. The officer was charged with civil rights violations, ended up getting convicted and

sentenced for about three and a half years of prison. Another officer pled to perjury and was forced to

resign as well. And seven years later we’re still dealing with some of those issues as well. So that’s led

to a Use of Force Commission that was implemented by the Mayor’s office. As a matter of fact, at the

time the then-mayor had asked the Department of Justice to come in and review the Spokane Police

Department. However, in the process in waiting for the Department of Justice to get back to us, she

implemented a use of force commission, and they came out with 26 recommendations for

improvement—19 of those applied directly to the Spokane Police Department and we’re in the

process of working through those recommendations right now.

 

Craig

03:36

It’s funny. I was reading the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and one of the things he discusses in the

book is we’re never very good at analyzing ourselves. We always look at ourselves through our own

lenses, and despite our best efforts trying to be as accurate as we can, we are still colored by the

lenses that we see ourselves in, and I would say that also applies to uses of force. Especially if you’ve

come from within the department, and you’re promoted from within the department, you’re used to

this system, you don’t know any other system. So you’re not as aware of what other agencies are

doing. And one of the nice things of having Chief Straub come in—and then we’re also having

Department of Justice come in under a technical assistance program letter—and look at our system, is

where can we improve? We think we’re doing pretty good, but we know we can improve. And it’s

always been official when you can have another outside entity come in and examine it and work

collaboratively with you to develop those processes. So I would also throw out that any use of force

policies are more of a, kind of a living, breathing document—they change based on state law, federal

law, case law—so you really do have to constantly be evaluating your use of force policies to make

sure they’re in-line with the law.

 

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/689f81f5-cd40-4d71-b8b4-43f6c23bb1cc

 

Needless to say after some of my stories here Craig Meidl doesn’t have time for interviews with me anymore…oh well story of my life! 🙂 🙂

____________________________

 

From: Meidl, Craig (cmeidl@spokanepolice.org)

Sent: Wed 4/06/16 9:54 PM

To: Brian Breen

Brian

I’m not going to have time to respond to individual requests for reports and don’t want to start that habit.   If you submit a PRR, they will make sure this and any future requests are located and redacted as appropriate.

 

Thanks,

Craig

 

On Apr 6, 2016 6:40 AM, Brian Breen:

Chief Meidl,

 

I can’t find anyone who knows anything about the Staffing Analysis RFP or Contract we talked about. Some City Council folks weren’t even aware of it. Would you or Justin have a copy you could share with me?

Brian Breen

________________________

 

 

I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!