Here we go again spending more of our taxpayer dollars on West-coast Lawyers to investigate matters that in the old days could have easily been handled with simple and frank communication between individuals. DARN JIMMY MARKS…AND THE GYPSY CURSE!!
The “Seven Snowflakes”, isn’t the seven City of Spokane Council Members this time it is Seven highly paid and well benefited Spokane City Employees who have filed a Bullying Complaint with City Human Resources against members of the Spokane City Council and apparently the Director of City Human Resources Christine Cavanaugh doesn’t feel her outfit can handle the “investigation”, so we taxpayers will have to pay the bill for an outside lawyer Ms. Katherine Weber to do the “investigation”.
As many of you know I’ve been quite critical of the CC for not asking the right questions and not being demanding enough to get the facts on issues not only relating to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice but also budget expenditures that waste taxpayer dollars. Obviously, my hope is that this case involves Council Members actually asking the tough questions and demanding answers, something we taxpayers need a lot more of.
Is this a case of some Department Heads and their staff trying to intimidate CC Members into not doing their job or is it truly a case of Bullying…who knows…but I guess we have to pay the Big Bucks to find out.
A lot of other questions arise from the decision to farm this investigation out including why the HR Complaint by SPD Detective Lonnie Tofsrud against SPD Lt. Bart Stevens wasn’t farmed out, which from my perspective is a far more pressing issue than those involved in this case.
I guess one could draw the conclusion that the decision to farm the investigation out is the result of a conflict of interest between Ms. Cavanaugh or members of her staff being one of the “Snowflake Seven”…but who knows.
It never fails that when I return from one of my CEO’s lengthy excursions I find that I have been inundated with Public Records Response and all kinds of information from sources about what goes on in the City and County. I was going to hold off doing a story until after tonight’s City Council Meeting to see what transpires, however some folks have pointed out to me that this story needs attention from the taxpayers as well as the MSM prior to the meeting, and especially since this Agenda Item is coming up and should be voted down because of all the problems associated with the implementation of the CAD/RMS/911 we paid New World Systems a bunch of money for despite the fact they have a long history of not providing what they are required to while under contract.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/questions-surround-new-software-for-emergency-dispatchers/
https://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/suit-filed-over-delayed-cad-system/
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article130699239.html
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/countys-new-multimillion-dollar-dispatch-system-fails-in-test/
https://myeverettnews.com/2016/10/10/everett-computer-aided-dispatch-crashes/
https://myeverettnews.com/2016/05/17/snopac-not-satisfied-new-dispatch-system/
You might wonder what the New World Systems fiasco has to do with this story and the HR Complaint against the CC…this should help!
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/may/29/plan-to-combine-spokanes-regional-911-call-respons/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/aug/30/city-council-dispatchers-say-concerns-should-be-ad/
https://www.ktvz.com/news/police-unions-new-deschutes-radios-put-lives-at-risk/687250760
https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/deschutescounty/3920361-151/tech-trouble-at-bend-pd
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevereinke/
https://www.ktvz.com/news/deschutes-911-director-steve-reinke-retiring/717378447
It will be quite interesting to see if the City Council agrees to have us pay for the ComGroup or they do the right thing and “Just Say No!”
I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!
Buffalo Brian Breen 