FOR ME AT LEAST!!
Leave Town for a few days and all Hell breaks loose.
The question is when do I get my money from the City? 🙂 🙂
MORE TO COME SOON OF COURSE
HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!!
Same old…same old….
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/jul/14/three-men-named-finalists-to-be-next-spokane-polic/
The SR story above is far from media vetting of the three finalists for Spokane’s Chief of Police. I find it interesting that Jonathan Brundt is the lead reporter in the story. If you recall, I have reported that in November of 2013 Addy Hatch of the Spokesman Review was provided a complete package of data and information regarding Frank Straub. The information she was supplied was compiled by individuals who know how to obtain information from a multitude of open and closed sources. When Addy Hatch was provided the information she told the individual providing it that she had assigned the story on Straub to Jonathan Brundt who would write it when he returned from maternity leave. The sordid story of Frank Straub was, as you know, never written, and I wonder IF that story had been written, and was done properly, it would have demonstrated a history of behavior that lead to him getting booted for the third time in a City where he had control of law enforcement and whether we would be in the predicament we are today.
Let’s be clear not one of the three candidates has had a proper vetting at this point. IA files on each individual have not been reviewed, litigations against the three have not been reviewed, LexisNexis searches and reviews have not been done, the results of independent investigations/reviews have not been studied, contacts have not been made with individuals who may have negative information…and on and on.
It is important to understand that all of these individuals have sought Chief of Police Positions other than Spokane, without success. The same was true for Frank Straub, when he ended up in the “City of the Mayor’s Choice”.
If the process below looks familiar…that is because it is primarily the same as was the phony process to pick Frank Straub.
__________________________________
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 3:35 p.m.
Spokane Mayor David Condon has named a selection committee to work with the executive recruiting firm to narrow the list of 31 candidates to be Spokane’s next police chief.
The selection committee will work with Strategic Government Resources to identify a list of semifinalists by June 1. SGR has begun its review and evaluation of applicants, which the firm will present to the selection committee. Members of the selection committee are as follows:
- Breean Beggs, City Council member
- Gabe Cabellero, Police Leadership Advisory Committee member
- Shon Davis, Bishop and Overseer of Kingdom Fellowship Church Alliance and president of the Police & Faith Leaders Alliance
- Rick Dobrow, former interim Spokane Police Chief
- Ken Hohenberg, Kennewick Police Chief
- Lori Kinnear, City Council member and chair of the Public Safety Committee
- Bart Logue, interim Police Ombudsman
- Gloria Ochoa-Bruck, City Director of Multicultural Affairs
- Theresa Sanders, City Administrator
Semifinalists will be given 20 days to submit responses to a written questionnaire and a recorded interview answering questions prepared by SGR. That information will be used to narrow the pool to a list of finalists by July 1. Finalists will be interviewed in July by members of separate community panels.
Questions for the finalists
Police Advisory Committee Chairwoman Joan Butler will facilitate the public interview of the police chief finalists, according to a city news release. Questions from the public can be submitted in advance to policechiefsearch@spokanecity.org or in writing at the public interview. The event will start at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the West Central Community Center with a reception. The interview will start at 5:30 p.m.
_____________________________________
Any of the 31 applicants for the position without any doubt would have studied and researched each individual on Mayor Condon’s stacked selection committee and would know exactly what to say and how to say it in order to impress the committee, hell it would be a walk in the park for any candidate to say exactly the right things in their interviews, only a real dope wouldn’t.
As an example, allow me to take, who some believe is the front runner, Robert Lehner. Lehner has of course been around the block so he knows what to say and how to say it to impress some members of the committee. After his research he would know to say, as he has in the past, that law enforcement needs to demilitarize, which in my view is true to an extent, but it is easily said when you are looking for a job and the question is what is his record in that area? Not that great as far as I’m concerned, especially when I review his handling of a case when one of his Elk Grove Officers shot a handcuffed, unarmed suspect in the back of a patrol car with an AR-15. The officer was cleared by the prosecutor, and in a subsequent civil litigation, however as near as I can tell Lehner did nothing to change or review the use of rifles in the Elk Grove PD. Some might ask me since the officer was cleared what is the big deal Breen? My answer is simple read the damn Use of Force Commission Report and the COPS/DOJ Report, see what they say about SPD’s use of rifles and any dope would get my drift.
http://www.egcitizen.com/articles/2015/12/01/news/doc565502da1b9a9637882761.txt
Since as everyone in Spokane knows the sexual conduct of SPD cops has come up over and over again, including one currently charged with rape so one would wonder how Lehner has handled cop rapes in the past…Not very well apparently.
https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/e6638408-7a1c-41b3-abf4-f04aa3989fdb
There is of course considerably more info out there including Robert Lehner’s time at the Tucson Police Department, where he also took a shot at their Chief’s job.
Who has the ultimate choice as to who is the next Chief of the Spokane Police Department, and who before making the final decision should do some extreme vetting? IT IS THE CITY COUNCIL FOLKS!!!
The question is; “Will They?”
They didn’t last time, even though they were warned by very knowledgeable people.
“tough questions”????  Okay Amber if you say so!!
There is of course speculation out there that given the set-up going on now at SPD and reported here:
That the right Condon/McDevitt people are in place to continue the culture at SPD they created until the end of Condon’s term and we might not ever have a new SPD Chief until he is gone. Who knows but not beyond the realm of possibility.
I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!
BIG MISUNDERSTANDING????
Not on my part!!!
 PRR UPDATE!!!
For those of you that think you want to get involved in the Public Records Request Game, the first thing to understand is that it is exactly that in the City of Spokane A BIG GAME, so you have to be prepared to play. The first rule of the GAME is that government folks including City of Spokane Government folks don’t want to give you anything even though the Washington State Public Records Act requires that they do. The second rule is that as a requester you have to know the PRA Law and Case Law, be persistent, maintain complete records, and utilize every option available to you. Those options will often include making it known what your intentions are, as was the case you will find in the email string below. For people who might conclude that demonstrating my intention to file a Washington State Bar Association Complaint was some kind of a threat, you are mistaken, I don’t make threats if I say I’m going to do something I do it.
BACKGROUND:
https://examplepro.me/2016/06/27/prr-update-lynden-smithson-case/
https://examplepro.me/2016/02/09/prr-update-lynden-smithson-vs-brad-arleth/
https://examplepro.me/2015/12/29/lynden-smithson-update/
https://examplepro.me/2016/07/11/since-we-pay-for-it-should-we-see-it/
https://examplepro.me/2016/03/02/breaking-news-it-is-the-unions-fault/
https://examplepro.me/2016/01/05/paid-administative-leave-seems-to-be-the-thing-these-days/
EMAILS:
You know you are hitting home when they throw a lawyer in the mix, don’t let that intimidate you…just keep on keeping on.
Of course you can draw your own conclusions but the fact is PRRs are not a walk in the park.
As far as the Nissen Affidavits are concerned, I have no way of telling if any of the individuals falsified their Affidavits, because I don’t have subpoena power to obtain transcripts and records like the City Council has, and the Affidavits are worded in a way that allows for a defense if someone finds something…that is the way it works.
https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/a72940ff-785b-455b-b04f-a3f038b4e835
https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/994613f1-aa3c-4545-aeac-2f7c70ed3a61
I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!
OZZIE ISN’T HAPPY WITH MY HOLYK STORY!!!
But he states he never read it???
https://examplepro.me/2016/07/01/the-ryan-holyk-casewhy-cant-they-learn/
At 12:16 PM Yesterday I received a voice message on my phone from Sherriff Ozzie Knezovich requesting I call him. I was pretty sure it wasn’t a call from him to ask me to turn myself in because they had a warrant for me and was more likely about my Ryan Holyk story so given the circumstances and background including some of the things I documented in Holyk story I didn’t call him back and chose to interact via email so there was a precise record of what transpired something that is important to do with any Public Official because “spin” seems to be a prerequisite for holding public office.
The images below document the email exchange between the Sheriff and myself. You may be tempted to laugh once you get to the end of the email string, but keep in mind that this is a serious matter and again points out the need in Spokane County for some form of Officer Involved Death Inquests and Legitimate Independent Oversight.
You can decide for yourself whether or not Ozzie actually read my Holyk story or not but here are some things to consider when doing so.
The lead Investigative Agency in the Holyk case was the Spokane Police Department, so according to the Spokane Investigative Regional Response Team it was supposed to be entirely their baby with WSP as Assist. The Spokane County Sherriff’s Office is supposedly only along for the ride as observers in order to maintain investigative independence so the public will have trust in the investigation.
https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/3dec41b1-478c-4470-8a64-f58c5aec1459
One of big pet peeves when I was investigating OIS cases was the damn brass shooting their mouth off to the media when they shouldn’t, it doesn’t help the investigators nor does it help the “actor” cop, but they always want to inject themselves into the process, perhaps out of fear they might end up looking bad. If you go back and look, Sheriff Knezovich has his face infront of the camera one hell of a lot more than any of the SIRRT members or lead agency Brass in all of the cases where a Deputy Sheriff is the “Actor”. The Holyk cases is another prime example, as was the Creach case.
We shall see if Sheriff Knezovich ever does try to refute anything in my Holyk story, if he does, I sure as heck will publish it.
UPDATED!!!
****NEWS FLASH!!! More Nepotism???? Tracie Meidl wife of Interim Chief Craig Meidl has been promoted to Captain and given the position of Captain of Investigations while Eric Olson got Selby Smith’s old job. The question is…were there far more qualified candidates…lots of folks think so. We will see what we can find out!
I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!!Â
Buffalo Brian Breen 