Brookneal Officer Exonerated

The Brookneal police officer that was charged with an misdemeanor has been exonerated and all charges were dropped. The two men that testified against him had stories that didn't match and the judge deemed them " not credible".

Are we surprised? Can't say that I am. A four time convicted felon files a false report against an officer and it ends up getting thrown out.

News-Advance: Officer Cleared/



WSET: Officer charges overturned/



Are we surprised at all the hassle the town has given the officer? Can't say that I am. The "acting as a town manager" had no business handling this situation from the beginning and now a man's life has been on hold for months because of his ineptness.
The "personnel committee" the town has might as well be wearing dunce caps and rings in their noses because of the way they let the Mayor and "acting as a town manager" lead them around. They had the chance to do the right thing and they turned yellow. Now they've been proven wrong and will have to try to undo the damage they've done.

I wonder if they like their crow fried or boiled?

Illegal Meetings?

This week's Union Star brings to light the fact that the council may have been having some illegal closed sessions. This isn't the first time this has happened in this town's history, but it probably is the first time a council member stepped up and said that it needed to be fixed. I'm surprised that any council would take the position that a local attorney has more say than the Attorney General. But I'm not surprised that THIS council would take that position. After all they listened to a local attorney and ended up paying off an employee that sued the town.

I agree that a council should not be acting as a disciplinary committee for employees. This is just poor management. Why doesn't Brookneal have a human resources or employee liaison? Instead most of the employees have to go to the very people, that are making them miserable, for help.


I went to the Virginia FOIA website to see if I could find what the council member was talking about and found this: http://dls.state.va.us/foiacouncil.htm and this http://dls.state.va.us/groups/foiacouncil/ops/03/AO_17_03.htm

Quote:
This element of control did not exist between the city council and the employees hired by the city manager; therefore, the city council could not go into closed session to discuss individuals with whom it did not have an employer/employee relationship. This opinion was reiterated two years later, when the Attorney General opined that the phrase "employees of any public body" could not be narrowly construed to be synonymous with the phrase "employees of any locality."2 End Quote

Looks like she is correct in that a council is not supposed to go into closed session regarding regular employees.

So this makes me wonder WHY any council that was given the above information would still insist that it is okay to break the law, just because they want to. I also have to wonder why Mr. Jennings, Mr. Jean and Mr. Shepperd, who I had previously given credit for having brains, would go along with illegal and improper meetings? Are they making a public declaration that they are going to participate in more illegal closed sessions?

Looks like the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Not the only snow job in town

I'm glad to see that the only snowjobs that we get in this town don't come from Town Hall.
The white stuff was blowing around this afternoon in a blizzardly manner.

I'm glad that some of the council had the decency to at least restore the officer's benefits. Now they need to restore him back to duty so we can get some protection.

Sounds like our budget isn't complete.
Does anyone know if they included a salary for a new town manager?
Did they reduce the pay for the "acting as a town manager"?

My digital camera is acting up, so if anyone would like to submit photos from around Brookneal please send them to brooknealblogger@yahoo.com