Barely 100 days in office and according to today's StarTribune Mayor Rybak has told Chief Olson that its time for Olson to start looking for another job. Rybak apparently has had enough of a Police Chief whose department lacks public trust, lacks public support. Rybak was diplomatic in saying he has "significant issues with the police leadership on a series of fronts. . . . We are at a stage where this community and the Police Department need a very aggressive strategy . . . to make progress on healing the rifts. I am not comfortable with where we are at."
BTW, still no charges have been filed against police officers for beating a kid during the recent celebrations of the Univ. of Minnesota hockey championship. Charges against about a dozen were dropped because no one had bothered to write police reports on why they were arrested, 2 guilty pleas, one for swinging on a street light ... now that is some serious crime fighting by Chief Olson's department. Another group of about a dozen plead not guilty .... any guesses on when those charges will be dropped? Chief Olson was defiant, "I've got a term," he said. "We'll see what goes." Apparently it would cost about $200,000 to buy out a contract that has a something less than 2 years remaining on it. That $200,000 is about a quarter of what the Chief spent to build the wall around a Loring Park neighborhood hotel for the ISAG convention a couple of years ago and significantly less than some of our police misconduct lawsuit settlements. A buyout could pay for itself rather quickly. Plus we'd save at least a couple of months salary as we likely wouldn't hire a new Chief overnight. Anyway, we've got some Council Members balking at the idea of changing the leadership of the Police Department. The Strib tells us CM Natalie Johnson Lee "said she would be reluctant to remove Olson because of concerns about paying for the buyout." CM Barb Johnson "I fully understand Rybak's desire to have his own chief, but sometimes you can't have everything right away." Apparently CM Scott Benson is moving to the We Need a New Chief camp. Probably the most telling comment in today's Strib story came from Sgt. John Delmonico "The big thing with Olson is he has a lot of ideas. Some work and some don't, and he won't admit that they don't work." Not working isn't the problem, the problem is when you refuse to admit it, that's lack of leadership. The members of the City Council need to realize the need to do the right thing. The cost will quickly pay for itself in saving money that the current lack of leadership is costing. --------------------------------- Terrell Brown Loring Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
