By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Tenino Mayor Bret Brodersen wanted to keep the change in police chiefs low key, out of respect for Chief John Hutchings’ professional reputation, he says, but given mounting criticism on social media for firing Hutchings last week, decided to share the background publicly.
In a lengthy news release issued yesterday, Brodersen lays out issues involving the city’s exposure to a significant financial penalty that could result in cuts to city services related to an audit from the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems and a conflict between the number of hours Hutchings reported working compared with the number of hours he was authorized to work.
Brodersen also describes recently learning the police chief added a paid reserve police officer, not approved, not budgeted for and in violation of city statute that prohibits payment. The un-named reserve officer collected more than $10,500 over the past few months, according to the mayor.
Hutchings was hired by Brodersen’s predecessor in the summer of 2012. He was terminated last Wednesday.
Brodersen said on Thursday it was a difference in philosophies; and that he planned to hire a new chief as quickly as possible.
The Olympian describes the firing as partly due to Hutchings generally overstepping his bounds and writes about Hutchings’ supporters plan to march on city hall and circulating a petition to reinstate Hutchings.
Read more about it here.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Old story, I know.
It seems that small towns are constantly at odds with their own police departments over money.
This is not a problem exclusive to Washington State, this is a problem that is consistently occurs throughout the country.
Sometimes the Chief is fired because they do something that is not liked. And sometimes the Chief is pressured to fire officers because the public views them as over-aggressive, when the real issue is that the officer handles calls as they come, charges all people with appropriate crimes if necessary, and doesn’t play favorites when it comes to crime.
The value of officers who are impartial in their duties is an investment that small towns should be desperately fostering. Because the inverse is someone who plays town politics with the job, and no one likes that in the end.
If you don’t like the police department you have, and it’s for the reasons stated, you are the problem, not your police department. You are the one that needs to change your views, not the other way around, no matter what authority you have.
TPD has been mired by this kind of nonsense since the 90’s, and it hasn’t gotten any better in now 2016.
If citizens just simply don’t like having a police department, get rid of it. But quit playing games with professional officers. It’s not amusing, and it’s why your city has such a difficult finding staff. Aside from the egregiously low pay offered, if you solved this political nightmare of small town hypocrisy, you’d find officers who do a great job and stick around.
Short of that, you’ll only have yourselves to blame when no one wants to do the job.
Knowing both sides of this story, I hope Hutch prevails. He has done what he needed to for the PD to survive and maintain staffing. Paying a reserve is not illegal by law, but Brett dug deep to find a Tenino MUNI law. Hutch also was honest in reporting the hours he worked, not to hurt the budget, but to stay truthful with the State.
Tenino budgeted for 1 chief and 3 officers. They did not and would not have gone over budget. Brett needs to check his nerd alert attitude and see the good Hutch has done.