Butler FOP lists reasons police leaders must go
The relationship between the Butler police union and both Chief Ron Brown and Deputy Chief David Adam has apparently bottomed out.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 32, which represents rank-and-file officers in collective bargaining, announced that its membership last month passed a no-confidence vote on Brown and Adam.
The vote was unanimous, said Lt. Chad Rensel, the acting president of the city officers' union Fraternal Order of Police 32, which represents the department's 21 officers.
It is believed to be the first such vote on a chief in the department's history.
“Increasingly over the past year there has been a growing discord within the police department,” Rensel said in a statement Wednesday. “Ultimately, membership felt that circumstances left us with no other recourse.”
The vote was conducted June 5 and the results were presented to Mayor Ben Smith and city council at council's regular meeting later that month.
The statement listed several of the issues that prompted the action:
Lack of leadership and poor decision making
Lack of strategy in addressing the current criminal activity in the city
Lack of cooperation with the media.
Rensel declined to comment further.
A union member who asked not to be identified said the rank-and-file's intent for the vote was “to get the attention of the mayor and council and force a new direction for the police department.”
The member said, “We need to adjust our thinking in addressing crime enforcement.”
Smith, in a prepared statement Wednesday, said he was planning to address the issue at Thursday's council meeting.
Smith said he and council members have met in executive session with representatives from the FOP about the union's issues, which he said were laid out in a June 26 letter expressing concerns about leadership in the police department.
Smith did not provide a copy of that letter Wednesday, but said he has met with both Brown and Adam and “is working with the city solicitor (attorney Tom Breth) to address the situation in accordance with the authority granted him by Chapter 120 of the Third Class City Code.
The Third Class City Code gives the mayor “statutory authority” to remove the chief and deputy chief, Smith said in his written statement. He pledged to “continue to update council and seek its recommendations regarding the situation.”
On Wednesday, Adam said he was not aware of the no-confidence vote and declined further comment.
“I don't know what they're saying. No comment at this time,” Adam said.
Brown also declined to comment on the matter Wednesday.
Breth declined Wednesday to discuss any vote taken by the union. He said that, in general, such a vote from a union is an opinion and does not require the city to take action.
“A no-confidence vote is an opinion of rank and file,” Breth said. “It has no binding effect on the mayor if such a thing occurred.”
City Councilman Michael Walter declined to comment and the other council members did not return messages Wednesday seeking comment.
But former Mayor Tom Donaldson, whose actions while in office appear to be at least partially responsible for discontent within the police department, said he was more than surprised with the union's no-confidence vote.“I'm shocked and disappointed,” he said. “It's upsetting.”Donaldson was soundly defeated in his 2017 re-election bid, losing to Smith in the primary election and ultimately running an ill-fated write-in campaign that only won about 100 votes during the general election.Donaldson, who has long been the subject of criticism within the department following his 2014 election, promoted Brown, a former patrolman and lieutenant, to chief. Adam was his hand-picked choice for the deputy chief position that council created in 2015.Like the chief, the deputy chief is considered an appointed employee. Neither is a member of the union.Donaldson said he believes the union's vote of no-confidence in part was payback for some of the actions he took and Brown and Adam implemented within the department.Having a deputy chief, for example, he said, upended the structural status quo, which Donaldson claimed benefitted the union.“I didn't want the union to be in charge of management,” Donaldson said. “You have that with a captain being in charge of administration, because he's an actual working union member.”He also suggested the chiefs took the brunt of union displeasure with his push to eliminate the police department's desk sergeant position and thereby free up officers to walk routine patrols.The position was eliminated in August of 2015 and created issues that Adam, at the time, characterized as minor. The deputy chief told the Eagle that while city residents were initially unaccustomed to being unable to walk into the police station and speak with an officer directly, signage at the department and time were helping as people were “slowly and surely getting used to it.”Currently those who want to speak with an officer must either call 911 and request a visit from police, or use a call box outside the police station which also connects them with an emergency dispatcher, who radios police to let officers know someone is at the station and requesting to see an officer.Another of Donaldson's decisions — monthly performance evaluations — also did not sit well with officers.“The rank-and-file didn't like being evaluated,” he said, “or some of the other things we did to improve the department.”He praised Brown and Adam for enforcing his directives without fear or favor.“Ron and Dave are honest guys,” he said, “who never played politics.”
